Screen resolutions used by games

[ccawley2011]

Is there a list out there of screen resolutions used by games and demos on RISC OS? I'm currently trying to improve the mode definition file I'm using, and would be interested to know which titles would be useful for testing, or if there are any non-standard modes that are worth adding.

[steve3000]

Is there a list out there of screen resolutions used by games and demos on RISC OS? I'm currently trying to improve the mode definition file I'm using, and would be interested to know which titles would be useful for testing, or if there are any non-standard modes that are worth adding.

You'll need to give a bit more information about what you're trying to do, and on what setup and monitor.

I'm guessing you're using a RiscPC, A7000 or later RISC OS 4 or 5 (or even 6) based computer or emulator? Each have different requirements and different solutions, some depending on the type of monitor you're using.

The problem is that most games and demos which use unusual screen resolutions were written before RISC OS 3.5, where mode definition files were introduced with the RiscPC, and those older software used techniques which are incompatible with RiscPC hardware, to create the unusual resolutions. So it won't help listing these resolutions and creating MDFs, because the software will be incompatible.

Games and demos which were designed for the RiscPC but used unusual resolutions were fairly rare, and would usually provide a MDF file to add to your definition, although these would often only work with some monitors. Typically games which were RiscPC compatible (or targeted) stuck to standard Acorn defined resolutions which would work across TV, VGA and SVGA monitors. These can be found in the MDFs for Acorn's SVGA or multisync monitors (I use the AKF50 MDF to cover 15kHz TV resolution to 38kHz SVGA).

[ccawley2011]

For context, I'm attempting to get low resolution modes to work with a Dell 1503FP monitor on a RiscPC with RISC OS 3.7. I'm using an MDF generated by RISC OS 5 on a Raspberry Pi as a base, but the lowest resolution provided by it is 640x480. So far, I've been able to create a 320x480 mode for games that use mode 49 and a 320x400 mode for TwinWorld, but I'm suspecting that the monitor only supports a fixed set of heights, which means that I might have to resort to using a larger border for resolutions like 320x256 or 640x512.

I've asked about which games use which resolutions because it would allow me to identify which ones are more common or interesting, and what games I should be trying. Plus it feels interesting as just general knowledge.