There is no “supposed to look”. There are many variations of displays, and not all versions of the SNES were the same. Not all CRTs are the same, either. Not all development environments looked anything like an actual SNES–they may have used very sharp computer monitors.
It’s entirely subjective, usually based on whatever you personally grew up with.
shinratdr@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
This isn’t an HDMI mod that pulls from digital signal and outputs to digital, or an RGB mod that bypasses the analogue hardware.
It’s a mod that corrects poor image in some specific models of SNES to bring them to the standard of other models of SNES. Details here: www.retrorgb.com/snesversioncompare.html
I understand what you’re getting at because it’s a common refrain, but the fact that some models of SNES do not exhibit this behaviour strongly indicates it was not how it was supposed to look, and is caused by poor manufacturing tolerances and/or aging caps.
Not all degraded video quality was the intended vision for the device, unless your argument is that a fraying composite cable that you have to jiggle around and a controller with a broken “R” button is also core to the experience. That may have been YOUR experience as a kid, that doesn’t make it the intended vision of the creators.
It’s a fine line, but this falls on the side of early manufacturing errors and not intention.