Game screen showing very small. Please help...

[Paladin Knight]

Hi, everyone. I'm having a problem with using ZSNES on this Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop here. The picture is really, really small like the size of a Game Boy Advanced screen or somethin'. I don't think that this is actually a problem caused by ZSNES, though, because ZSNES looks just fine on every other computer I've used it on before. I think this is a problem caused by some settings on the laptop that I don't know how to change. I mean, it's not just in ZSNES that things are displayed smaller than normal. Everything on this computer is displayed in a more compact form than you'd normally see on computers. It's actually a good thing for it to be like this when viewing Web pages and whatnot 'cause you can see more of the pages than you could with the way it normally is on other computers, but I think it's this setting that's also making the emulator screen way too small. I know that the display of the games on ZSNES and even other emulators like ones for the regular NES and the Sega Genesis and the Sega Master System already don't cover the whole screen on other computers anyway, and I would assume that that's how it is even with the emulators for newer systems too, although I don't know for sure 'cause I'm much more into the good old eight and sixteen-bit games, which are now actually referred to as "classic".

...Anyway, I've tried changing all of ZSNES's settings, but it doesn't help, and I've also tried going to the control panel in Windows XP -- I miss using good old Windows 98 and DOS -- and changing the display settings to different resolutions and whatnot, but that doesn't help at all either 'cause when I do that, it just makes the actual screen size on the computer change, but I can only make it smaller from where it is now, which means if I change the settings, that just means I see a lot more black around the edges of the screen. I can't seem to make the display on this laptop be like the display that all the other computers I've used commonly use.

But anyway, if anyone wouldn't mind to please help me fix this problem, I would really appreciate it. ....I...guess that's all. ...Bye for now, everyone, and thank you very much in advance if anyone does help me with this.

[Deathlike2]

Ok... you have yet to explain what version of ZSNES you are using.. and what port you are using.

If you are using the Windows port, you are probably using Windowed modes. It may be an idea to update to the latest WIP with custom res support (it is also suggested to delete the .cfg+.dat files ZSNES generates before using the WIPs)...

If you are using the DOS port, you need to add some command line switches to make the screen bigger... I think -c is the answer.

[Paladin Knight]

Oh, sorry. Well, I figured that everyone would assume that I was using the latest version of ZSNES, version 1.42, which I am, and I'm using the Windows version since this computer has Windows XP, even though I would prefer Windows 98 and DOS, but anyway.

However, I have used this same Windows version of ZSNES before on other computers running Windows XP and it worked just fine and didn't have this problem. I also tried every single video mode available on this ZSNES version for Windows, including all the windowed *and* full-screen modes, and I even tried clicking on the square to maximize ZSNES, but that didn't help either, and some of the video modes made the emulation screen a little bigger, but none of them made the screen as big as it always is on every other computer I've used this emulator on.

Like I said, I don't think that this is a problem with the emulator at all. I'm almost sure that this has to be a problem with how this particular computer's settings are currently set. It has to be that because like I said, this exact same version of ZSNES for Windows works just fine for me on all the other computers I've ever used it on. I think that this computer's settings are set to where it makes the computer's screen display be more compacted in order to be able to view more of something, say a Web page, at one time. I mean, like I said, everything on this computer, not just ZSNES, is displayed in a more compacted way. For example, when this computer is booting up, where it says, "Microsoft Windows XP." in the middle of the screen, it's displayed a lot smaller than it normally is and therefore has more space around it, and everything on this computer is displayed that way, allowing more of a Web page to be seen at one time than normal. It has to be this display setting that's making ZSNES display the way it is, but I don't know how to set it back to the way it normally is on other computers. I already tried going to the control panel and the display settings and changing everything there that I could think of to change, but nothing fixed it, and some things made it worse. I know there has to be a way to change this computer's display settings back to the way that computers normally are, but I just don't know how to do it.

If anyone could please tell me how to fix this, I would so greatly appreciate it. ....I...guess that's it.

PS. ¿What exactly is that "WIP" thing? I read something about that somewhere, probably somewhere on this site, I would assume, but I can't remember where I saw something about it now, and I can't remember what it said it was.

[Deathlike2]

WIP = Work in Progres - http://zsnes.ipherswipsite.com

As for the resolution problem.. you probably need to set the res of your laptop to its native resolution. Another key thing of note is that the latest WIP has custom res support.. and that's what you probably will need as well.

[creaothceann]

Sounds like the automatic stretching function is broken? You should contact the vendor and/or manufacturer.

WIP = "Work In Progress" (aka "Beta")

EDIT: What he said.

[-_pentium5.1_-]

The BIOS is probably supposed to control screen stretching if the video driver isn't there to do the job (as during the boot sequence). I noticed this after a technician repaired the fan on my Inspiron 8200 and bumped the BIOS battery(?) doing so, but the Inspiron 8200 doesn't provide for screen stretching to be adjusted in the BIOS settings (newer Dell laptops do). Hmmm....