Unpopular opinion: My dad's old CRT monitor from 1998 looks better than my new 4K screen for retro gaming

I was over at my buddy Mike's place last weekend and he pulled out this dusty 19-inch Sony Trinitron from his parents basement. We plugged my original SNES into it and I swear the pixels looked crisp and natural, not all blurry like on my flat screen. He told me these old tubes do 240p natively and modern displays just fake it badly. It hit me different because I spent $400 on a scaler last year trying to get that look and it still stinks. Has anyone else gone back to an old CRT and found it changed how they play?

2 comments

2 Comments

abby18910d agoMost Upvoted

Man, I feel this in my soul... I spent like six months tweaking a RetroTink and a fancy monitor trying to get that exact 240p look for my Genesis games, and it still looked like someone smeared butter on the screen. Then my dad brought up his old 14-inch JVC from the garage, said "here, try this," and I felt like an absolute clown for spending all that cash. My girlfriend walked in and caught me sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding a controller and staring at this tiny tube like it was a sacred relic, and she just laughed at me.

maryh969d ago

That 14-inch JVC is the real MVP. There's just something about those old tubes that no amount of fancy gear can fake.