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First post, by mr_bigmouth_502

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I just got it recently off GoG, and after tweaking the DosBox config file that came with it so that it would do aspect correction, I noticed that the 320x200 screens scaled just fine to 4:3, but the normal gameplay, which I believe is in 640x400, is letterboxed. I've played other 640x400 games in DosBox without letterboxing, and I remember my original copy of Syndicate, which I played on an actual 486 around 5 years ago, may have had letterboxing as well, so I almost suspect it to be deliberate.

It looks and plays fine, I just don't know if it's at the right aspect ratio.

Reply 1 of 10, by Jepael

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If I recall, the game runs in a 480-line mode (60Hz) and has black bars, just check screenshots. It is not a 400-line mode (70Hz), even if the game uses 400 lines for displaying video.

So actual resolution is 640x480 60 Hz with 4:3 aspect ratio (so pixels are square), and game is letterboxed to have 640x400 active area.

I bet the 480-line mode is tweaked to only 400 active lines to achieve two video pages for page flipping, as VGA does not have enough memory for two 640x480 pages.

Reply 3 of 10, by Sol_HSA

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..or they started the game project as 640x400, and later on found compatibility issues and had to default to the 640x480 =)

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Reply 4 of 10, by Mau1wurf1977

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Possible. The Amiga version / development might also play a factor.

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Reply 6 of 10, by Mau1wurf1977

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mr_bigmouth_502 wrote:

Didn't the Amiga version run at a lower resolution though?

Hmm true...

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Reply 7 of 10, by mr_bigmouth_502

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Off-topic slightly, what's a good cycle setting for Syndicate? The GOG release is set to 8000 by default, which I think is anemic, so I bumped it up to 10000. It runs well, but I think it could be a bit faster. I don't want the game to run too fast though. 😜

Reply 8 of 10, by Mau1wurf1977

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Does it run too fat with 50000 for example?

Or is there some speed lock built in?

For a high resolution game 8000 and 10000 is quite low. Try 20000 and 30000.

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Reply 10 of 10, by Hater Depot

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I doubt there is a speed lock. I have found that the mission mode plays fine but the research mode goes much too fast and you wind up completing high-level implants and weapons very quickly.

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