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>They seem obsessed with simulated really bad CRTs. ... I imagine part of it is the need to have visible differences strongly emphasized so it looks like the fi

>They seem obsessed with simulated really bad CRTs. ... I imagine part of it is the need to have visible differences strongly emphasized so it looks like the filters are doing something. 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.

Asooka 4y ago
That seems pretty far-fetched. Do you have examples of such effects being shown wrong on CRTs without scanlines?
- doubled112 4y ago
  I don't think they're referring to scanlines specifically. Something like the waterfalls in Sonic the Hedgehog come to mind. https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/167804/did-retro-pixel-artists-design-with-crts-in-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.
- speeder 4y ago
  doubled112 comment is excellent. 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).
hulitu 4y ago
I played spectrum games on the spectrum connected to PC . Spectrum had a graphics resolution of 256x192 px and no scan lines were visible on a 24" TV.

Asooka 4y ago

That seems pretty far-fetched. Do you have examples of such effects being shown wrong on CRTs without scanlines?

doubled112 4y ago
I don't think they're referring to scanlines specifically. Something like the waterfalls in Sonic the Hedgehog come to mind. https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/167804/did-retro-pixel-artists-design-with-crts-in-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.
speeder 4y ago
doubled112 comment is excellent. 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).

hulitu 4y ago

I played spectrum games on the spectrum connected to PC . Spectrum had a graphics resolution of 256x192 px and no scan lines were visible on a 24" TV.