Retro gaming and CRT TVs becoming a thing

[SpaceAge]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

If you limit your self your world can only become smaller...

Try driving around in Grand theft auto for a while and you'll feel just as sucked in to the game as you would getting on a roll in a game of asteroids on an Atari 2600... this statement comes from experience playing both.

Heck, you can even play GTA V on an antique TV if you want. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0l4_xQx_xtM

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by Chip Chester

There is apparently new open-reel audio tape being manufactured, and a new (somewhat high-end) machine rumored as well. I'm full up on each, so I haven't dug into either at this point.

Yeah, at least til a few years back you could still buy a Bran-New Otari what was it, their MX somethin' or other for like $6500 & it had a years' lead time.. I have a TENTATIVE order on for 3 Machines, how many Y'all want ?!?

[compu_85]

Some of us on this forum are Millennials

I have computers older than me

[Sandy G]

Maybe some of us are Pissin' & Moanin' about youse Nitwit Millennials 'cause we're, uhh, Jealous, perhaps ?!? You lot have your whole LIVES before you, you will undoubtedly see/do/experience things we can't even begin to fathom... All a lot of us have to look forward to is how to make sure our progeny are Taken Care Of..

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Maybe some of us are Pissin' & Moanin' about youse Nitwit Millennials 'cause we're, uhh, Jealous, perhaps ?!? You lot have your whole LIVES before you, you will undoubtedly see/do/experience things we can't even begin to fathom... All a lot of us have to look forward to is how to make sure our progeny are Taken Care Of..

Soma us R jealous of youse retired folks. You got all the time in the world to watch TV n play video games n good off with whatever you please, and if ya happened to manage yer savings right all the monies to keep ya entertained.... most of my summer has been wasted patching rust holes on my burban and the only weekends I haven't been doing that I've been playing last minute swapmet prep/attendance...if the spiders in the basement had the kinda busyness I got thered be enough webs to stop a truck from getting to my repair bench......I love having money(though I'm in that weird place where I have enough to do my hobby stuff yet not enough for what I should spend on), but it gives me the reasources to buy WAY to much stuff. I got more drool worthy project sets that it's driving me crazy that I can't find time to touch than you could believe. I need a clone or something to help me handle all my stuff.

[mr_rye89]

Yep I've a Trinitron BVM here for use with my Commodore 64, and A LaCie 22" aperture grille monitor to use with my Ivy Bridge and 386DX2 desktop computers.

On the film note, Kodak is producing Ektachrome and P3200 again, very nice films, looking forward to Ekatchrome in 120 soon. Fuji is bringing back Acros Neopan 100 and still makes Velvia 50/100, and Provia 100F. If they brought back Provia 400x, we'd be in business

[freakaftr8]

A beautiful site. And the picture doesn't do it justice. it looks way better than this.

[judge]

Wish I still had my Trinitron. No I don't actually. I'm at opposite ends: Either give me the latest in multi-media entertainment, or give me Predictas (well, I know it goes a lot further back than that, but it's black & white...)

[freakaftr8]

What better way to play some Japanese import Super Nintendo games than on a Sony Trinitron console tv!

[demy1942]

I guess I should keep my Atari 2600 and my 4 crt tv

I still have a crt Sony upstairs late 90's must weigh 500 pounds, don't miss moving that sucker around.

[vintage.digi]

Apparently I'm a millennial, even though that's a term that didn't even exist until I was already an adult.

I think tastes vary a lot. Personally, I'm into a little bit of everything, but mostly 70s and later. What I would call "vintage" and not "antique". I like the high-end professional 90s-00s stuff and I also really like small, attractive knob/woodgrain consumer models. I'd just love to have a shelf full of beautiful 13" color 70s/80s sets. A lot of younger people are just going to want one CRT, usually a production monitor or a late consumer TV. Some may be more into computer monitors. Some want to have every type of high-end production monitor with extras for back-up.

I think the general takeaway is that with everybody's interests averaged out, you will see growth in demand for all CRTs across the board with a heavy curve for the high-end. The people with the most money will want the best stuff and will compete for it. The spillover into antique televisions is small, but does exist.

