Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

(Chapters 3-6)

Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby strider16 » Sat Jul 04, 2015 1:56 pm

Hi there!

First of all, thanks of keeping the fire burning through all these years. It seems that only consoles and games from sega usually survive in a such passionate way, in communities like this. I was a lurker, but shenmue 3 is an epic event. Lets hope the best for this game, it can be great and groundbreaking in some ways.

Now... I need help. I just remembered that I never again had finished Shenmue 2 since I bought an original PAL version. I started it a year ago, just got the three medals, and halted it. Now I want to return to it but I am having a problem.
I have a ntsc dreamcast, a retro-bit vgabox, and a lcd monitor with only vga connection. I was playing it before through a crt tv and the simple rca video connection, but vga is incomparable, I dont want to go back.
VGA works fine with my games, including my japanese ones, using the dc-x boot disc. But not Shenmue 2, the only european game I have.

When I try to play it on a plasma tv or a crt tv (both just have component/rca video connections, plus hdmi for the plasma, and I have only the rca cable and vgabox for my DC, so I tested it through the rca cable), the dc-x screen shows fine, I even see that the disc have options to set. And the game boots and shows on tv normally. Well, a lot blurred, since the simple video...

On my monitor a strange thing happens. The screen goes black when the dc-x boots (the monitor shows a message of "unoptimized resolution"), shows normally the "produced by sega", and goes black again and shows nothing if I dont press any button. But there is sound, the game had booted.
I tried to set the options when connected the cable on my monitor, same thing, sound and no image.

I tried to use utopia 1.2 too, it have no options, and do exactly as dc-x.

So, it is possible to play shenmue 2 through vga?
My other choice is use an vga/hdmi or vga/component to play it on my tv, would it work? Any sugestions?

Thanks!
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby Chaos » Sat Jul 04, 2015 2:22 pm

I just tried this for the first time ever yesterday too. Shenmue 2 is the only game I can't get working over vga on my monitor, and it seems to be a problem a lot of people have.
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby strider16 » Sat Jul 04, 2015 4:27 pm

Thanks. Now I think we must run some kind of troubleshooting, or hope that someone had did this before:

-> other PAL games have the same issue on ntsc Dreamcasts?
-> jp Shenmue 2 runs fine on ntsc Dreamcasts?
-> a crt monitor would work in this way?
-> a friend of mine who works with electronics said that maybe the vesa/vga standard wouldnt work at PAL signals. is this a dead end?
-> an vga to hdmi or component would work, or as above, the vga standard simply dont support it?
-> can this be a problem with this specific vga-box model?

Sometime soon I will borrow a vga->hdmi adapter... in my case I would play on a newer tv, but I think the monitor would be ideal.
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby Qix » Sun Jul 05, 2015 6:32 am

Not all PAL Games Support VGA Output... but compared to that List: http://www.gamefaqs.com/dreamcast/916412-dreamcast/faqs/36035 .. it should work?

Normaly I would say that your LCD TV eventually don't Support the low Resolution Dreamcast put out, but if you say other Games work I actually don't know where the Problem lies..

Edit: eventually try another Cable.
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby strider16 » Sun Jul 05, 2015 5:37 pm

I didnt knew that list, but yeah, Shenmue 2 is included, it should work. I tried the swap trick mentioned, but no success, it seems to affect only the tv (which or shows the usual image, or a kind of 3-second pulsating image, alternating from normal to a little worse image), not the vga monitor.
The issue is just very strange. Every other game runs fine, original or backup, japanese or american...
Well, since this issue is unknown even here, I guess I should get the adapters and try component or hdmi on tv, and look for an old crt vga monitor to test it too. And if even this dont works, the issue may lies on the vgabox; in this case I may look for other boxes and cables, which arent very easy to find...
Thanks! if anyone have other suggestion i'll be happy to read it.
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby Chaos » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:45 pm

Well, I gave up. I just beat Shenmue last night, and tried playing Shenmue II a few more times over vga with no luck. I'm giving up and hooking my Dreamcast up to my old piece of shit 15" crt.

I'd play the xbox version, but I have no idea where my damn controller is, and there's no way I'm playing it on 360 with all the glitches.
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby strider16 » Thu Jul 09, 2015 7:25 pm

Issue resolved!

I tried the codebreaker. It was hard to find a working file, until I got the one from this link:

http://segahub.org/index.php?topic=2508.0

The interface isnt intuitive, but it worked fine, no settings needed, just start game, which now runs fine at 60 fps!

Thanks everyone!

strider16 has received a thanks from: Chaos
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby Chaos » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:54 am

strider16 wrote: Issue resolved!

I tried the codebreaker. It was hard to find a working file, until I got the one from this link:

http://segahub.org/index.php?topic=2508.0

The interface isnt intuitive, but it worked fine, no settings needed, just start game, which now runs fine at 60 fps!

Thanks everyone!

Nice, I'll grab this for the future.

I'm already on disc 3 on my current play-through on my crt tv, and it really doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would. I feel like I'm back in 2002. \:D/
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Re: Issue: pal shenmue 2/vgabox/lcd monitor

Postby strider16 » Fri Jul 10, 2015 1:22 pm

Yup, the graphics in this game are so crispy that even in simple video connection it looks very good. It is a shame that a crt tv with vga input such a rare thing. The image looks incredible, but it would be better if the refresh speed of lcd were similar to crt; the blurriness for not run in the native resolution is a bother too, but even considering this I think it looks better on lcd than on crt. It is a option worth trying.
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