Retro CDN:Screenshots

As the Retro wikis are largely centred around games and videos, we like to make use of screenshots to depict them. Screenshots are a form of direct capture from the device used to display or render the image - a means of showing exactly what the game or video looks like.

General guidelines

• Use PNG format images. PNG is a lossless, lightweight bitmap format supported by all modern image editor and web browsers, and can be optimised. See PNG compression for more information.
• Do NOT convert a lossy format, such as JPEG into PNG. This results in a bigger file and does not eliminate the JPEG artifacting.
• Do not ever upload BMP files. These are uncompressed and unsuitable for internet usage.
• If using an emulator, disable filters when taking the screenshot. (If the emulator has an unfiltered screenshot option, you can use that while keeping filters enabled.)
• Strive to upload images at the correct screen resolution. Details on this vary by platform and will be documented below.
• Our wikis will tolerate lesser quality images in the short term, but in the view of replacing them with the highest quality versions as soon as possible.
• In extremely rare circumstances it may be impossible to achieve clear screenshots. In this case, JPEG is accepted.

Square pixels

Chances are you are reading this guide on a display that uses square pixels. In many situations, video game consoles may not have been designed with square pixels in mind, rendering at a sub-4:3 or 16:9 resolution for performance reasons, and expecting the hardware to stretch the image accordingly. The Nintendo Entertainment System and Super NES usually render images internally at 256x224 (8:7), with the intention of the image being stretched to 320x240 (4:3).

When taking screenshots, always work in square pixels. Any appropriate stretching will be handled by the wiki software.

Video games

In the world of video games, screenshots typically come in two forms - those taken by specialised capture equipment (in the case of newer systems), and screenshots from the game running in an emulator for older games.

Sega

Sega Master System / Sega Game Gear

Game Gear screenshots should be 160x144.

For Master System, screenshots should be 256x192. (Some PAL games may use 256x224 or 256x240. Most games only display 248x192, blanking the left 8 pixels to ensure sprites scroll offscreen correctly.)

• MEKA: Disable "Include GUI" (Video > Capture) and press PrintScreen.

Sega Mega Drive / Sega Mega-CD / Sega 32X

Resolution should be 320x224, or less commonly 256x224. Some PAL games may use 320x240.

• Kega Fusion: Set "Options > Set Config > Extras > Output Stage" to Final. Go to Video, set the window size to 320x240 and disable all filters except Brighten. Borders need to be cropped manually in an image editor for the correct resolution. Kega Fusion is not recommended for 256x224 screenshots due to stretching.
• Gens/GS:
  • Disable Fast Blur (hotkey F9).
  • Set Color Scaling to "Full". (Graphics > Color Adjust > Scale Colors) [requires r7_pre5 or later]
  • Other than the above options, screenshots are taken in their original resolution without filtering.
• Gens/GS II: Screenshots are always taken unfiltered.
• Regen: Go to Tools > Screenshot (unfiltered) or press F5. All screenshots are saved as 320x240 images even for NTSC and 256x224-resolution games, so borders will need to be cropped manually in an image editor.

Sega Saturn

• Mednafen: Press F9 to take a screenshot.
• SSF: Turn off Enforce Aspect Ratio (Option > Screen).

Sega Dreamcast

Resolution should be 640x480.

• NullDC: In Options>PowerVR turn Palleted textures to act Versioned to result in best quality possible.

Nintendo

Nintendo Entertainment System / Family Computer

Resolution varies per game.

• FCEUX: Go to Config > Video, and in Drawing Area, change NTSC to 0 and 239 and press F12 to take a screenshot. By default, it is saved to the snaps folder in the location of FCEUX.exe.
• Nestopia: Disable all video filters and press F12 to take a screenshot.

Super NES / Super Famicom

Resolution varies per game. For 512 pixel-wide resolutions, upload the screenshot as is, and the wiki software should resize it accordingly.

• Snes9X: Press F12 to take a screenshot.
• ZSNES: Not recommended as it does not render the bottom line of the screen correctly.

Nintendo GameCube

Resolution should be 640x480.

• Dolphin: In Graphics Configuration, set the Internal Resolution to "Native (640x528)". Click the "ScrShot" button in the main window to take a screenshot.

Wii U

TV = 1280x720, GamePad = 854x480

• Real hardware: While running a game, press the HOME button and select the Internet Browser. Navigate to the Retro wiki you are uploading to, and choose to upload a file. The browser will automatically allow you to select a screenshot of the suspended game's current state, either from the top screen (main TV) or the GamePad screen. Note that this produces a lossy JPEG screenshot at 1280x720, regardless of the game's actual resolution.

Game Boy / Game Boy Color

Resolution should be 160x144.

• BGB: Right-click the emulator window and go into "Options..." (or press F11), click the Graphics tab and disable "GBC LCD colors". During gameplay, right-click the emulator window and click "save screenshot" to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved as bitmaps and must be manually processed into an optimised PNG.
• VisualBoyAdvance: Go to "Options > Emulator" and select PNG format at the bottom of the list. Screenshots can then be taken by assigning a key in Joypad Configuration (usually F12), or clicking "File > Screen capture..." and simply giving the resultant PNG image a name and a directory for it to be saved to. The resultant image size should be 160x144 and the only processing needed is a run though pngpress.
• mGBA: Press F12 to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved as PNGs and the only processing needed is a run though pngpress.