The good news is that CRTs being junked is going to become less and less of an issue. There are smart people in the CRT gaming scene, figuring out how to do things like perform RGB mods.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard somebody say, "They need to start making CRTs again!" I might have close to a dollar. I don't see that happening. What I think could be great though is if we saw a return of the CRT TV repair shop.

[Mad-Mike]

I too am Millennial and the want to use a CRT TV is at least a decade or more old now. Shoot, the last time I was here I was trying to fix my 1984 Mitsubishi CS-1984R "Gaming TV" because replacing it was going to cost me over $100 and require months and months of digging to find something even remotely comparable.

Tastes vary a lot because people want what they had as a kid and that varied a lot. That was why that Mitsubishi was so important to me because that was the exact same TV we had when I was growing up. I tend to find that's the first rung then they discover certain picture tubes (ie Trinitrons, Diamondscans, etc), or other CRT Devices (PVMs) They want. Some (like me) are also electronics tinkers before so part of it for me is the joy of bringing a piece of ancient tech back to life and putting it to good use currently.

Like vintage.digi said it's good, it's saving the CRTs. And it's not just TV's, it's computer monitors too. I have a vintage NEC MultiSync II CRT for my computers that I'm not giving up - and that thing I've seen on E-bay listed for $200+ because it works with anything from a Tandy CoCo to a Windows 10 desktop. I got it for free from Computer Surplus in Redmond in 2017. It's also good for the environment too. Shoot, I'm stalking a Zenith 1490 VGA for my 286 - which was like a Trinitron of 640x480 CRT PC monitors from the late 1980's.

On the subject of them making CRTs again, I see the same thing regarding AT Cases in the vintage computer community - and nobody has really put in an effort to reproduce or create a new variant of a PC Desktop chassis for old format motherboards (closest thing we have is the Checkmate 1500 but that's really for Amiga and has no AT/XT option), CRTs would be less likely due to the hazards and difficulties in creating a vacuum sealed glass bottle homebrew that would not be a legal and safety hazard. I think people more like Shango66 on Youtube are going to become more and more valuable as time goes on. I have learned so much from watching that guy's channel, and I feel like CRT's, like anything else vintage, will become that weekend tuner/tweaker thing, except instead of a hood open in the driveway, your crazy neighbor will be setting convergence and purity on an old CRT while tubs of creame rinse and water are "Retrobrighting" the case.

[zeno]

I'm stalking a Zenith 1490 VGA for my 286 - which was like a Trinitron of 640x480 CRT PC monitors from the late 1980's.

The Zenith was the first FTM or Flat Tension Mask CRT. At first only
used on monitors & military apps. IIRC the F15 used them. At the
time our Zenith rep said if they built a TV with it is would sell for
abt $800, more than twice the price of a TOTL 13". So we had to wait
years for them in TV's.
I had a ham friend that was a manager at NYNEX, the phone co. at the time.
After the Zeniths were depreciated they changed them all out & he grabbed
abt a dozen. I got one & it gave an absolutely killer pix. Considered
untouchable by anything else. The only bad thing thing was they tended
to get cold joints & weighed a TON. It was packed solid with CRT, PCB's
& tons of steel shielding.

73 Zeno
LFOD !

[Titan1a]

Retired boomer. Retirement has it's downsides. My ticker is only running at 60%. Sometimes it's all I can do to walk across the room. Fortunately, I'm doing much better. Lot's of things to do.

[AdamAnt316]

Been into retro gaming since the mid '90s, and in the beginning, it was (by necessity) CRTs. Mostly 19" sets with RF input only, usually with a nice chain of RF switches dangling behind it. As time has passed, I've stuck to using CRT sets when possible, up to and including a 14" PVM, though I do have a couple of cheap LCD panels for convenience. I did help a friend find a 27" Sony Trinitron set for his classic gaming room, and myself have a 27" JVC which will hopefully go in my own gaming room once I have a chance to put one together. For now, I recently picked up this classic Sony KV-1710 Trinitron set to use for my gaming purposes: