New MegaDrive Collection.... Better than stock?

[Cloud121]

I don't know if this belongs in Modern Gaming, Classic Gaming, for the Technical & Restoration Society, so move it if need be.

All right, so I bought the new MegaDrive collection that came out back in February for my PS3. Playing around with it, but it really seems as though it's better than a stock MegaDrive. The most notable difference is what seems to be additional sound channels. I'm hearing a lot of new sounds in the music than I remember. I booted up Ecco: Tides of Time on the PS3, and and on my MegaDrive that's hooked to my CRT, and noticed a clear difference.

My MegaDrive is an early USA, non-TMSS model. I got it for Christmas in 1990. It currently hooked up to my CRT TV with Belkin stereo cables running from the headphone jack to the TV.

My PS3 USA 20 GB is connected to my 32" Vizio 720p LCD TV, with a stereo system connected. Just a basic stereo with CD, cassete, etc. and the two speakers (So essentially four speakers, but it's just two left and two right).

I doubt it's the additional speakers, as I remember not hearing anything new when I had my MD connected to my LCD. My only guess is that my Vizio's audio settings are set to "Surround". Perhaps Sega decided to do some kind of Dolby Digital remix with the emulation? I doubt it.

Also, I know the games are essentially upscaled to 720p, but why do they look so much better through emulation than my stock MD? I play with smoothing off, but is there still a filter? My MegaDrive is connected to my CRT via A/V cables, and not RF.

Normally I prefer to play my games on the hardware they were originally designed for, but the games look and sound so good on this new collection. Was just curious as to how it was done. How can they make the games technically better, especially the audio through emulation? I can understand the graphics, but how the audio?

Used to be huge into the emulation scene, but lost interest over the years. Now I merely use emulators to test out games I wanna buy, so I don't delve as deeply into them nearly as much as I used to. I've forgotten quite a bit about the technical side of them.

[Sudo]

The Genesis Collection triples the pixel count of the games, even without the optional filters enabled. That's why they look better than they would on an actual Genesis. I was listening to an interview with one of the producers on 1up's Retronauts podcast last month I think it was, and he mentioned this.

[savageone]

I noticed that the games on the collection do sound very good on the collection as well. I'm wondering if there isn't some sort of equalizer (or whatever) running in the background giving the music/sound effects a nudge.

As far as why everything is so sharp that just comes down to the fact that your TV doesn't need to scale the resolution upwards since the emulation is using some kind of 3x filter. I don't think there is such a thing as a good HD set on the market that has truly outstanding internal scaling, not for the low resolutions these old systems use any ways. Without the proper (and pricey!) upscaling gear you'll never have your retro systems looking nearly as good, even if you get them modded for component video. I've been meaning to invest in a nice upscaler myself.

[Snapple]

I'm not sure what the thing is with the sound, but the graphics update was definitely planned and advertised. It's not the smoothing filter (which quite frankly is ugly), but just a nicer sharper resolution.

What a game, huh? One of the best retro compilations ever assembled, even just in terms of bang for your buck. I love it.