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Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

Here's a letter written into the retro gaming magazine i buy:

Quote:

NOT RETRO READY

Dear Retro Gamer,
I recently purchased a brand new LCD TV, but am having all sorts of problems with it. While all my new consoles work fine on it, I was disappointed to discover that my SNES, Mega Drive and Saturn are totally incompatible. The visuals either appear stretched or simply run far too fast, making them impossible to play. Do you have any advice as to what is causing this and how it can be fixed, as I really don't want to play on the tiny upstairs TV.

We're really sorry, Timothy, but unless you buy an external upscaler it's highly unlikely that any of your old systems will work. Newer TVs don't tend to support the lower resolutions of older TVs and it's a problem that Darran also experienced on his old LCD. Unless you're prepared to change your TV and check for a compatible system you're just going to have to play your games upstairs

People these days harp on about how graphics are so important, that they need an HDTV to "enjoy the experience". People fork out an extra £10 (on top of £10 usually) just to buy blue ray dvds for what, a few extra pixels on the screen.

I've watched TV through from black and white, color, VHS and so on. It has NEVER been a problem for me that i've looked at the screen and the resolution has been so fucking bad that i can't make out what i've been looking at. Hell since the fucking creation of television and public broadcasting you have always been able to make out what your looking at.

Now though people are so obsessed with everything being "crystal clear" like it fucking makes any real difference.

I could bet that if any person who reads this goes out and buys their favorite movie on DVD or even VHS if the movie existed in that format then and then on blue ray and first watched the VHS/DVD on a standard "old" TV and then watched the blue ray on a HD TV that they wouldn't enjoy the film any more because of it.

Total waste of money.

Now onto video games. TVs because of this "need" for everything to be super shiny and perfectly pixelated can no longer play old games since they are now "too primitive".

So now we can all enjoy forking out money to buy the consoles and games as well now the TVs just to play the fucking games on.

Bravo entertainment industry.

Bravo.

2010 SLF Tag Champ Joined: Jun 07 2006 Posts: 12294

Yeah, I agree. The human race shouldn't bother trying to improve anything. Rolling Eyes

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

FNJ wrote:

Yeah, I agree. The human race shouldn't bother trying to improve anything. Rolling Eyes

Why fix what isn't broken.

or maybe it is broken to those few fickle people out there who can't stand a few grains on their screen.

2010 SLF Tag Champ Joined: Jun 07 2006 Posts: 12294

it's got nothing to do with "fixing" so much as "progressing"

I enjoy my HDTV and media immensely. I just keep an older CRT lying around for when I want to play older games, and I only buy newer movies on blu ray.

It's silly to damn a natural order of progression because you aren't willing to move forward. That's like saying "what's wrong with earth? why do motherfuckers always feel the need to explore space?"

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

FNJ wrote:

it's got nothing to do with "fixing" so much as "progressing"

I enjoy my HDTV and media immensely. I just keep an older CRT lying around for when I want to play older games, and I only buy newer movies on blu ray.

It's silly to damn a natural order of progression because you aren't willing to move forward. That's like saying "what's wrong with earth? why do motherfuckers always feel the need to explore space?"

That wasn't my point. I still do hate HD and feel it's a total con.

My point is that this whole TV thing will not be a problem now but say in 20/30 years it will be.

Like when VHS was phased out as DVD became the standard so will standard TVs for HD and when that happens enjoy bidding on ebay for an old TV.

EDIT: I really should have implied that better in retrospect.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 10:53 am

I can solve the retro console vs new TV problem in two words: "VGA Box."

Look it up.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 11:21 am

Is VGA Box an emulator or what? On my phone, and looking it up would be too slow.

Over the summer, I replaced my old TV with a flatscreen. While my NES and Odyssey-2 both work fine on it, I can't play Duck Hunt anymore. I need to get on Craigslist and find a classic big screen TV, except now I don't have room for it. Fuck you, science!

Title: Titlating Joined: Dec 17 2007 Posts: 5042

Quote:

From wikipedia:
A VGA box is a video converter that allows the display of common analog video standards on a VGA computer monitor. Video signals converted on this kind of unit range from S-Video to component video signals. Some VGA boxes have audio outputs on them so that they can also act as plug adapters for RCA audio inputs to use computer speakers. Some models of VGA boxes allow a computer with a multi pin high-resolution port to use them on other occasions. Others models include devices that convert VGA signals to composite, S-video or component video, as well as SCART in Europe.

People have used video this type of device so they can use their game consoles, VCRs and DVD players on their computer monitor. Though in the modern world, media on those formats is feasible to convert to a format playable directly off the computer, sometimes through the opposite function of displaying computer output on a standard NTSC TV with composite/s-video.

Also there is an object called vga to rca converter which converts normal vga to vga to rca which allows you too view multiple screens on different devices

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

They make adapters and converters for everything, you just need to know where to look. Also, TV's usually allow you to pillarbox if you want to for popper aspect ratio on old games.

What pisses me off is when new systems like the Wii don't auto-pillar box when you have the widescreen option turned on and are playing a game that doesn't support a wide resolution.

Joined: Feb 22 2010 Posts: 351

The Simple soultion is to buy CRT HDTVs, my TV is capable of 1080i and below, it'll do ANY resolution you throw at it without upscaling.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 12:51 pm

Do they still make CRT HDTVs? I thought they were OOP.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 01:57 pm

Technology marches forward Alowishus and we march along with it. Sadly 20 year old technology is no longer compatible with newer innovations because they are indeed "too primitive". Sure, low resolution TVs and 16 bits worked great in 1992, but that's only because that was the height of entertainment technology back then.

