Opinion I think I'm ready for a crt.

[Crayon]

I think I'm ready for a crt.

I got some fresh controllers from retrobit last week and they are flawless reproductions of the sumptuous saturn pad. Action is indistinguishable from the original, which is godly. Got that ram cart coming for the saturn, too. I can't believe I never got one. My saturn collection has long been rich in hardware but poor in software. So I got drunk, went on ebay and fixed all that right up. Things have been arriving in the mail for two weeks now. Always wanted to play Leynos 2 and Decathlete. I've got some top shelf fighting games still on the way, too. Alpha 2, Real Bout, KOF97, DOA, Vampire Savior. This is the good stuff. These will get use, you see.

But fuck me if I'm going to delve into this playable museum with fucked out scaled pixels on a modern display. Laggy. Shameful. Maybe a fast monitor wouldn't be that bad, but these beauties were meant to be played with pixels bleeding together in a warm glow. Wired controller and a cathode ray tube with telepathic response. Goddam, that feeling. It's been so long since I got to play like that. If I even remember correctly, the feel is unbeatable.

I could be enjoying that in my own home if I'm willing to store and move around an ugly old crt. Actually, the patio. This is going to be specifically for outdoor gaming. Drag a power cable out, play a few of the all time greats with some plush controllers on some savage vintage hardware, take in the night air, smoke'em if you got'em. All on a soft-imaged, light-casting, untra-responsive and slightly convex crt.

I have very good memories of doing exactly that with my closest friends before everyone had family life. There's really no reason we cant still do it, tho. It's not like dads can't hang out in the backyard or garage once in awhile. The hardest part is having those friends around. Often a matter of fate. I am very, very, fortunate to have a few old friends still living close enough to do just that on a late california evening once in a while. I'm gonna bring it back. The outdoor fight nights.

But do you think it's worth it to get the crt? Keep it around? Lug it? How many of you use a crt for retro pc or console gaming? Is there a nostalgia factor? Or aesthetic appreciation? Actual tangible benefits like response?

I'm thinking a 19 inch is just small enough to not be a huge pain the the ass to move and find a place for. Just big enough for two people to play a fighting game on from 5-6 feet away. I got to be able to put it in the car easily.

Tell me about your crt experience. What made you buy it and do you enjoy it enough to put up with the inconvenience? Do you prefer using another method to get the most out of your olden games? I know at least smash melee players got to have an opinion on this. Do you think I'm ready for a crt?

 

[low-G]

We keep a Sony Trinitron 27" SDTV, would have kept a Trinitron HDTV if it didn't have power system failures a bunch of years back... Wouldn't want to get rid of that old CRT now but I don't use it that much. I stuck with CRTs until there weren't any more quality units to reasonably buy.

Yeah there are still a few material, non-nostalgic advantages that I miss. One I miss is you could turn a CRT brightness down so low that in a perfectly dark room it emitted only the faintest glow, so you could just barely see what was on the screen, yet the image quality looked fine. You definitely can't do that with a LCD, or probably any modern display...

 

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

If you're planning on playing older console games a good CRT is essential, IMO. You can't beat the image quality they produce. Upscaler units can help improve image quality on LCD screens but they come with their own problems. For example, N64 resolution switching causes massive problems with typical upscalers. And of course 2D games from pre-N64 hardware really don't look right without CRT visual characteristics.

It's a pity that the demand for CRTs is so low that they're not really being made anymore so you're dealing with a shrinking supply of second hand units. They're easy enough to find for a moderate price, but what happens in 30 years? The consoles themselves will probably outlive the CRTs. CRTs are pretty fragile overall. I've lost track of the number of units I encountered with vertical collapse.

Hey, remember the days when you were able to find generalized electronics repairmen? Like, if you had a faulty TV or VCR or whatever you could take it to someone with know-how who would pull it apart and typically either fix the issue or mitigate it for a cheaper price than buying a new one. This is a thing of the past because modern tech is designed to be as difficult to repair as possible. Oh, dear. It's gonna bite us so hard in the end.

 

[Alextended]

CRT means you can play lightgun games proper without Wii-style (or worse) compromises. I miss lightgun games.

 

[m_dorian]

I still own a Philips 21" flat screen that works kept in the storage since my PS one died some years ago.

 

[Crayon]

CRT means you can play lightgun games proper without Wii-style (or worse) compromises. I miss lightgun games.

I've got two stunners and two guncons. You can bet i miss using them. Gun games worked well enough on smaller tvs, right? I think they would have had to. Nothing was that big and there where many small tvs.
...
Thanks for replies. The points you mentioned are resonating. If im going to bother to run a vintage console and not an emulator, i think a crt might be worth the hassle.

Im going to try to start with just something. Anything. As long its not busted, i want to see how the games look and respond. And basically if its really doing anything for me.