Gregory's Server@chrisphin 240 is bigger than 160 horizontal resolution, so game gear games usually would adapt the game to work only in a 160 pixel horizontal window. However, the Game Gear itself could run Master System games directly on the hardware by popping in real SMS carts with a converter, so the game gear needed to be able to internally map 240 lines of resolution to 160 lines. In fact, some retail GG games would just be repackaged SMS carts, no cropping internally.
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 @chrisphin Games which you can easily see this with include Castle of Illusion on the GG, which is just a repackaged SMS cartridge and thus runs in 240 horizontal mode.  @chrisphin The whole system is so cool with this stuff. If you look at a vertically running bar of 2 pixel height on the screen and have it scroll downward in slow motion, you can actually see the vertical pull down in motion. Probably my favorite retro handheld. |
@chrisphin So, when the GG detects it's running an SMS cart due to a flag not being set within the game, it'll run in subpixel resolution mode, where horizontal pixels are split among subpixels on the LCD automatically. Simultaneously, it'll do a 3:2 pulldown of the vertical resolution. It's not quite like explained in the OP, but it's the same concept, and it's done automatically in hardware: