Are we "de-fuzzing" our memories?

[XEGS]

I have tried just about every video combination possible, and have settled on using a CRT with composite. It's convenient and nostalgic and the picture is clean and sharp without being overly sterilized like RGB on an HDTV. Plus, there's just something about the way a CRT renders that is difficult, if not impossible, to replicate on an HDTV.

[bigfriendly]

Yeah, my Atari was hooked up to the spare b/w 13" tv. Thing was ancient too, you had to turn it on with a pencil eraser because it was missing the knob, and you had to smack it just right to get sound. When we eventually upgraded the main tv, I got an old (Panasonc?) 22" color tv and it was like christmas.

 

Seems that every family had a TV from the 70/80's that had a knob or button that was broken. Our main TV in the 70's until the early 80's was an RCA color console 20 something inches and one of the channel knobs broke off and we had a pair of vice grips attached to the stem so we could change the channel. No cable out in the sticks where we lived just the big three networks and PBS. When that TV died Pop bought the family another RCA but the new set came with remote control! My old man always made a big deal out of everything when he bought something big and new. Didn't want me playing with the remote because I will break it etc. Of course the first time I beat him home I sat there and changed all four channels continuously for 15-20 minutes

Edited May 6, 2018 by bigfriendly

[Thomas Jentzsch]

 

Seems that every family had a TV from the 70/80's that had a knob or button that was broken.

Confirmed! My B&W TV had broken channel select buttons.

[digdugnate]

 

Seems that every family had a TV from the 70/80's that had a knob or button that was broken. Our main TV in the 70's until the early 80's was an RCA color console 20 something inches and one of the channel knobs broke off and we had a pair of vice grips attached to the stem so we could change the channel. No cable out in the sticks where we lived just the big three networks and PBS. When that TV died Pop bought the family another RCA but the new set came with remote control! My old man always made a big deal out of everything when he bought something big and new. Didn't want me playing with the remote because I will break it etc. Of course the first time I beat him home I sat there and changed all four channels continuously for 15-20 minutes

oh we totally did, too, in a couple of iterations. the tv i got handed down when you powered it on, it was at full volume no matter what, lol- and the volume buttons didn't work very well

[+frankodragon]

I used to play Atari Pac-Man and adjust the color/contrast knobs on the TV set until I got that "chrome" look of the maze.

[+sramirez2008]

 

... one of the channel knobs broke off and we had a pair of vice grips attached to the stem so we could change the channel.

 

Exact same situation, only with a 13" B/W t.v. that had been handed down to me. I want to say it was an RCA, because all of the t.v.'s we ever owned were RCA's.

[keepdreamin]

Like ... no Everdrives?

 

"I'm gonna tell you CRTs are how true retro gaming should be whilst simultaneously using my Everdrives".

 

There's a lot of that.

[BassGuitari]

I don't buy this conditional selective nostalgia. It reeks of cherry-picking. We couldn't buy used games off the internet 30 years ago either, but people who swear by CRTs have no problem doing that. If you're going to go with "how it actually was", then I would expect you to apply that stance to all aspects of the hobby, not just where convenient.

 

You're misconstruing what I said. At no point did I say I, or anybody else, should only use CRTs because "the way it was." I was saying that I think the quest for perfect output from an Atari is a little superfluous and possibly ill-conceived because, given the nature of its design and the TV equipment of its time, it was already perfect. Or at least as perfect as it needed to be. And that since I still have some perfectly good CRTs (most of which were made well after the life of the 2600, incidentally), I personally don't see a reason to mess with it.

 

The other thing I was trying to get at was that it's intellectually dishonest to say--as it's sometimes implied--that an HDTV setup provides the same user experience as an RF box and a CRT. And that's not a judgment of either one, or an argument for or against nostalgia or whatever--they're just different. Like, empirically.

 

Also, if you read what I said, sometimes old consoles and new TVs just don't play nice together. It isn't a question of nostalgia or correctness or authenticity, but of basic A/V fidelity. Although if those are things you want--nostalgia, authenticity, blahblahblah--and you can achieve them, then so much the better, but I'm not especially concerned with them. At least not to the point I'm inflexible about it. If I didn't have any CRTs, then yeah, I might want to upgrade my systems to composite or component or S-Video or something to make them more usable with modern TVs and meet that basic A/V fidelity that RF often lacks. But again, that's a separate argument. That's about maintaining functionality with new equipment, not trying to coax better output out of the thing (although, yes, I realize in this instance, one is tantamount to the other). Nor is my keeping CRTs about nostalgia.

