The Unforeseen Challenges of Chrono Cross for the GDQ Tech Team

The Games Done Quick (GDQ) event is a massive undertaking, requiring a team of dedicated individuals to ensure the smooth operation of the event. From video equipment and lighting to sound and stream overlays, the tech team faces numerous challenges in keeping everything running flawlessly for a week straight. With over 100 runners and consoles ranging from the NES to the PlayStation 5, it’s no small feat.

However, one game from the thousands that have been run at GDQ throughout its history stands out as the bane of the tech team’s existence: Chrono Cross, the PSX RPG from Square Enix.

The root cause of the problem lies in the capture cards used by the team to capture video from the older console. In Chrono Cross, the gameplay parts, such as the battle screen and the overworld, use a different resolution than the game’s menu. This resolution change poses a significant challenge for the capture card, which takes a few seconds to recognize and adjust each time a runner enters and exits the menu.

“The capture card basically takes a few seconds to recognize the resolution change,” explained Aharon “TestRunner” Turpie, the head of tech at GDQ, in an interview with The Verge. “You’ll get the two-second drop-off when they enter the menu and the two-second drop-off when they leave the menu. During that entire menuing, it’s possible that [the screen] is completely blank.”

Jason “Wyrm” Deng, the director of technology at GDQ, added, “It’s interesting to hear that something as seemingly insignificant as a resolution change in a PSX-era game would cause so much trouble.”

Typically, one would expect the games that would give the GDQ tech team the most headaches to be those with a lot of hardware-intensive tricks or an odd controller setup. However, the resolution change in Chrono Cross has proven to be a persistent issue.

The team has spent considerable resources attempting to resolve this problem. The capture card’s inability to recognize the resolution change quickly results in a two-second drop-off each time a runner enters and exits the menu. During this time, the screen may be completely blank, causing potential issues for the viewers and the run itself.

The resolution change in Chrono Cross is an unforeseen challenge that the GDQ tech team encounters during the event. Despite the team’s best efforts, this issue continues to persist, making Chrono Cross the game that gives the tech team the most headaches.

In conclusion, the Games Done Quick event is a complex operation that requires a dedicated team to ensure its success. The tech team faces numerous challenges, from video equipment and lighting to sound and stream overlays, and consoles ranging from the NES to the PlayStation 5. One game, however, stands out as the most challenging for the team: Chrono Cross, the PSX RPG from Square Enix. The resolution change in the game causes the capture card to take a few seconds to recognize and adjust, resulting in a two-second drop-off each time a runner enters and exits the menu. This issue, although seemingly insignificant, has proven to be a persistent problem for the GDQ tech team.