PS2 games darker?

[ZartudatuGaming]

It has been a long time since I played a PS2 and back then it was on a CRT. Now I'm using S-Video cables into my RetroTHINK 2x and into my BenQ monitor which supports 240p-1080i/p.

I'm finding games like Baldur's Gate DA 1 seem pretty dark in the menus. There is a brightness option in game that helps. At first I thought it might be my cables but I loaded up a PS1 game on my PSOne, and compared to my PS2 with the same setup (s-video and retrothink 2x), same result. So I'm guessing the color pallet is just darker for PS2?

I also have OEM PS1/PS2/PS3 gold plated cables. Tested also with Composite, and have Component on order but I see online it actually makes the image darker than S-Video or Composite. I did load up Dragon Quest and it looked fine, so maybe it is just this game?

So this is all done via my capture card, looks pretty much the same on my screen too. Also tested with a TV, same results.

This is Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance:

I did adjust the brightness option in the game menu after which helped:

Just to make sure I did a comparison with my PS1 and PS2, and it all seems very close.

Playstation 2 loading SaGA (PS1 Game):

Now on my PS1:

Some areas - PS2 first then PS1 after:

I guess it has been a long long time and I just didn't remember games this dark on PS2. I also recently finished BG: DA 1 on GameCube and it wasn't this dark from what I recall. Is this normal? I should load up Splinter Cell.

 

[Deleted member 194275]

I had a similar experience as you. I never had the n64 on my teenager years, got one as adult already on LCD era and found Doom 64 way too dark. I researched a lot over this "problem", turns out that the game was that way, there was no real problem.

I believe that the darkness play the same role as the fog on that era of gaming, and that is hide 3D objects afar to make the games run faster.

 

[ZartudatuGaming]

I guess this is probably the case. Dragon Quest looks pretty vibrant so it must be alright. My worry was if the blacks were crushed but that is why I did the PS1 to PS2 compare with SaGa and it matches apart from a bit of color tone.