Mega Man Legacy Collection will include classic screen flicker, tube TV filters

By Gabe Gurwin July 16, 2015

mega man legacy collection flickering megamanscanlines — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Mega Man franchise hasn’t exactly been a large part of Capcom’s recent development plans, but the original NES titles still hold up as some of the best examples of retro game design. To help tap into your nostalgia for the Blue Bomber, the Mega Man Legacy Collection — which includes the first six games — aims to make the experience exactly how you remember it, right down to technical oddities.

While screen flickering in early Mega Man games was occasionally due to the limitations of the NES itself, Capcom says that many of theses occurrences, as well as instances of slowdown, were “software-level”: programmed into the games themselves. As such, they were still present when the games were ported for the collection so as to preserve them “as they were originally coded and designed.”

Related: Capcom returns to its 8-bit roots in Mega Man Legacy Collection for Xbox One, PS4, PC

In all likelihood you are playing with your new console on a flat-screen TV. To recreate the experience of playing on the chunky, cathode ray tube TV on top of which your mom lined up family pictures, the Mega Man Legacy Collection also includes a Tube TV filter, complete with “scan lines and some ghosting effects.” You’re also free to choose three different aspect ratios; the “original” maintains the game’s native aspect ratio at the sharpest possible resolution, while the “full” aspect ratio stretches the picture to use all vertical space. This makes better use of the screen real estate, but introduces a slight blur. If you prefer a widescreen experience, a 16:9 aspect ratio is also available, although this will stretch the entire game in the process.

The Mega Man Legacy Collection arrives digitally to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC this summer, with a 3DS version following later this year. If you want to see the game in action, Capcom is hosting a livestream this evening at 7 EST, which will also show off the game’s leaderboard-enabled Challenge Mode.

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Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

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