Because it didn't look like that, you didn't have those clear distinct lines.
Color CRT displaying a game, no lines: https://i.imgur.com/eI2yb7Y.jpeg
Black & white CRT, you can barely make out the lines: https://d23gn3985hkc32.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/202...
I know the retro space is often specifically emulating old hardware, was thing a thing in the 80s, perhaps? Or were visible scanlines more common in America than in Europe? I know the weird colours and lowered resolution of some (emulated) games are an artifact of differences in NTSC/PAL/etc., could that explain the difference?
I imagine part of it is the need to have visible differences strongly emphasized so it looks like the filters are doing something. A true CRT filter would be much more subtle and people might not thing anything has happened when you turn it on.
I think it's quite the contrary. They seem obsessed with simulating high end CRT studio monitors like the Sony BVM line which were very sharp and had a highly pronounced negative scanline space.
The image on the left is from a BVM: https://i.imgur.com/cu4PdgF.jpg
Good PC flat screen CRTs towards the end of the CRT era looked as good as you could ask for. By modern standards, all that was missing was 120 Hz and hidpi.
It always irks me that everyone seem to have completely forgotten that CRT monitors were routinely used in 75 Hz and 85 Hz (and even higher rates) and with various resolutions instead of the one and only 60 Hz in native resolution as with most LCD monitors. 60 Hz meant “I can't configure Windows” or “my video card or monitor can't handle more than that with resolution that high”.
If you want both fast refresh rates and pixel accuracy, well, you kind of need today's technology. Not possible back then.
I guess it all depends on what you define as "small resolutions". My stupid ADI monitor from 97 could do 1024x768@85Hz
The main reason for that is that games of the era were targeted at the most common hardware, using very cheap composite circuits and CRTs as medium for artistic expression. In many games, you could easily miss gradients, rainbow effects, transparency, or something else with a high-end CRT.
Something like the waterfalls in Sonic the Hedgehog come to mind.
https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/167804/did-retro...
There's an image on this page. The waterfalls don't look very good with sharp pixels. A CRT would blur and blend, and you'd have to assume the game designers knew it would happen. It's probably not just a happy accident.
Another example that is harder to show, is that many games used intentional flickering or other tricks to create some funky effects only possible with CRT.
For example: if you transmit the data correctly (one frame is only odd lines, next frame only even lines) and flicker sprites at certain speeds, you can achieve some fancy transparency and overlay effects.
Another trick is toy with timings to screw with resolution, color range and pixel shape.
A less reliable trick is sub-pixel anti-alias relying on the TV geometry, since each manufacturer had their own patented geometry this was more problematic (for example Sony's Trinitron was aperture grille, each pixel was composed of columns of each color. Many other manufacturers went for triangular pixels instead. With the 3 primary colors arranged as round dots in a triangular pattern).
So people might be trying to mimic running 1987 games on 1997 hardware and not the look of original CGA/EGA/VGA monitors. Recreating some style is an artistic choice altogether anyway, and I think it's better to discuss it this way.
[1] - https://codepen.io/kaliedarik/pen/OJZzJJB ... warning: demo requests access to the device camera.
Yes thats what it was all about. The pixelated game graphics were made with that and other CRT properties in mind.
> 320x200
21" by chance ? Why would someone use 320x200 on a monitor when only the very old DOS games need such a mode ?
There's also the possibility of emulating how the time resolution could be less than the refresh rate (sometimes sluggish phosphors create a kind of motion blur).
Really old tv transmissions also had an effects like a high-pass filtering (I think to show better detail within limited dynamic range)[1], and how really bright spots would be surrounded by dark halos [2]. The distinctive "look" of old TV has a lot to do not just with the CRT display, but the characteristics of the analog method of video signal generation, in a video camera tube [3] that had its own cathode raw sweeping across the source image.
[1] look at the edges of the desk at around 0:36 in https://www.newsweek.com/wmttv-black-white-color-first-time-...
[2] https://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/113358/whats-with...
You can slightly tilt the yoke to make the horizontal lines more horizontal (although then vertical lines will be less vertical, tradeoffs everywhere)
maybe my eyes were better than most, I don't know, but I distinctly remember trying to adjust the settings so the lines would go away, thus reducing the annoyance of my "all I can see is colored lines" brother.
Try loading the 4000x3000 version of that image you linked and zooming to full size. Especially on the green character's outfit, you can see the scanlines on that color CRT display.