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[ScOULaris]

The idea for this thread came to me when I stumbled upon this screenshot in the Crash Bandicoot 20th Anniversary thread:

We so often see PS2 games now through the lens of increased resolution via emulation, HD remasters, or other types of ports that help the games look better on 1080p digital displays. But I invite you all to think back to how PS2 games looked when we first experienced them on CRT TV's of varying sizes and quality.

As with most console generational leaps prior to the last one, our collective minds were blown by the graphical capabilities of the PS2 in its early years. Back then we weren't doubling resolution and outputting to digital displays, so the big jump we'd see with each new console was typically focused on increased detail, higher-res textures, and polygon counts. It wouldn't be until much later that display technology progressed to a point where HD resolutions would become standard, so PS2 games had a very different look about them when we first experienced them back in 2000-2005 from what we now envision.

Personally, I find the look of a PS2 game running on a CRT to be pretty nostalgic. The limitations of CRT televisions helped mask the lower resolution and aliasing artifacts of most PS2 games, so in a lot of ways they looked more visually appealing on analog displays than when they've been upscaled to higher-res digital ones.

Is anyone else fond of this particular look? If so, share some pictures of that sweet, sweet CRT PS2 quality in your posts.

 

[yllekz]

I still have a 27" CRT from the early 2000s. The black levels on the screen kick the shit out of my 50" HDTV. A lot of colors just look better on the CRT as well.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Not sure I'd say it's nostalgic so much as that it's how those games are actually supposed to look.

 

[Mega]

Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox and Wii games look amazing on a CRT, especially if the display and the games are capable of 480p.

Playing on HD fixed pixel displays changes how the games look, ranging from decent-but-not great to outright ruining them.

 

[Tain]

SD CRT resolutions didn't just help mask aliasing artifacts, but also the limitations of the assets themselves (stuff like, say, basic-ass foliage).

 

[CharminUltra]

I don't miss the sd days all that much, but I do have a sd tv to play those old games on. Not a fan of smoothing filters.

 

[Cardigan]

I feel the same, which is why I'm picking up a CRT off Craigslist for free today. I don't even have any immediate plans for using it but I wanted to snag it while I could.

 

[Peltz]

I mean... That's what they're designed to look like. Playing them on fixed pixel displays is just wrong.

 

[ResidentDante]

Picked up a nice Sony Trinitron this summer for free, and I gotta agree: gives me a nostalgic feeling to play on it. Use it for all my old consoles, including the PS2!

 

[slash000]

4 or 5 years after dumping my last huge CRT tube, I'm now considering getting a small one for my 8/16-bit consoles and maybe PS2 and Wii.

The PS2 in particular, so many games rendered at a variety of resolutions and just simply relied on the CRT to cover up the mess.

I've come to appreciate how despite HDTVs being "better" displays, these older consoles honestly look better on the older TVs.

 

[potatohead]

Picked up a nice Sony Trinitron this summer for free, and I gotta agree: gives me a nostalgic feeling to play on it. Use it for all my old consoles, including the PS2!

Best TVs. Still have 2 of these. Great for classic games.

 

[Tambini]

Same unfortnatley my CRT's picture has gone a bit shit lately, the picture shakes a bit and it looks a little blurry

Good thing is if I ever want a different one I can go on gumtree and theres loads from £0-10

 

[ghibli99]

I recently played Gradius V on a modern non-CRT TV and was shocked by what a blurry mess it was. Still love that game, but damn, visual fidelity has come a long way in just two short generations.

 

[Omnii-chan]

I wish I could buy one of those 00's widescreen crt tv with component for my N64 and PS2.

Bet if I picked one up off Craigslist or Gumtree it'd die within 6 months and I don't think there are any tv repair joints around here anymore.

Also there are hardly any good ones when I do take a look, it's mostly just old people trying to dump their Phillips or Sanyo from the 90's, nothing good like the Sony Wega or Trinitron.

 

[dark10x]

SD CRT resolutions didn't just help mask aliasing artifacts, but also the limitations of the assets themselves (stuff like, say, basic-ass foliage).

...I'm nostalgic for PS2 aliasing for reasons I cannot explain.

 

[Secret Character]

I keep my CRT set-up around because of my PS2 and Dreamcast. Not only do the games look better, but it's the only way to play the light gun games on the system.

 

[adamy]

man these kind of threads make me feel old

I'm nostalgic about how my SNES looked on a CRT

 

[ScOULaris]

...I'm nostalgic for PS2 aliasing for reasons I cannot explain.

Yeah, I know what you mean. It just reminds of me that time in my gaming life.

Similar to how fidgeting polygons in PS1 games have a nostalgic effect on me.

man these kind of threads make me feel old

I'm nostalgic about how my SNES looked on a CRT

Nah, I'd wager most of us grew up with NES-era gaming at the very least. It's just that emulation and shaders have gotten to a point now where it's close enough for the classic systems and much easier than having a bunch of old consoles hooked up to a CRT.

I made the thread about PS2 because it's not often talked about in the same way that recreating that CRT look for NES/SNES/Genesis games is.

