Resolution
Resolution is the measure in which how many pixels are displayed on the screen.
For emulation of 2D systems, the resolution can only be upscaled, making the pixels more apparent. For emulation of 5th generation consoles and newer, the internal resolution can be increased to make the game look sharper.
Console Resolutions
System | Native Resolution |
---|---|
Atari 2600 | 160×192* |
NES | 256×240 |
Master System | 256×192, 256×224 |
SNES | 256×224, 512×448 |
Virtual Boy | 384×224 |
Genesis | 320×224, 256×224 |
Game Boy/Color, Game Gear | 160×144 |
Nintendo 64 | 640×240, 640×480** |
Playstation | 256×224
320×240 512×240 640×480 etc |
WonderSwan | 224×144 |
Game Boy Advance | 240×160 |
PlayStation 2 | 512×224
512×448 640×480 |
Dreamcast | 640×480 |
GameCube, Wii | 596×448
608×456 640×480*** etc |
Nintendo DS | 256×192 |
PSP | 480×272 |
3DS | 800x240 top screen
320x240 bottom screen |
*This is a rough figure given for simplicity's sake. In reality, the Atari 2600 doesn't really output pixels, and it has no limits on the number of lines it can display. However, it did have a hard limit on the number of horizontal color clocks for drawing the picture (160), and most games only output 192 lines, hence the commonly given resolution of 160x192.
**While N64 games ran at various resolutions internally, in practice the hardware's VI component always doubled the scale horizontally, and output in either 640x240p or 640x480i, though there is letterboxing at times.
***Similar to N64, games ran at various resolutions internally[1], though output is usually in 480p.