Always thought CRT was better for retro gaming till I saw the difference on a properly set up LCD

I was at a friend's place in Portland last Saturday and he showed me his modded SNES running through a RetroTink 5X on a modern screen. The clarity on those pixel art games was honestly mind-blowing, made me realize I was just clinging to nostalgia. Anyone else made the switch and regretted it or felt the same?

3 comments

3 Comments

valthomas20d ago

That RetroTink box really does change everything, blew my mind too.

james53317d ago

Both setups in my house" - you've got a whole museum going on there. I can barely keep my one TV from getting pizza grease on it. But seriously, I get what you're saying about the CRT glow and motion clarity. I had a Trinitron in my garage for years after I switched to LCDs. One day I fired up Super Metroid on it and yeah, the way Samus's gun flashes on a CRT is different. But I still ended up selling it to a collector. My eyes are getting old and the flicker started giving me headaches. Plus the thing weighed as much as a small car. For light gun games I get it, but for my daily gaming I'll take the clean pixels and not having to sit on the floor three feet away from the screen.

robin_campbell3621d ago

Gotta disagree a bit here. The RetroTink 5X is doing a lot of work to make the image look cleaner, but it's still not the same as CRT phosphor glow and natural motion handling. LCDs have come a long way for sure, but older consoles were literally designed around CRT scanlines and how the light blooms on those tubes. I've got both setups in my house and still pull out the old Sony Trinitron for light gun games and shmups. No regrets about owning both, just different tools for different vibes.