 

[spliced]

Sorry but the PS2 will always stand out to me for being particularly ugly, I hated the way games on the console looked.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Sorry but the PS2 will always stand out to me for being particularly ugly, I hated the way games on the console looked.

Yeah, the image quality of its peer gen6 consoles were way better. Even Dreamcast with that crisp VGA.

 

[deluxeg]

That is why I bought one of these. Looks so good with my old consoles.

 

[GrayDFox]

Any console from that generation, whether it be GC, Xbox, or PS2, always had a certain feel when playin' them on the CRT.

Feels pretty good.

 

[Splash Wave]

SD games looking shockingly good on CRTs!

 

[cireza]

Love my CRT TV and SD games. Still the type of picture I love the most.

 

[purdobol]

It wouldn't be until much later that display technology progressed to a point where HD resolutions would become standard, so PS2 games had a very different look about them when we first experienced them back in 2000-2005 from what we now envision.

Display technology did not progressed it regressed. Everything was sacrificed for bigger screen, small factor. One can argue it hit gamers the most. Latency, color reproduction, deep blacks, contrast, no fixed resolutions... all this went to hell. And while true that SD resolution were standard for TV sets, same thing cannot be said for CRT Monitors where 1024x768 was standard for a long time. And as time gone by it became bare minimum. Not even going to mention refresh rates.

Other than that i fully agree about nostalgia thing. Whenever occasion arises I'll pick up decent CRT TV. Right now though, CRT PC monitor gets the job done. Yep still have it connected to main PC.

 

[GitarooMan]

I have a 27-inch CRT still in use for PS2 and earlier games. It's worth it.

 

[lazygecko]

I usually dislike the way emulated PS2 titles look with higher resolutions, mostly due to how terribly 2D UI elements and such scale compared to the 3D graphics. I prefer having all the aspects of the visuals displayed at a cohesive fidelity.

 

[BocoDragon]

Yeah... PS2 used to have a shiny glow on a nice big CRT. When I think of how games like MGS2 or ZOE2 used to look on it, I kind of miss that.

But PS2 running through my Framemeister isn't too bad.

 

[Crankshaft]

I sorely miss CRT's. I don't miss the weight though.
I have a strong desire to play PS2 games lately but they look soo horrible on my flatscreen tv.

 

[MrNelson]

I recently played Gradius V on a modern non-CRT TV and was shocked by what a blurry mess it was. Still love that game, but damn, visual fidelity has come a long way in just two short generations.

Composite on an HDTV is always going to look like ass. You would have better luck with component cables (they aren't miracle workers though).

 

[ScOULaris]

I sorely miss CRT's. I don't miss the weight though.
I have a strong desire to play PS2 games lately but they look soo horrible on my flatscreen tv.

Oh, man. The last CRT TV that I owned was ungodly heavy. Every time we had to move it someone either ended up getting hurt or damaging something. That was definitely the worst aspect of CRT sets.

 

[Bloodporne]

Been thinking about getting a CRT again for my old consoles as well. Everything looks like shit on my 50" Samsung obviously.

I have a consolized Neo Geo MVS unit with about 10 games that's been in storage for almost a decade, that should really be reason enough.

Also, Silent Hill games don't look right all crisp and clean

And yeah...the weight and enormous depth of them is something I definitely don't miss.

 

[Waldo Lydecker]

Yeah... PS2 used to have a shiny glow on a nice big CRT. When I think of how games like MGS2 or ZOE2 used to look on it, I kind of miss that.

But PS2 running through my Framemeister isn't too bad.

Lord Karnage, is that you?

 

[Muppet of a Man]

Display technology did not progressed it regressed. Everything was sacrificed for bigger screen, small factor. One can argue it hit gamers the most. Latency, color reproduction, deep blacks, contrast, no fixed resolutions... all this went to hell. And while true that SD resolution were standard for TV sets, same thing cannot be said for CRT Monitors where 1024x768 was standard for a long time. And as time gone by it became bare minimum. Not even going to mention refresh rates.

Other than that i fully agree about nostalgia thing. Whenever occasion arises I'll pick up decent CRT TV. Right now though, CRT PC monitor gets the job done. Yep still have it connected to main PC.

CRT PC monitors are GOAT. Ridiculously overspec'd compared to anything on the market today outside of peak resolution.

Things just looked so good on one of these bad boys:

Viewsonic P227fb

 

[Timu]

I mean... That's what they're designed to look like. Playing them on fixed pixel displays is just wrong.

Of course, unless you're direct capturing them!!!

 

[Polioliolio]

That is why I bought one of these. Looks so good with my old consoles.

I'd like a small high quality CRT like this, but I don't care to get into RGB. Does it have other inputs, or can you plug composite into it?

 

[Mega]

That is why I bought one of these. Looks so good with my old consoles.

TM-H150CG?

I'd like a small high quality CRT like this, but I don't care to get into RGB. Does it have other inputs, or can you plug composite into it?

If it's the model above (looks identical), it comes stock with Composite and S-video with a slot for an optional RGB/Component video input card. These are hard to come by and can be expensive, but if you don't need it you're good to go. It's a very nice, sharp monitor. Very compact and small with a 15" screen that's a big larger than the 13" PVMs in a similar size frame.

 

[HyperZone<3]

not to mention just how damn common 60 FPS was on the PS2. Even with the lower quality assets and textures, the smooth framerate would do a lot of favors for even very modest looking games.

 

[gelf]

...I'm nostalgic for PS2 aliasing for reasons I cannot explain.

I know what you mean, I still have a weird thing for the shimmer the the graphics of Virtua Fighter 4 had for example.

 

[ScOULaris]

I know what you mean, I still have a weird thing for the shimmer the the graphics of Virtua Fighter 4 had for example.

Artifacting fetish. Nothing to be ashamed of.

 

[deluxeg]

TM-H150CG?



If it's the model above (looks identical), it comes stock with Composite and S-video with a slot for an optional RGB/Component video input card. These are hard to come by and can be expensive, but if you don't need it you're good to go. It's a very nice, sharp monitor. Very compact and small with a 15" screen that's a big larger than the 13" PVMs in a similar size frame.

It's the 17 inch version TM-H1750CG. I don't have the RGB card, but I am using S-VIDEO for N64 and PS2 and composite for NES and it looks 100% better compared to the cheap Memorex CRT TV I was using.

 

[NOLA_Gaffer]

I really wish I could get one of these somewhere. It's a 14" CRT TV made by LG back in 2010 intentionally designed to look as retro as possible...exclusive to South Korea though, it seems.

Though of course I also wish I could get a PVM for a decent price, but they're all ridiculous on eBay.

The ultimate tragedy is when I picked up the 13" JVC CRT I'm using now the seller had a practically new 20" Sony BVM just sitting there...but he wanted $300 for it, way more than I was looking to spend at the time. (And I didn't have the space for it.)

 

[petran79]

Dreamcast, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox and Wii games look amazing on a CRT, especially if the display and the games are capable of 480p.

Playing on HD fixed pixel displays changes how the games look, ranging from decent-but-not great to outright ruining them.

Dreamcast's VGA output makes 3D games look great on new monitors but unfortunately ruins the look of 2D games.

 

[Dead_Pixel]

I really wish I could get one of these somewhere. It's a 14" CRT TV made by LG back in 2010 intentionally designed to look as retro as possible...exclusive to South Korea though, it seems.

Though of course I also wish I could get a PVM for a decent price, but they're all ridiculous on eBay.

The ultimate tragedy is when I picked up the 13" JVC CRT I'm using now the seller had a practically new 20" Sony BVM just sitting there...but he wanted $300 for it, way more than I was looking to spend at the time. (And I didn't have the space for it.)

It's glorious! Like an old iMac.

 

[kunonabi]

I can't say that I get nostalgic about how they looked since I still regularly old games on a CRT but when I switched to S-video for all my older systems I have to say the PS1 and PS2 stuff certainly saw the biggest improvement. I have my older systems hooked to this gigantic Toshiba CRT and they really look very nice now. I was never that impressed with PS2 games visually when the system was new but now I find a lot of them to actually be pretty appealing. Silent Hill 3 will always look amazing no matter what you do to it...well unless your Tom Hulett anyway.

 

[Neff]

Honestly, if Sony ever want to sell me a TV as much as they did at their recent conference, just give me a TV with no frills, no nonsense, accurate colour, black blacks, good contrast, and no lag. All things we've had in TVs for 40 years, but are harder to come by in 2016. I'm sure a revival of SED/FED technology, or a modification of it, must be commercially feasible at this point.

I'm surprised no TV manufacturer has pitched a pure 'gaming' TV yet.

 

[ScOULaris]

... well unless your Tom Hulett anyway.

Haha, savage. Such a travesty.

 

[Ceallach]

Well, these games were designed with those limitations and used them accordingly to produce certain effects

 

[Gaogaogao]

I still have a 27" CRT from the early 2000s. The black levels on the screen kick the shit out of my 50" HDTV. A lot of colors just look better on the CRT as well.

oled is waiting for you

 

[Sanctuary]

Picked up a nice Sony Trinitron this summer for free, and I gotta agree: gives me a nostalgic feeling to play on it. Use it for all my old consoles, including the PS2!

I had a 35'' Trinitron before finally upgrading to "HD" in 2009 (I had 720p LCD monitors at least) to my plasma. I kept thinking "I don't need to upgrade, this looks good enough", but after getting the plasma, I thought the Trinitron looked like dirt. I would have kept it just for the pre-HD consoles, but the thing took up a lot of space, and weighed almost four hundred pounds.

Anyway, it's not entirely the same, but you can get really close to the look of a Trinitron using Retroarch shaders.

oled is waiting for you

Yep. I have an LG OLED, and the black levels are actually better than what was produced on the CRT. Even at "black" on a CRT, you could still see a glow. You can't on the OLED.