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Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Mon Dec 24, 2018 9:28 pm
by oldbull
Since my 1084 is having an issue (posted in hardware forum) I'm using my television with composite video. All games were purchased back-in-the-day at US retail stores. Workbench shows in proper colors. Here's what I have so far:

Test Drive 2: The Duel (plays in color)
Marble Madness (plays in color)
Ivan Stewart's Super Offroad (plays in color)
EPYX 4*4 Offroad Racing (plays in color)
The Killing Gameshow DEMO from Amiga+ Magazine Dec/Jan 1990 (plays in color)

LLamatron SHAREWARE (plays in black and white)
NITRO (plays in Black & white)

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 4:11 am
by femuruy
those in B&W are PAL?

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 11:59 am
by oldbull
Every single game is North American NTSC. If I hooked up the 1080 monitor via RGB (which needs adjustment) the affected games play in color.

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2018 12:32 pm
by oldbull
Closeup of the Nitro disc.

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 11:19 am
by Zippy Zapp
oldbull wrote:Every single game is North American NTSC. If I hooked up the 1080 monitor via RGB (which needs adjustment) the affected games play in color.
PAL games in RGB will still play in color but the 1084 will flicker and you may not see the whole screen. That is if you play it in PAL mode. You have an NTSC Amiga so I would try a different monitor for composite and see if that changes anything. Also try a different cable. I know that sounds basic but some cheaper cables I have seen give problems.

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2018 1:52 pm
by oldbull
I apologize if my tone does not come across as intended, but here is a point-by-point response.

NONE of my games are PAL.
There is no flickering on the 1084.
I am seeing the entire image on the 1084.
I did try a different monitor for composite. I used my television.

I do see the entire image on my TV.
I posted a picture of the Nitro floppy. It says NTSC right on the disc.
That game plays in B&W over composite.
That same composite cable plays most other games in color just fine.
If it were a cable problem all games would be affected.

My suspicion is the game companies deliberately programmed the software to do this because they did not want people recording the game onto VCR.

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 10:09 am
by McTrinsic
In any case this is a really interesting find.

Mind to post that over at EAB ?

They may the technical gurus to solve that.

Re: Ugh. Some games play in black & white over composite

Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:57 pm
by rpiguy9907
What model Amiga?