Return to Monkey Island 4:3 shows more detail than widescreen

[DefinitelyReagan]

Well blow me down, this really came as a surprise.

Turns out Return to Monkey Island is actually rendered in 4:3 aspect ratio - the widescreen just zooms the image in!

What a wild little easter egg for those wanting to play in a more classic resolution.

All you have to do is set your desktop resolution to 4:3 (1600x1200, etc.) - amazing!

Edited Wednesday at 05:56 AM by DefinitelyReagan

[DefinitelyReagan]

It's really, really noticeable in most shots, but in some it's downright amazing.

Edited Wednesday at 04:32 AM by DefinitelyReagan

[neoncolor8]

What I was hoping for when Return got announced, was to get another immersive world to explore. A world that I could revisit from time to time, like I do with the old games. The 16:9 ratio was actually working against that, because it focuses more on the characters, and gives less room to breath-in the atmosphere of the locations. I would really like to replay it on a tablet someday, just to get that open feeling.

[DefinitelyReagan]

54 minutes ago, neoncolor8 said:

What I was hoping for when Return got announced, was to get another immersive world to explore. A world that I could revisit from time to time, like I do with the old games. The 16:9 ratio was actually working against that, because it focuses more on the characters, and gives less room to breath-in the atmosphere of the locations. I would really like to replay it on a tablet someday, just to get that open feeling.

Well fortunately you can do this at home! Just set your screen resolution to 4:3 and this is the result! Incredible how much more it breathes, I totally understand what you mean. The game feels insanely better this way.

[neoncolor8]

Oh, really? Thanks, I'll give it a try! 

[Remi]

Yeah, I first played it on a 3:2-ratio laptop and was surprised how well it worked -- most games just default to widescreen. It's an impressive feature, the dynamic ratio adjustments.

 

With that said, playing it on a 65" TV is pretty immersive in its own right.

[Scummbuddy]

Having two kids since release has kept me back from yet starting this game. Now I have an ideal way to first play it. Very cool find.

[Jake]

My guess is this was done for iPad support? The game seems to be able to adapt from 4:3 to something like 19:9. Basically from an iPad which is 4:3, to the very tall-but-not-quite-”ultrawide” modern iPhones. 

[DefinitelyReagan]

20 hours ago, Jake said:

My guess is this was done for iPad support? The game seems to be able to adapt from 4:3 to something like 19:9. Basically from an iPad which is 4:3, to the very tall-but-not-quite-”ultrawide” modern iPhones. 

It's not a bad assumption honestly, although it's still peculiar that there isn't an option in the menus to select 4:3 -  I don't know any other game for both iPad and PC that just zoom the image in for PC, especially since the iPad and iOS versions were released significantly later than the PC version. 

I really hope someone else gets as much joy out of this news as I have been. The game just breathes so much better now.
Set your desktop display to anything 4:3 and launch the game - so simple!

[neoncolor8]

Had no time to try it at home, but I found a video of the game played on an iPad. This feels so much more like the classic games, especially the SCUMM engine ones, without the verbs at the bottom (Dott, Full Throttle, Curse).

 

https://youtu.be/TTgh84qmIMc?si=xqZA09nj2e_MITSR

 

[Jake]

7 hours ago, DefinitelyReagan said:

It's not a bad assumption honestly, although it's still peculiar that there isn't an option in the menus to select 4:3 -  I don't know any other game for both iPad and PC that just zoom the image in for PC, especially since the iPad and iOS versions were released significantly later than the PC version. 

I really hope someone else gets as much joy out of this news as I have been. The game just breathes so much better now.
Set your desktop display to anything 4:3 and launch the game - so simple!

If memory serves it’s not a perfect zoom in. I think the game camera works more like a modern reactive webpage, with the framing obeying a sliding set of rules as the aspect ratio changes. I believe there are some shots that you see more background in ultra wide compositions (eg character close ups, I think the shot goes wider instead of cropping?)