 

(And to play Devil's Advocate for "selective nostalgia" for a moment: Nostalgia is selective. Like, by its very nature. And so what?)

 

"It reeks of cherry picking."

 

Classic gaming is cherry picking. It is cherry picking in a sense that could only be more literal if we were talking about actual cherries. We literally pick and choose the consoles and games and things about them that we like, and alter and adapt the things we would like to see done differently (how many "Pac-Man Arcade" hacks are there now for the 2600 alone? How many homemade joysticks made with arcade parts?). Why should a video display preference be any different? Moreover, why should any of it be a bad thing anyway?

 

Are you telling me you never rifled through a pile of cartridges at a shop, show, or flea market, picked out the ones in the best condition, and left the rest?

 

"...I would expect you to apply that stance to all aspects of the hobby, not just where convenient."

 

A) Again, not really my stance.

 

B) Don't be obtuse. The only way classic gaming can (and will) continue as time goes on is to make certain concessions that compromise authenticity. Adapt to survive. The only air-tight alternative that would satisfy such a hard-line, puritanical outlook is to actually time-travel back to the '80s and '90s. Forsaking all modern developments and conveniences for the sake of "how it was" is unrealistic and ridiculous. (And being able to compartmentalize your life, your emotional values, and how you function in the world to such a detailed degree might mean have an actual mental disorder...or you're an outstanding method actor. )

 

Sidebar: An interesting side effect of the aforementioned concessions that doesn't get talked about or considered much is that, depending on where you're jumping in or how long you're doing it, "compromised authenticity" becomes authentic.

 

C) Why? What difference is it you what other people do with their stuff, or how they approach and engage in classic gaming? Live and let live, man.

Edited May 6, 2018 by BassGuitari

[godslabrat]

 

 

I don't buy this conditional selective nostalgia. It reeks of cherry-picking. We couldn't buy used games off the internet 30 years ago either, but people who swear by CRTs have no problem doing that. If you're going to go with "how it actually was", then I would expect you to apply that stance to all aspects of the hobby, not just where convenient.

 

Indeed. I think this hobby lends itself to deciding what aspects from the past need to be preserved, and which can stand to be improved or outright replaced.

[keepdreamin]

 

 

C) Why? What difference is it you what other people do with their stuff, or how they approach and engage in classic gaming? Live and let live, man.

 

 

Good grief, I'm not reading all that.

 

I wasn't lecturing you, per se. I don't care what people do with their stuff. It was more of a general observation that I've seen plenty of posts from people dictating from their pulpit of piled CRTs what "true" retro gaming supposedly is and the display requirements to reach it, while at the same time utilizing newer tech.

 

Don't lecture me if you're (that's a colloquial "you're") going to cherry-pick, that's all.

Edited May 6, 2018 by keepdreamin

[Flojomojo]

BassGuitari, I don't think keepdreamin was singling you out in particular. As you say ... Y so serious, live and let live.

[BassGuitari]

 

Don't lecture me if you're going to cherry-pick, that's all.

 

 

Have some. They're tasty.

[keepdreamin]

Dang, I was too slow on the edit.

[ZylonBane]

When I was very very young, we only had a little black n white TV and I can remember watching Underdog cartoons on it. I also remember that for some reason, I always knew his cape was red and I can remember it coming up in discussion one day with my mom.

 

Ahem, about that...

[+-^CrossBow^-]

 

Ahem, about that...

 

Well...then I guess I'm already fuzzy in my mind as it is then?! LOL

 

For some reason I do remember thinking it was always red but obviously it wasn't and there in the black and white image I though I saw red as it was obviously darker than the rest of the suit and I likely thought the rest of his suit was blue as well.

 

Although in reality, I am colorblind in the blue spectrum a bit...

[godslabrat]

There was a time, not too long ago, I thought the majority of AA members considered the only acceptable setup to be a CRT and a Raspberry Pi. Glad we've moved on from that mindset.

[BassGuitari]

There was a time, not too long ago, I thought the majority of AA members considered the only acceptable setup to be a CRT and a Raspberry Pi. Glad we've moved on from that mindset.

 

I thought everybody's all about emulation now?

 

(Cue Keatah in 3...2...1... )

[Opry99er]

I see what everyone is saying, but I've plugged my VCS into my 32 inch Viore, a 42 inch Samsung, and I played an RGB modded monstrosity at the Midwest Gaming Classic.

