non rgb dreamcast game list?

[acem77]

i converted all my systems to use rgb out(still need to do my 3do)
the problem i ran into was the fact not all dreamcast games output rgb...
i would have never thought about it till i played a few games that would not display a picture
so is there a complete list of knowen games that dont support rgb out?

[Endymion]

I have never seen a list or database of this anywhere, most people don't think it's such useful information. Just try your game and if it doesn't work, bummer.

One other thing to try on games that don't have the mode enabled, set the VGA box to TV mode then turn the Dreamcast on. Listen to the drive mechanism, it helps to lower your ear to it. You should hear a beep that lasts for about one full second. When you hear this switch the VGA box back to VGA mode. If you time this correctly you should see the game start up from that point, and yes it will be in VGA mode.

That's the good news, the bad news is that while the video draw resolution will in fact be VGA, for many games the render resolution (at the GPU) will actually still be at TV/RGB level (around 320 lines) so it could look on the ugly side. This depends on the game, Mortal Kombat Gold is pretty noticeably drawing lower resolution characters though, some of the shooters are likewise blocky when doing this trick. Other games may have missing graphics when used in either VGA or RGB mode, like Dino Crisis, and finally some games may work in RGB or VGA when doing boot tricks like this but not in both, even if you try to fool it. If the trick never works with a particular game it may not be possible to fool it at all, or it may be possible to use RGB mode instead of VGA. I could never get the demo discs to work in either RGB or VGA mode for example.

[NFG]

The worst part about the DC is that there's two kinds of RGB output.  Some games only support one kind.  =(

[Endymion]

Hey not so fast, I remember this coming up real casually in a Dreamcast thread once before, do you have any more solid information on this or at least a lead? Would be nice to nail this info down, maybe put it on the wiki.

[NFG]

the DC has 4 output modes, using the two select pins to select the mode:
0 = normal (svideo, video)
1 = RGB
2 = RGB
3 = VGA

I've heard tell that not all games support both RGB modes, and that some use mode 2 and some use mode 1.

You're right, I think we covered this before.  Was I proven to be spreading rumours, or did we actually decide it was true?

[Endymion]

I dunno, I just seem to remember some confusion about what the real diff between what the two modes actually do? Sync rate?

[mr. newbie]

add jojo's bizarre adventure to the list. the vga trick does work but what the game does is interesting. it takes up a small portion of my monitor but looks rediculousy beautiful. it ameks me mad capcom didn't make this vga since it looks so good doing it,

[NFG]

Bangaio does some weird things.  It's really hard to trick it into VGA mode (it likes RGB just fine) but when it DOES get into VGA mode it takes the top-left quarter of the screen, and the rest of the screen is a shifting miasma of graphic chunks.  Very weird.

[Endymion]

I am thinking they probably used some overscan trickery to work in their composite/TV modes, when forcing the VGA it doesn't know what to do with that extra information.

[Guest]

I can't seem to get my Skies of Arcadia to run properly in RGB.  But in VGA, it runs perfectly fine.  Weird...

[Endymion]

As we've said, it's not weird, it is just one of those games that was never programmed to activate that mode.

[-Martin-]

I am thinking they probably used some overscan trickery to work in their composite/TV modes, when forcing the VGA it doesn't know what to do with that extra information.

Nah, because overscan occurs on RGB as well.
You can't make a CRT TV NOT overscan without going into the picture size controls... you can however, make something look like it is not being overscanned, by making the resolution of the image just slightly lower than the TV and displaying it with a small black trim around the edge (noticable when playing back on LCDs for example).