Will new technology kill your old games?

[ThunderPrince]

This has been on my mind for a while now. Ever since I got my Genesis back in my room where it belongs everything seemed fine and dandy. The picture was a little fuzzy, the audio not quite so crisp. I had gotten a few new games (about 10-ish), I was living it up in my own retro playground....

....then we got an HD television.

I have heard that playing older consoles on HDTVs will cause input lag. This alarmed me so I did some research, the TV we own is a 1080p set. Older consoles like the Genesis, SNES, pretty much anything without HD options displays in a standard 480i/240p resolution. Normal TV sets can handle this with no problem. Everything changes when you go higher though. Because the HDTV displays in a higher resolution it takes more time to scale the resolution of the console into an HD signal, which means that button input will be off, either by 1/10th of a second to 1/4 of a second if it's really bad. If you are like me and love fighters and shmups then that can make a world of difference.
Sure you can buy a special adaptor to help speed it up which can be expensive, or some TVs have a "game mode" option. But from what I am told this cannot totally eliminate lag, only shorten it.


Which brings me to the point of what I am trying to say. As technology advances will we be forced to abandon our beloved retro consoles? Or will HD technology advance to the point where such resolution problems will not affect gameplay?
The way I see it, is if television advances further to the point where severe video lag is inevitable I would use console emulation, while I would hate to put my old Sega and SNES into storage what better way to play your classic games than on a machine that can display in higher definitions!


Well I hope this message made you wonder about how the technology of today will affect the technology of previous generations.

btw. if my facts are totally wrong be sure to correct me.

[molotovwars]

If retro games are important to you, just keep an older television around. An old television doesn't mean its a piece of shit. I don't plan on buying an HDTV for a very long time (maybe never), just because I never watch that much television and my DVDs look fine on a regular TV. I don't have any of the new consoles and am just playing my older stuff, so for me I don't see the need to get a new TV when I can play the games I enjoy on what I already have.

In case that seemed off topic, I don't think new technology will kill my old games because I'll still be using that old technology.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Eh i never see a problem other than pixelation on my HDTV, sure ive got the standard def, but im lazy and dont like switching tvs

[bobbynewmarkiii]

i love the illustrations to your post. more people should do this..

[Jrecee]

I replied to this. Where the #$^@#^ is my post?

[bobbynewmarkiii]

^^^ there it is, kinda like one of MC Escher's paintings...

[elvis]

Just like today you can be a retro gamer by either using old original equipment, or modern equipment via emulation, the same will happen with display devices.

Contrary to popular belief, CRT TVs aren't going anywhere. They're still being punched out at an enormous rate of knots by Chinese factories. Until LCD and Plasma TVs can deliver a 21" TV for $99, that's not going to change.

There are still people around who specialise in CRT repairs and maintenance. In Perth, Western Australia is a company called Jomac:
http://www.jomac.net.au/

Jomac specialise in CRT repairs, but they also make and sell RGB chassis (the controller board for a CRT). What's so great about that? Well, you can take any old CRT tube (insert usual warning about playing with 30,000 volts inside CRTs) from any old crappy TV or monitor, take a few resistance readings off it, send them to Joe and his crew, and they'll supply you with a matching chassis. For far less than the cost of a new TV, you can turn an old TV into a crisp RGB display monitor. Mod your console for RGB out (or just hack a RGB/SCART cable), and you're back in low def retro console goodness. I've done this to an ancient 21" woodgrain-case TV I had lying around, and the result was amazing.

It's already accepted now that to play old console games you need to buy (and often restore) old consoles, controllers, cables, and other equipment. We're just adding display devices to that list now. No need to panic, as the retro gaming community and specialist hardware folks like Jomac will be here for some time to cater to those needs.

[Jrecee]

Interesting. Here in the U.S. crt tvs are becoming hard to find. Even when you go into wal-mart all they've got is lcds. You can find a couple for sale online but places like Best Buy and Circuit City have also completely wiped out their stock of crts. Just started happening en masse in the last 6 months or so. I don't know how HD content is catching up in Australia or everywhere else but we've got the whole dtv transition happening in febuary and they're really pushing new tvs on everyone, "Get a new tv now!. . . or you can buy one of these converter boxes if you refuse to submit to new technology you old fart"

[RemyC]

In canada CRTs are tricky to find. Ive noticed a lot of crappy LCD's and Plasmas coming onto the market for a few hundred. They look terrible, but people buy them, cause theyre labeled 'High-Def'

[molotovwars]

I think they're being kind of deceptive about the whole "get a converter box or else your TV won't work" - I first heard that and that was my worry, but its simply that you won't be able to get television channels with an antenna. I have cable anyways, so that is not an issue, as I thought many people did. Even then I'd imagine that most people who watch television have cable. I don't watch television much, so once I'm in my own place I won't be paying for it, but my televisions will still function, although they're making it out that they won't any longer, which in the US, is helping push things into all lcd and plasma televisions