 

It's not about nostalgia... I use a flat screen composite monitor on my TI-99. On the VCS, the display and over-all feel become laggy and sterile feeling... I can't say definitively that there is a true lag, but I can tell you that if it IS simply a perception, it is one persistent bitch.

 

There is also a (forgive my lack of proper terminology here) phosphor pixel "burn" that is very evident on games like Turmoil that cease to exist on an HD flatscreen. On a flatscreen, the artifacting that makes certain games feel warm and rich simply doesn't exist.

 

I don't use VCS multicarts.... the cartridges are just too easy and fun to collect.

 

I am by no means an Atari expert, but I know what "feels right," and I know when I play Yars' Revenge on my CRT, the texture of the game is encompassing. On my flatscreen.... well, not so much.

[digdugnate]

I see what everyone is saying, but I've plugged my VCS into my 32 inch Viore, a 42 inch Samsung, and I played an RGB modded monstrosity at the Midwest Gaming Classic.

 

It's not about nostalgia... I use a flat screen composite monitor on my TI-99. On the VCS, the display and over-all feel become laggy and sterile feeling... I can't say definitively that there is a true lag, but I can tell you that if it IS simply a perception, it is one persistent bitch.

 

There is also a (forgive my lack of proper terminology here) phosphor pixel "burn" that is very evident on games like Turmoil that cease to exist on an HD flatscreen. On a flatscreen, the artifacting that makes certain games feel warm and rich simply doesn't exist.

 

I don't use VCS multicarts.... the cartridges are just too easy and fun to collect.

 

I am by no means an Atari expert, but I know what "feels right," and I know when I play Yars' Revenge on my CRT, the texture of the game is encompassing. On my flatscreen.... well, not so much.

ooh you have some fun games in your collection!

 

i'm grateful that the hardware was prolific enough that it's still readily available and that there are so many different ways to enjoy it.

[Keatah]

THE SHORT VERSION.

 

I like emulation because it enables me to play the classic games the way my childhood self envisioned them being played in the future. This means playing them in better fidelity than the original hardware did back in the day, but at the same time, not so pixel-perfect and sterile and harshly sharp either. More like..

 

1- Playing on a crisp yet-to-be-invented display with ability to adjust sharpness, size, color, and brightness across a wide range. And have it stay consistent.

2- Instant and easy access to all my games from one box. No mess. No clutter. No cleanup. No rat's nests of wires.

3- High reliability with minimal or no cleaning of contacts and connectors.

4- Ability to haul my library with me wherever I went. Across the street for a sleepover or down to city at old lady relatives' gatherings.

5- Super space savings. I always imagined my games being put on a SuperMan crystal-like memory device. The kinds of crystals usually portrayed in those 70's Disco-styled Sci-Fi series. Like Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

 

 

THE LONG VERSION.

 

I thought everybody's all about emulation now?

 

(Cue Keatah in 3...2...1... )

 

Indeed! Well, yes, I was busy before so I didn't have time to write my periodic sermon on emulation. Emulation is my preferred method simply because the concept of one already complex circuit can become another one is endlessly fascinating. Not unlike a kid looking at a map of his/her hometown, then discovering the county, the state, the country! Then seeing an animation of cars moving on the map, like SimCity. Imagine all those electrons zooming a-back and forth. A simplistic view. But along those lines.

 

And of course emulation is the only way to achieve having many diverse consoles in one box - a significant childhood desire of mine.

 

---

 

I'm definitely NOT a purist when it comes to having to have the exact display technology today as I did back in the day. That means LCD or whatever QuantumZauntum thingy is coming out tomorrow will generally work for me.

 

I was always annoyed by the constant adjustment being done on the family TV. Or at least it felt that way. And in that respect I am not sorry to see CRT technology go the wayside. Maybe it's different with the high-end CRTs. IDK.. So..

 

I do prefer dot-addressable displays by far because of their consistency and no need to warm up, or the need to keep bashing them on the side to make the colors become normal again.

 

Sure I like the sharpness of LCD, but I also like (because I grew up with) comparatively fuzzy images. Perfect squares with razor-sharp edges are a no-no for me when it comes to vintage gaming. So the filtering and rendering modern emulation offers helps bridge the gap.

 

Today I'm happy to play VCS games on HD or 4K with a little bit of blurriness to soften the image.