You'd completely halt all human technological progress and claim we reached our pinnacle in 1992? Come on man. People in 1960 said the same thing about new fangled color TVs; "You can see everything you need to see in black and white! Who needs a bit of color?"

If you really wanted to, you can make older systems work on new TVs, so stop moaning.

Joined: Dec 20 2009 Location: CA Posts: 152

It's pretty hard to go back to standard definition once you experience HD. You may not be able to tell the difference or care, but many people can and do. When I moved my 360 from my living room into my bedroom, I played on my old 20 inch SDTV for a week while I was deciding on which HDTV to buy. It was a very noticeable downgrade from the HDTV I was previously using. The picture was blurry, colors were dull and reading text was a real strain on my eyes. If you really can't tell the difference, you may want to get your eyes examined because on most games I've played it's night and day.

Furthermore, is it so hard to keep an old set around for your retro consoles? If you don't have one anymore, hit up craigslist or something. You can pick one up on the cheap or even free sometimes. You can also invest in one of those converters mentioned above or do what the rest of us do: emulate. There are plenty of options for playing old games and a long winded, whiny post declaring retro gaming to be dead was kind of unnecessary.

Joined: Feb 22 2010 Posts: 351

They are rare but CRT HDTVs are still made. Ask around, I think LG Makes them and Samsung. They have their share of problems though.

CRTs are sort of a hobbiest thing so there will be a market for them as long as the purists want them.

Joined: Oct 01 2009 Posts: 5316

Or the kid could...ya know...play on an older TV. You don't need every single system hooked up to one TV anyways. My HDTV works fine with my NES, however it blew out my speakers when I played North and South.

Joined: Feb 16 2010 Posts: 130

Haven't tried my older systems on my 46" Samsung, but I have my NES, 3DO, N64, and XBox hooked up to my 32" Vizio, and they all work and look great.

btw HD is awesome, and I can't wait for DVDs to go out of production and be completely replaced by Blu Ray.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 05:38 pm

I disagree with the original post, I have to say. There is a big difference between standard and Hi-Def. It's not just progress for progress' sake. Especially with the larger screens, standard def is noticeably inferior.

I have an NES system hooked up to an older TV, but haven't played on it for a while. I hook up my laptop to my monster TV and load up my NES games from there. Even have the controllers hooked into the Laptop. Looks fantastic.

As for movies, I love the fact that I almost get the same effect as a movie theater with my big ass TV and sound system, and without the annoying fuckers who talk during the movie. Because of the larger TVs you need higher definition otherwise it looks horrible.

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 16 2010 07:11 pm

Reminds me of when I finally got a computer without a floppy disk drive.

I got over it.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 07:16 pm

Doddsino wrote:

Or the kid could...ya know...play on an older TV. You don't need every single system hooked up to one TV anyways. My HDTV works fine with my NES, however it blew out my speakers when I played North and South.

Maybe in 1985 you can just run into any corner store and buy a CRT, but in this day and age it's very hard to come by!

UsaSatsui's Youtube Channel · Posted: Apr 16 2010 07:41 pm

Syd Lexia wrote:

Doddsino wrote:

Or the kid could...ya know...play on an older TV. You don't need every single system hooked up to one TV anyways. My HDTV works fine with my NES, however it blew out my speakers when I played North and South.

Maybe in 1985 you can just run into any corner store and buy a CRT, but in this day and age it's very hard to come by!

Just be at the clock tower at 10:04 PM.

Joined: Feb 22 2010 Posts: 351

The reason I have everything hooked up to one TV is because I wanted to out do Yoshi's boxx

Posted: Apr 16 2010 08:37 pm

If you look in the classifieds chances are you can get a decent CRT cheap. I bought a 36" for my spare bedroom for next to nothing a couple years back. It is my retro room, so it seemed fitting.

And Alowishus, as far as worrying about playing your NES games 30 years from now the TV is not what you should be worrying about. Video game cartridges were not meant to last forever you know. If they do work by that time you should consider yourself lucky, they will be 50 years old. A lot of hardcore Atari collectors copy rare games to another media or release them to the gaming community for preservation purposes, not for piracy. Several Atari prototypes have been lost to the ages from bit rot, and that is eventually going to happen to NES games as well.

Advances in technology are a good thing. Otherwise you wouldn't even have home video games in the first place or a forum to discuss them on for that matter.

Posted: Apr 16 2010 09:28 pm

Go to goodwill. The one I was at today had about 12 CRT TVs ranging from $20 - $100. (15" - 47")

Posted: Apr 17 2010 01:26 am

There's another reason to prefer CRT TVs over LCD TVs: Light Guns.

I have a CRT TV right now, but I've had it for a long, long time and I'm now preparing for the worst. I want to still be able to play Super Scope games, you know?

Edit: I love LCD TVs so much except for the fact that they cannot play Super Scope games. I guess a CRT HDTV would be a reasonable compromise, though.

Joined: Feb 22 2010 Posts: 351

jackfrost wrote:

If you look in the classifieds chances are you can get a decent CRT cheap. I bought a 36" for my spare bedroom for next to nothing a couple years back. It is my retro room, so it seemed fitting.

And Alowishus, as far as worrying about playing your NES games 30 years from now the TV is not what you should be worrying about. Video game cartridges were not meant to last forever you know. If they do work by that time you should consider yourself lucky, they will be 50 years old. A lot of hardcore Atari collectors copy rare games to another media or release them to the gaming community for preservation purposes, not for piracy. Several Atari prototypes have been lost to the ages from bit rot, and that is eventually going to happen to NES games as well.

Advances in technology are a good thing. Otherwise you wouldn't even have home video games in the first place or a forum to discuss them on for that matter.

If you know how to take care of something it'll last forever. Carts included