Retro Gaming, Display Aspect Ratios: 4:3, 16:9, mixed formats and why it matters?

Whether you’re a gamer, love old-school movies, or photography, the correct display aspect ratio ensures your image is not stretched and is as close as possible to what it was intended to be viewed at. So which one works for you, and why?

Aspect Ratio History

4:3 also known as portrait was the ideal size for film created in 1892 influencing early cinema, TV, and computer screens. While cinema slowly moved towards widescreen formats including cinemascope to capture more natural scenes and wow audiences, TV broadcasts and screens stuck with 4:3 for much longer. Widescreen was associated with film and initially seen as a premium offering, however, 16:9 CRT TVs started hitting the scene in the early 2000s. Computer screens slowly moved from 4:3 to 16:10 in the late 2000s and ultimately 16:9 took over around 2010.

So is 4:3 dead and why should you bother? Many still use a mix of aspect ratios depending on their needs. For instance, someone might use a 16:9 monitor for movies or modern gameplay and a 4:3 or even a more square ratio for productivity tasks or retro gaming.

Retro gaming Aspect Ratios

While PlayStation 1, Sega Saturn, and N64 were playing with widescreen support, the first consoles to release widescreen models were Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

With the popularity of vintage, throwback, and nostalgia, many are seeking out 16:10 screens for film and retro gaming as this aspect ratio works much better than 16:9 with less image stretching or space wasted on black sidebars.

This brings us to Retro gaming- gaming consoles up to the PS2, Xbox, and N64 era will in most cases be more suited to a 4:3 screen. So what does that mean for old-school gaming enthusiasts? if playing on a modern 16:9 display you will likely experience sideways screen stretching and/or top/bottom image cropping. This will depend on your screen, console, and settings available to you as some models will have a display scaling feature be it auto or manual. This won’t always be ideal, but offers a solution to achieve an image that’s closer to the original proportions.

TV gaming consoles

Multi-title gameboards sold under the name of Pandora Boxes and HDMI game sticks offer a very affordable retro gaming experience, however, they are notorious for stretching 4:3 ratio images to widescreen 16:9. Yes rare, but if you’re lucky you’ll find a patched model out there which reduces and overcomes image stretching, so that you can enjoy your favourite retro games be it Atari, Amiga, C64, Sega, PS1 and so on using your standard screen.

Looking from a different perspective

Handheld gaming consoles that focus on retro gaming include Anbernic, Powkiddy, Retroid, Miyou, and many others. These handhelds come in various screen sizes and ratios, finding the right match for you will depend on how pixel-perfect you want your gaming.

To throw a spanner in the works, SNES emulators like Snes9x often render games at an 8:7 aspect ratio, which some argue is more accurate to the original square pixel display, even though CRT screens of the era used a 4:3 ratio, creating an ongoing debate in the emulation community about authenticity versus historical viewing experience. The beauty of emulation is that with a 4:3 display, you should be able to select 4:3 or 8:7 and go with the aspect ratio that works best for you.

Selecting the right gaming console is a balance between aesthetics and function, be it console size, layout, performance, screen size, and ratio. With each decision potentially affecting other factors. Ultimately the console you end up with might not be a perfect 4:3 ratio, as performance or size may have been a higher priority. Whatever your checklist and priorities, when choosing a gaming console, we recommend figuring out your ideal console and screen size as a guide. Then look into what games you’ll be playing and what hardware and screen are best matched to this. This way you can shortlist and rank each console based on how close it is to each requirement.

To help you out here is a list of retro handhelds with a 4:3 aspect ratio display.

if you are questioning the ratio of a particular display you can try this free aspect ratio calculator

 

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electroarcade