Yeah, when you turned them on they frequently had push buttons with satisfying resistance and a click.
As an object they had their own tactility, often solid and heavy (as opposed to the sort of articulated physicality of most modern monitors). You could often feel the static electricity across the glass.
They even had their own sounds. The hum of warming up, the whine and clunk of being turned off.
When we talk about nostalgia it’s often the sensations adjacent to the activity that we are talking about.
I remember I had a CRT as a kid that had the deepest button press to turn on. It felt like it was a whole 3 inches of travel- realistically I’m just remembering it like that cuz I was 8- but that was the best button. You could feel it actuate at the end, and even hear it. And CRTs had a presence about them. In hindsight, I was probably just hearing the whine and didn’t realize it.
Idk CRTs had their own vibe. Objectively, the crazy resolutions and crisp screens we have todays are better but in some less definable ways they feel lesser.
Oh, I did grow up before video games were a thing, so I am aware of how CRTs worked. You just made it sound like CRTs would somehow provide tactile feedback while gaming, which I couldn’t place at all, given the context.
As far as I’m aware, if your TV did start to provide feedback as you played you were in for a bad time.
I guess I’m thinking more holistically. Gaming is often seen still as a visual medium, but you’ll know that the physical set up was part of the fun/not fun.
I suspect you might remember man parties and lugging gear around just to play with friends. In theory it wasn’t exactly easy, but somehow still enjoyable for it.
scrion@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Sorry, tactile response from a CRT?
adam_y@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yeah, when you turned them on they frequently had push buttons with satisfying resistance and a click.
As an object they had their own tactility, often solid and heavy (as opposed to the sort of articulated physicality of most modern monitors). You could often feel the static electricity across the glass.
They even had their own sounds. The hum of warming up, the whine and clunk of being turned off.
When we talk about nostalgia it’s often the sensations adjacent to the activity that we are talking about.
Jesus_666@lemmy.world 3 months ago
You forgot the degaussing sound for those screens that had that feature.
*KLONK*
SolOrion@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
I remember I had a CRT as a kid that had the deepest button press to turn on. It felt like it was a whole 3 inches of travel- realistically I’m just remembering it like that cuz I was 8- but that was the best button. You could feel it actuate at the end, and even hear it. And CRTs had a presence about them. In hindsight, I was probably just hearing the whine and didn’t realize it.
Idk CRTs had their own vibe. Objectively, the crazy resolutions and crisp screens we have todays are better but in some less definable ways they feel lesser.
scrion@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Oh, I did grow up before video games were a thing, so I am aware of how CRTs worked. You just made it sound like CRTs would somehow provide tactile feedback while gaming, which I couldn’t place at all, given the context.
adam_y@lemmy.world 3 months ago
That makes a lot of sense.
As far as I’m aware, if your TV did start to provide feedback as you played you were in for a bad time.
I guess I’m thinking more holistically. Gaming is often seen still as a visual medium, but you’ll know that the physical set up was part of the fun/not fun.
I suspect you might remember man parties and lugging gear around just to play with friends. In theory it wasn’t exactly easy, but somehow still enjoyable for it.
adam_y@lemmy.world 3 months ago
And I forgot the smell and the heat too. That warm ozone thing a lot of them had going on.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 3 months ago
not to mention how you’d have to hit them to get them to work half the time. upper left corner.