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Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines

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  Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2017-03-06 11:28 +0000
    Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2017-03-07 14:14 +0000
      Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Mike Tomlinson <mike@jasper.org.uk> - 2017-03-08 13:18 +0000
        Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Ian McCall <ian@eruvia.org> - 2017-03-08 21:30 +0000
          Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Mike Tomlinson <mike@jasper.org.uk> - 2017-03-08 22:55 +0000
    Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2017-03-09 13:19 +1100
      Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display  technology means for classic arcade machines Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> - 2017-03-08 23:21 -0400
      Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Johnny B Good <johnny-b-good@invalid.ntlworld.com> - 2017-03-14 22:26 +0000
        Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2017-03-15 12:19 +1100
          Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2017-03-15 11:38 -0400

#13282 — Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines

http://venturebeat.com/2017/03/03/what-the-death-of-the-crt-display-technology-means-for-classic-arcade-machines/

Quoting from the URL above:

   The arcade is dead. You already knew that, but that industry's coffin is
   about to get another nail. The cathode-ray-tube technology that powered
   the monitors for nearly every classic arcade game in the twentieth
   century is defunct. Sony, Samsung, and others have left it behind for
   skinnier and more lucrative LCDs and plasmas, and the CRTs that are left
   are about to sell out.

   Donkey Kong and Mario Bros.The current stock of new 29-inch CRT monitors
   is dwindling. Online arcade cabinet and parts supplier Dream Arcades has
   fewer than 30 of those large displays sitting on its shelves. When it
   sells out of the current inventory, it will never get another shipment
   in that size again.

   "We've secured enough [of the other sizes] to get us all the way through
   next year," says Michael Ware, founder of Dream Arcades. "After that,
   that's it."

   The future of arcade-cabinet restoration is looking bleak.

   "The old arcade games are like aging people," says Walter Day, founder
   of high-score-keeping site Twin Galaxies. "They have old livers and
   aging kidneys. There will come a day when very few arcade cabinets have
   original components. Time will wear them out."

   To be clear, it's not that games like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man will
   suddenly become unplayable. The games can run on newer LCD screens, but
   they may not look as the developers intended.

   ...

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#13284

Rich <rich@example.invalid> wrote:
>    To be clear, it's not that games like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man will
>    suddenly become unplayable. The games can run on newer LCD screens, but
>    they may not look as the developers intended.

I suspect it would be possible to make a close analogue - a commercial OLED
panel with a glass front to it with an appropriate pixel-mangling filter (eg
curved glass with shadow mask).  It would be functionally similar to a CRT,
but without the bulk.  Or, more expensively, pattern the glass with OLED
pixels in a similar way to CRT phosphor.

Whether the volume/cost tradeoff would work, I have no idea.

Theo

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#13286

En el artículo <HMA*ka7lw@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, Theo <theom+news
@chiark.greenend.org.uk> escribió:

>I suspect it would be possible to make a close analogue

Already been done - look at the "dodgy CRT" xscreensavers on *nix - also
"TV test card", "Apple II", "Pong", "xAnalogTV", etc. etc.

Connect LCD, filter video output through "dodgy CRT" code, voila!
authentic CRT display crappiness.

:)

-- 
 (\_/)
(='.'=)  systemd: the Linux version of Windows 10
(")_(")  

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#13287

On 2017-03-08 13:18:44 +0000, Mike Tomlinson <mike@jasper.org.uk> said:

> En el artículo <HMA*ka7lw@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, Theo <theom+news
> @chiark.greenend.org.uk> escribió:
> 
>> I suspect it would be possible to make a close analogue
> 
> Already been done - look at the "dodgy CRT" xscreensavers on *nix - also
> "TV test card", "Apple II", "Pong", "xAnalogTV", etc. etc.
> 
> Connect LCD, filter video output through "dodgy CRT" code, voila!
> authentic CRT display crappiness.
> 
> :)

Yeah, but the real arcade machine monitors still look better. 
Multisync, capable of going to 128x128 resolution. I have an original 
ArcadeVGA attached to a Hanterax - looked great, though I have recently 
lost the vertical sync and am not sure if it's caps or connector.


Cheers,
Ian

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#13288

En el artículo <eibbg7FelpgU1@mid.individual.net>, Ian McCall
<ian@eruvia.org> escribió:

>Yeah, but the real arcade machine monitors still look better. 
>Multisync, capable of going to 128x128 resolution. I have an original 
>ArcadeVGA attached to a Hanterax 

Hanterex maybe?

>- looked great, though I have recently 
>lost the vertical sync and am not sure if it's caps or connector.

I've got loads of monitor schematics on CD.  If you can let me have a
precise make and model I'll have a look for you.

Some machines used Microvitec monitor chassis - I'm factory trained in
these and have schematics, plus a mental encyclopaedia of common faults.

-- 
 (\_/)
(='.'=)  systemd: the Linux version of Windows 10
(")_(")  

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#13289

On 6/03/2017 10:28 PM, Rich wrote:

>     To be clear, it's not that games like Donkey Kong or Pac-Man will
>     suddenly become unplayable. The games can run on newer LCD screens, but
>     they may not look as the developers intended.
>

I doubt the developers ever intended that the game suffer the 
distortions, lack of convergence, etc., inflicted by colour cathode ray 
tubes, they were just all that was available.

Does anyone really morn the passing of those displays?

Sylvia.

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#13290 — Re: Donkey Kong's failing liver: What the death of the CRT display technology means for classic arcade machines

Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> writes:

> Does anyone really morn the passing of those displays?

I don't know about the arcade CRTs or games but I much prefer the
colors on the 19" SGI monitor I just retired to those of any LCD
screen I've used.  (It finally failed to light up, had been taking
increasingly long to warm up for a year, but the colors and
performance once up and running were fine right to the end.)  Same for
the 17" IBM that I've swapped in.  It had a loose internal plug which,
once gently squidged, cause no further trouble.

-- 
Mike Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada

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#13317

On Thu, 09 Mar 2017 13:19:28 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:

====snip====

> 
> Does anyone really morn the passing of those displays?
> 
 Possibly some may do but, I guess[1], only between the hours of 6am and 
midday.

[1] Only a guess since I'm not really a "Morning Person". :-)

-- 
Johnny B Good

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#13318

On 15/03/2017 9:26 AM, Johnny B Good wrote:
> On Thu, 09 Mar 2017 13:19:28 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
>
> ====snip====
>
>>
>> Does anyone really morn the passing of those displays?
>>
>   Possibly some may do but, I guess[1], only between the hours of 6am and
> midday.
>
> [1] Only a guess since I'm not really a "Morning Person". :-)
>

Yes, I misspelt it. It happens. Didn't seem worth posting a correction for.

Sylvia.

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#13322

On Wed, 15 Mar 2017, Sylvia Else wrote:

> On 15/03/2017 9:26 AM, Johnny B Good wrote:
>> On Thu, 09 Mar 2017 13:19:28 +1100, Sylvia Else wrote:
>> 
>> ====snip====
>> 
>>> 
>>> Does anyone really morn the passing of those displays?
>>>
>>   Possibly some may do but, I guess[1], only between the hours of 6am and
>> midday.
>> 
>> [1] Only a guess since I'm not really a "Morning Person". :-)
>> 
>
> Yes, I misspelt it. It happens. Didn't seem worth posting a correction for.
>
The woman who was long considered the first native woman to have a 
published novel, used the pen name "Mourning Dove".  But originally, she'd 
spelled it "Morning Dove", not realizing the difference at the time.

   Michael

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