 

I recall when Stella got the Blargg effects going it was a whole new world. For me, those effects + modern display = results I imagined as a kid! I was able to de-tune the razor edges of pixel-perfect rendering that all emulators do with ease. I was also able to (in the opposite direction) to build on that inherent sharpness and achieve my childhood fantasy of a "Super-Resolution" display! A happy medium. A happy compromise.

 

I do appreciate the vividness and perfect geometry of dot-addressable displays. Geometric distortion was always a pet-peeve of mine as was color fringing and convergence. A computer was already drawing a "perfect" image in its framebuffer, and that is what I want to see. Not additional curvature or other funkiness.

 

Sure, you have to fiddle a bit with emulators, but it's usually a 1-time deal or at least till you get the lay of the land. I see the fiddling as the equivalent of finding the right used console for sale, cleaning it, recapping it, and getting a new mod, installing it, and dialing it in just-so. The fiddling is just of a different nature. With emulation you tweak settings, configure controls, arrange folders. And so on and so forth.

 

But do note that the strong appeal of emulation for me is because it is what I imagined having as a child. All my games in one box, near pixel-perfect display, instant accessibility, no wastage, no clutter caused by multiple consoles strewn about. And emulation brings other pleasant surprises, too, like discovering how much better Indy 500 and Street Racer and Dragster sound in stereo. The spatial interplay of the engine sound is nice.

Emulation is simply the next step in me enjoying the classic games. The hardware is different, the gameplay and software is the same. And that important. Some people want and need the actual console, with wires and CRT and all it entails. That simply isn't for me.

 

I even find nostalgia today in having friends over and them playing VCS or Intellivision while I eat junk food and read up on astronomy and multiverses and the latest science "stuff".. That's fun! Heh!

 

 

Like many here, I’m old enough to have experienced the heyday of the 2600 in all its glory through the RF switch and CRT. And in a search to relive the joy of my youth have come back to the 2600, though modded with S-video and composite outputs. I’m currently playing on a LCD (heresy! ), but am on the lookout for a CRT that will fit on my shelf.

 

I recently reorganized the wires from my consoles (a 2600 and a WII) and spent several hours swapping out cables and switchboxes trying to get rid of the moving horizontal interference from the composite out of my 2600* (I’ve minimized, but haven’t completely eliminated it). Then a bit of nostalgia struck me as it brought back memories of the less than perfect picture that brought my brother and I so many hours of joy back then.

 

It dawned on me, are we (Generation 2600) de-fuzzing our memories of the past by searching for the “perfect picture”? Unless you or your family were in the 1%, your TV probably only had RF in and even then console AV mods were probably years away. Hey, our picture was less than perfect and darned if we didn’t love it!

 

In 2018, we’re able to get the best possible images out the 2600 (either through the console itself or through emulation and external boxes like the Framemeister), but is this true to what we grew up with and grew to love?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that what I’m able to get now is head and shoulders above what I had then, but I find myself turning down the sharpness and color, and even tweaking the tint a little bit to get that slightly off-color tinge to my gameplay. And I'm still yearning for the day I can find the money and space to be able to to play on a 32" XBR Pro CRT like the demo I saw in a local videogame store years ago.**

 

*I use the composite out on a second TV without an S-video input

**I actually used to own a PVM2530 and did play my then 2600 on it. Still my bubble was burst when I saw the PVM3230 in use. *SIGH*

As others have stated elsewhere, we seem to have the most luck when we pair like with like:

 

RF and CRT for pre-crash 8-bit consoles

Component and CRT for NES, Genesis, SNES, GameCube, PS2

HDMI and HDTV for PS3, Xbox360, PS4, Xbone, Wii U, Switch

HDMI and UHDTV for PS4Pro, XboxOneX

 

Put an Atari VCS on an LCD and it's not going to be great ... there's no "Racing the Beam" when each pixel is lit independently.

 

I am OK with letting go of the phosphor dot fossils, and I love being able to see the crisp edges of pixel graphics in razor sharp clarity ... because I'm not sitting on the floor to play Atari Combat with wired controllers anymore.

 

My memories remain fuzzy, but that doesn't mean I have to look at those fishbowl screens anymore. That's just me, many people on here have strong opinions one way or another.

 

Kinda-sorta that. I use and prefer emulation to achieve what I wanted as a kid. It doesn't have to be precisely exactly as it was in the past. But sort of how I wanted it to be. That means a vivid color image that's accurate across the whole spectrum, with no geometrical distortion or interference. No curvature. No convergence or fringing. No ambiguous variable amounts of overscan - in other words a consistently sized image from all my consoles.