Game Boy Advance

Resolution should be 240x160.

• VisualBoyAdvance: Go to "Options > Emulator" and select PNG format at the bottom of the list. Screenshots can then be taken by assigning a key in Joypad Configuration (usually F12), or clicking "File > Screen capture..." and simply giving the resultant PNG image a name and a directory for it to be saved to. The resultant image size should be 240x160 and the only processing needed is a run though pngpress.
• mGBA: Press F12 to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved as PNGs and the only processing needed is a run though pngpress.

Nintendo DS

Resolution should be 256x192 per screen (256x384 total).

• melonDS: Generally displays more accurate graphics than DeSmuME and No$GBA. Lacks a built-in screenshot ability, so PrintScreen is needed. Set the window size to 1x, screen gap to 0px, and internal resolution to "1x native (256x192)" (if using OpenGL for 3D rendering) before taking a screenshot.
• DeSmuME: Disable Unreastically High-Precision Color Interpolation (Config > 3D Settings).
• No$GBA: Go to "Options > Emulation Setup" and set "NDS Mode/Colors" to DS-Lite or DSi.

Nintendo 3DS

Top = 400x240, Bottom = 320x240

In 3D mode, the Nintendo 3DS produces two 400x240 top screen images; one for each eye in order to display 3D visuals on the top screen. We highly recommend that screenshots are taken with 3D visuals turned off for a lack of a better way to see them in 3D on other devices and for consistency.

• Citra: Go to "Emulation > Configure...", click on "Graphics", set Internal Resolution to "Native (400x240)" and Stereoscopic 3D Mode to "Off".
• HANS: Requires access to homebrew on a real 3DS system. Load a game through it, then press the HOME button at any time to take a raw screenshot, then use Screenshot Tool to export the raw screenshots to PNG. To access the exported screenshots, insert the system's SD card into a PC. Note that some games may not work with HANS, in which case another method must be used.
• Luma3DS: If custom firmware (CFW) is installed on a real 3DS system, then Luma3DS can be used for screenshots from v8.0 onwards. Press L + Down + Select at any time to access the Rosalina menu, then select "Take screenshot (slow!)". Screenshots are saved as raw bitmaps in the 'luma\screenshots' directory on the SD card, so will require processing into optimised PNG.

Sony

PlayStation 2

Resolution varies per game.

• PCSX2: Press F8 to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved as raw bitmaps, so will require processing into PNG. As rendering can vary between games, some screenshots may be saved at half their height, in which case they must be doubled in height (pixel resize, no filtering) in an image editor.

PlayStation Portable

Resolution should be 480x272.

• PPSSPP: Go to Game Settings > Window Size on the menu bar and select "1x". In the menu, go to Settings > Graphics and set Rendering resolution to "1x PSP", then go to System and enable Save screenshots in PNG format. Press F12 to take a screenshot. Screenshots will be saved in the 'memstick/PSP/SCREENSHOT' directory.
• CWCheat: Requires custom firmware on real hardware. In the menu, go to Settings > Change buttons and set your command for "Screenshoot", preferably to a button that won't interfere with gameplay. Screenshots are saved in the 'PSP/PHOTO/capture' directory on the Memory Stick.

NEC

TurboGrafx-16 / TurboGrafx-CD / SuperGrafx

Resolution should be 256x224.

• Magic Engine: Go into the Config sub-menu and select "Video". Make sure none of the filters, audio bars or FPS counters are in the way. Press the Backspace key to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved as PNGs in the same directory as Magic Engine.

SNK

Neo Geo Pocket Color

Resolution should be 160x152.

• NeoPop: Lacks a built-in screenshot ability, so PrintScreen is needed. Set the window size to 1x before taking a screenshot.

PC

As PC displays can vary considerably, so can the resolutions of PC games. For the most part, we recommend screenshots are taken in the original, "standard" resolutions - 4:3 or 16:9.

While modifications may allow a game to reach higher resolutions than originally intended, we highly recommend that screenshots are era-appropriate. That is to say, if the game came out in the mid-1990s, 640x480 is likely to be more appropriate than 3840x2160 (4K), a resolution more common 20 years later.

• Sonic Mania: This game's base resolution is 424x240. Go to "Options > Video", set Screen Filter to "None", Window Size to "1x", Window Border to "Off" and Full Screen to "Off". Press Alt + PrintScreen to capture a screenshot to clipboard, then paste into an image-editing program.

Arcade

As arcade displays can vary considerably, so can the resolutions of arcade games, and newer arcade systems may allow changing the resolution mid-game.

• MAME: Produces lossless PNG screenshots by default. Press F12 at any time during gameplay. If no explicit screenshot directory has been specified in MAME's configuration file or frontend, then MAME will save screenshots to a "snap" folder in its current directory, with the current game's internal name as a subdirectory and then the resultant image named with a number. For example, the first screenshot taken of Fantasy Zone will be 'snap/fantzone/0000.png'.