Love them Old TV's with the 2600.

[Obtuse]

I currently swap between a 7 year old 27" GE and a $10 garage sale 1984 RCA 13" (for that authentic experience). Wish I still had my 1982 RCA XL100 19" which gave up the ghost after giving 3 generations of my family 23 years of reliable service .

 

Seems them old 70's/early 80's (pre-Thompson) RCA's and Zeniths last nearly forever. Lots of still working examples in the thrift shops. Too bad I don't have room for a floor model woodgrain console......now that's authentic!

[Cassidy Nolen]

At CGExpo, they had some wacky couch and TV setup there that looked like my grandparents basement a few years ago. Thats about as authentic as you get. Just thinking about those sofas makes me itch.

 

I had a Sony 19 inch my parents bought in 1970 that I played Atari on. When my Mom first hooked my system up Christmas of 82, she had it on top of the tv and the reception was awful. She did not know it went in front of the TV. As soon as I tried to play it and had to move it, the picture got fine. Ah, the days of underinformed consumers.

 

Cassidy

[MaDDuck]

I currently swap between a 7 year old 27" GE and a $10 garage sale 1984 RCA 13" (for that authentic experience). Wish I still had my 1982 RCA XL100 19" which gave up the ghost after giving 3 generations of my family 23 years of reliable service .

 

Seems them old 70's/early 80's (pre-Thompson) RCA's and Zeniths last nearly forever.  Lots of still working examples in the thrift shops. Too bad I don't have room for a floor model woodgrain console......now that's authentic!

942017[/snapback]

 

 

DUDE!!! I still have a working RCA XL100 13inch. A nice little TV, for bedroom viewing.

[Recycled]

I have an ancient Zenith tv that I play 2600 and Colecovision on. Yep, it's like stepping back in time. I love the old rotary channel select dials!!!

[D.Yancey]

When Atari first came out, so many people had black and white TV's. We were lucky enough to have a color RCA. It was a tube set. We'd take the tubes down to People's Drug Store and test them on the machine in the back of the store. If the picture tube went out, it cost about a weeks pay just to replace that. They went out fairly often. We spent alot of time without TV when that happened.

 

I bought a second TV, a Zenith 13 inch set to hook up my TI99/4A Home Computer that I got for Christmas in 1982. At least it didn't take 5 minutes to warm up when you turned it on. Still never had a remote control until about '95.

Never had a touch tone phone until I got a 300 baud modem for my TI and you had to have touch tones. That's when we got off the party line on the phone and got a Private line of our own. LOL

 

Some emulators have a feature to make the screen pixilated just like an old TV. How's that for nostalgic effect.

[Wester]

I've thought about getting a bid old console TV, they have tham at the local Salvie all the time. But I have issues with buying a TV when I don't know how well it works or how long it will last. Although I'd love to have a console TV I'm going to stick with my 27" Panasonic I bought a few years ago.

[+SpiceWare]

I have fond memories of testing tubes at Osco Drug :-)

[gulag picture radio]

I use a modern TV for gaming, though I've got a couple of "period" sets in storage that we can use for retro parties. A couple are 5" color TV's which are a hoot for bold Atari graphics. The other TV that I use for gaming is in my office, pictured here:

 

 

It resembles some "futuristic" TV's that were around in the 60's and 70's, but this one is color and has modern digital tuning and a remote. The red cover in front of the screen lifts up, like on a motorcycle helmet. It also has an RF input to make life easier on the retro gamer too.

 

This TV is sort of retro in that it has an art deco look to it (my mother has the same TV in flat black), but this one unusually is clear. It's the model of TV that they use in prison cells and only has RF input. I'll bet that the motherboard is the same as my mother's and that using that as a template I'll easily be able to hack in a composite video input.

 

[sandmountainslim]

I have an old 25 inch floor model console but the pic is so bad on it that I just leave Pong hooked to it and play VCS on the newer 20 inch which sits on top of it. The TV which my Atari was originally hooked to is a Quasar 13 inch black and white which I got for my birthday in 1981 still works and sits in my garage.

[HP Atari King of Michigan]

Ever try playing a 2600 on a black and white TV? It's an experience!

[Laner]

Nah - 32" Toshiba HDTV for me I spent too many years looking at a blurry 13" RF picture on both my C64 and 2600, wishing I could afford a better quality monitor.

[NE146]

Mine...

Edited October 9, 2005 by NE146

[gulag picture radio]

When we had an Atari party some years back, one of the TV's I'd found in the trash finally crapped out. Since there was some pretty hard core gaming going on, we had to replace the TV with a 9" B/W TV I'd found in the alley. OF all the TV's we had set up, it seemed to be everyone's favorite - probably because it was so pathetic. I think that it got played the most too.

[A.J. Franzman]

Back in the day (circa 1979?) we had a small RCA portable B&W TV in our camping trailer, 13 inch I think. We took the Atari along on trips once or twice. Sold the still-working-like-new TV at a yard sale not too long ago, then found the never-opened SLA battery pack for it a few days later. Man, for a tiny TV, that thing was heavy enough without the battery pack! Probably because it was multi-power: it ran from 120VAC wall outlet, 12VDC cigarette lighter, or the battery pack.

Edited October 10, 2005 by A.J. Franzman

[+RandomPerson]

Ever try playing a 2600 on a black and white TV? It's an experience!

945125[/snapback]

 

 

Ya, Quite alot actually. In my bedroom as whe I was a kid I had a HUGE (at the time) 27 inch B\W for Atari & Nintendo. One of the jobs with built in Rabbit ears on the top and only got channels 2 - 13 & UHF was only one channel..lol.. I got my parents old B\W television for my room.