 

The actual dialed-in result I enjoy today is better than what I actually had as a kid. It's what I wanted. It's what I imagined the future would be. At the same time it's not 4K sharpness. I want the edge taken off, a bit of analog-looking anti-aliasing and bloom and fuzziness. Just a little.

 

Maybe a super-duper-uber-pro CRT would impress me. But dealing with one now is a rather impractical endeavor. At least for me. It wouldn't fit the decor, it is hot and heavy, the wife might complain, power consumption is high, it would still need adjustment, can't easily build it into my space room cubbyhole, and I couldn't play ALL my games and PC stuff on it.

 

I would rather take a modern display and synthesize some of the vintage display's imperfections & characteristics in software on the GPU and go from there. That result is more likely to match my childhood remembrances, desires, and the rose-colored glasses we all wore back then.

 

I don't actually hate CRTs. In fact I do have a few vintage monitors for completeness and sentimental value. But I don't use really use them.

 

 

Technically it was in color. It wasn't just black and white you had all those shades of grey or gray...

 

When I was very very young, we only had a little black n white TV and I can remember watching Underdog cartoons on it. I also remember that for some reason, I always knew his cape was red and I can remember it coming up in discussion one day with my mom. She seemed surprised I remembered about this because she told me I used to tell her all the time that I could see the 'red' on his cape on our black and white TV and should could never figure out how I knew that.

 

Most of my Atari gaming was done on a 19inch color Magnavox TV with rotary dials that we had from the late 70s till the mid 80s when it either died or was replaced with our 26" Sylvania stereo console TV. However, my step dad wouldn't allow me to play the Atari on the new TV because by then the word had gotten out about screen burn. So instead I had the Atari setup in a corner of the living room with a small 13inch goldstar color TV and used it until I got my first computer in '88. That was when I stopped playing console games and became a PC gamer for the next 10 years.

 

But to get back on topic, I don't recall ever disliking the picture quality from the Atari back then. But I do remember how much I disliked the way it looked on my modern LCD. I've got nearly all my retro consoles AV modded now and honestly I don't regret it one bit. My eyes aren't getting any better with age and so the larger more clear picture I get now from the AV mods is much preferred.

 

I clearly recall having a B/W television. And I swear it could have been modded to do color. And by golly I *was* going to be the man to do it. And if the government could make The 6 Million Dollar Man, surely I could do a small electronics project. I swear I could have seen color fringes and almost actually really see slight shades of color in the image. The TV just needed some more circuits in it. That's all. I got a number of books and started reading about television servicing. Anyone remember that big green bible-like one? Took me a couple of days to finish it and then I opened up the set for the first time. I got a little scared by the ominous warning stickers and the big tube that looked ready to explode if I touched it wrong. It was very intimidating. So I took precautions. I decided to have the TV powered up by its batteries. It was a dual-power portable set. And now it was perfectly safe because it was working from batteries. 12V never killed or hurt anyone.

 

I poked and played around for a while looking here and there. Taking measurements here and there. I made a table and charts for reference. Not fully understanding what was going on. But determined to make progress I continued. The resistors had color stripes on them and I thought that's where the color was kept. Like coloring pencils from school. And the tubes had orange lights in them. But the tubes were special because they were glass and that meant the light was different and could be converted to the color black. And they were connected to other black parts and that meant the image would have black in it. Ah-hah! All of the orange light was converted to black. And like black paint it was a mix of all the other colors, we just learned that in school. And the color cylinders (the resistors) provided all the other colors to make black.

 

There was a white light for the TV channel knob, and it, too, was wired into the main circuit board. So I thought that the white color came from it. And the white light stayed white, it was pure. And it couldn't be fucked with or converted. There was only one kind of color white. And that matched with the one light bulb!

 

All these parts, mixers and oscillators shook the colors back and forth! Yes. I was well on my way to a complete BW-to-Color conversion!

 

So, now I knew how the circuits made black and white and how it got sent to the picture tube and how the parts inside the tube sprayed it onto the screen. But I couldn't find any motors that moved anything. It was a deep-thought puzzle I would think about as I continued reading the service manual/bible.

 

I came across a section on how light was in the electromagnetic spectrum, just like electricity and magnets. And all of it could move through the wires. It was coming together and my plans were in sharp focus now.

 

I was beginning to make progress, let's see now.. No red, green, blue, purple, yellow, pink lights were in there! That was the problem! The factory never put them in there in the first place. You had to pay extra big bucks to get the lights. And that's why color TV was so expensive compared to black and white sets! I had it all figured out now.

