I have always wondered what these "dots" actually are, the ones at the bottom of the Genesis VDP display.
When I used composite, it looked like a single multi-colored flickering line. But when I got a Component adapter for the Genesis, I noticed they were actually "dots"..
But what are they? They seem to reflect the color palette. For example, at the Sega CD BIOS screen, those dots are cycling the rainbow color like the "SEGA CD" logo.
bottom dots
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Recently I've wondered the same thing, and I think that this happens when you DMA palettes.
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Those dots are the representation of all the colors written in Color RAM during the INACTIVE display period.
I think that the megadrive vdp just send a group "dead background colors lines" to the tv during the whole inactive period in order to get sync for next period?
For exemple, my C code to refresh palette is quite slow, so there is big spaces between those dots... And if I refresh 3 palettes in a row, I get 3 lines of dots.
Btw, if the game is refreshing colors during the ACTIVE display period, you get exactly same kind of dots, but in top of the picture (raster effect).
I think that the megadrive vdp just send a group "dead background colors lines" to the tv during the whole inactive period in order to get sync for next period?
For exemple, my C code to refresh palette is quite slow, so there is big spaces between those dots... And if I refresh 3 palettes in a row, I get 3 lines of dots.
Btw, if the game is refreshing colors during the ACTIVE display period, you get exactly same kind of dots, but in top of the picture (raster effect).
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