@mitu you're exactly correct. I ran dos2unix on the file and it works as expected. Thought about /r not being a thing in unix files 30 seconds after I posted.
No clue how it happened, both were edited in notepad++.

@PUME04 lol no problem, you may want to google "Retropie CRT edition" I've been using that with a pi 3 and a vga666 into a vga to component transcoder .. yes you will spend a bit more money but it works so well ,, but you can not do 480i ,, but its set up to handle all the wacky arcade resolutions per game all done from a config file.

this is the transcoder .. well hes out of stock but keep an eye on him.. about 50bucks

https://www.ebay.com/usr/linuxbot3000?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

and I use this type of vga666 works really well ..

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-New-VGA-Shield-V2-0-Expansion-Board-For-Raspberry-Pi-3B-2B-B-A-M-/152351022612

@yramrag No worries. I was just throwing out random ideas as opposed to actually understanding and fixing the issue! But it's always worth checking the easy stuff first. Glad to hear you are all sorted now.