 

I went downstairs and dug out some Christmas tree lights and made sure I had enough colors and I dutifully connected them to the color storage cylinders (resistors) and the big scary screen tube thing.

 

The book said to solder and tie-in wires with the power off, so I did. To check my work I briefly powered each light with wires coming from the battery pack. They all worked. There was some noise, too (sound of parts being blown up). I thought lights were supposed to be quiet? Ohh well, I realized I didn't know EVERYTHING.

 

I tucked everything back inside and screwed the back cover into place.

 

I turned around plugged it in and pushed the power button to turn it on and a goddamned firecracker went off, the lights lit up and acrid white smoke started coming out the back. It was fast and instant like an electric shock without the electricity. This hum started and the side of the TV (it was gloss white finish) bubbled and browned. I got up and ran around in circles. Then the room lamps went out and the ceiling fan started slowing down. And my terror was complete. I wimpered for mommy and daddy to come take it away and make it better. I think they were more horrified at the scene than I was.

 

A few days later I forgot about the whole thing (till now), and moved on to connecting the power drill to my bicycle so I could ride around without pedaling. At least as far as the extension cords reached. It wasn't fully my idea. A buddy of mine showed me how he did it. And we just kind of went from there. And that is a story for another time as it isn't videogame related.

[Keatah]

It may just be my fading memory of past, but when I played on a B/W TV or switched to B/W on console, I could still visualize everything in color, especially Asteroids! I think it's because I associate B/W with vector Asterorids and color with the 2600.

 

I used to make color overlays for my B&W television. Simple. Put Saran plastic wrap over the CRT face and color in the game areas with a marker.

 

If you were careful you could re-use them a few times. Then I learned to cut baggies and made one more durable. I even got sophisticated and put "marker dots" on the corners to line up the overlay with the corners of the tube frame.

[Andromeda Stardust]

As others have stated elsewhere, we seem to have the most luck when we pair like with like:

 

RF and CRT for pre-crash 8-bit consoles

Component and CRT for NES, Genesis, SNES, GameCube, PS2

nes does not support component, assuming you meant composite...

 

Sometimes old rf boxes tend to be roach, but a direct rf connection over quality cable can clean up a picture much. My 4-switch Atari likely has the best rf feed than any Atari can, due to installation of quality cabling.

[Flojomojo]

Right you are, my fellow pedant. Yellow and red cables all the way for my NES, which I haven't had for almost thirty years, and obviously don't remember super well. Yet I still manage to play NES games through some manner of witchcraft.

 

I often confuse

Component and composite

March and May

French and Spanish words

DIR and ls

 

I almost never confuse

Their and they're

Star Wars and Star Trek

Alexa and Siri

Facebook and reality

[FOX2600]

Wow what a great thread and I couldnt agree more with OP. Besides my 2600 which is of course RF on CRT, I actually prefer all my systems PS2 and prior thru composite on CRT, besides systems that were only RF obviusoly. I really dont mind composite PS3 on a hdtv and PS2 on crt or hd with composite I can go either way. I really never understood the whole hating composite thing. If were fans of and playing the original games and hardware, whats wrong with being fans with how we originally played them, for me personally theres no there way. Whatever the stock or generic or out of the box way to play these systems to me is the the best and most authentic experience.

 

Let me add though I adore those guys over at My Life in Gaming and love their videos, very neat stuff and I love learning about the evolution of video quality and how to get the best and what not and what consoles, games and TVs are capable of, but, its just not for me? Game however you want to!!! Long live composite and CRTs ?

Edited June 3, 2018 by FOX2600

[davyK]

I still use a CRT for my 2600 and 7800 but it's really out of necessity. If the CRT ever fails and I don't get a replacement I will be forced to seek an alternative which will involve modding. I still have a VCR which I could use as a composite adaptor which would remove the need for modding as long as that holds out!

 

2600 games were designed to be played on a CRT and take advantage of its characteristics so for those of us who played a 2600 back in the day there won't ever be a real sub - although Stella's special graphical filters and effects come damn close.

 

However I have to admit I reckon we don't remember things to accurately. I do remember fiddling with the TV tuner to get as good a picture as possible. and I also remember playing on a b/w TV in my bedroom.

 

Just for fun I hooked my Xbox 360 up to my CRT via composite to see what some of the shmups looked like - they looked great when played in their original display (non HD) mode!

Edited June 3, 2018 by davyK