Does This Aspect Ratio Make Me Look Fat? (December 22, 2019)

[ChrisReid]

Displaced Gamers has put together a fascinating video that dives into the classic DOS game 320x200 pixel resolution. If you deal in old screenshots as much as we do, you'll notice the original Wing Commander games come in this slightly odd resolution and aspect ratio compared to the 4:3 640x480 stats of later games. The clip goes into the technical details of exactly why this is, and there's also comparisons between the vertical pixel stretch on PC versus the Super Nintendo's horizontal stretch. This is why the Super Nintendo characters look squished in the recent Head Museum update. LOAF has mentioned this in passing in a few episodes of All Wings Considered, but this video really dives into the topic. Wing Commander is depicted at the 12:17 mark, but it's a cool watch regardless of the WC mention. Thanks to ShadowArm for the tip!

Examination of the 4:3 aspect ratio of DOS gaming - primarily VGA Mode 13h and 320x200 - why it is not a widescreen aspect ratio despite all of the examples across the web.

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Original update published on December 22, 2019

 

[Mace]

Widescreen televisions, being not the 90's 4:3 but more wider in general were common in television sets we(my family and friends at least) had in the early 80's... We were all like "man, we must really hit the gym, look how wide all those guys shoulders are". Should be even worse with kids today watching "stretched" retro TV. Monitors did not have that issue..