Given this site’s retro gaming remit, it’s fair to assume that most of you reading this will have played a video game on an old-school CRT or PVM and will be aware of the subtle but important differences between them and modern-day LCD and OLED screens.
Developers making games in the ’80s and ’90s were keenly aware of the unique properties of CRT screens, and would use these properties to create unique effects which, when viewed on modern TVs, are sadly absent.
In the case of the Genesis / Mega Drive, which lacked the ability to make objects transparent, special tricks were deployed to give the impression of transparency when viewed on a CRT television. It’s possible to get modern emulators to replicate this using filters, as indie developer @aisunina has recently discovered with Sonic the Hedgehog’s mesmerising waterfalls:
This discovery has prompted a wave of reaction from retro gamers, with many claiming that the filter used in this particular example is too aggressive and that the rainbow effect – whilst present – isn’t as pronounced:
Others have taken this a step further and claimed that the rainbow effect isn’t present, at least not to them.
What we potentially have here is an example of how each CRT TV back in the day offered a different experience for the user, and what a game looked like on one TV set wouldn’t necessarily be the same as on a TV from another brand.
Also, you need to take into account the type of connection being used; we had RF, S-Video, SCART and Composite available to us back in the ’90s, and each would display the image in a slightly different way.
Finally, there’s always the fact that memories have a funny habit of being wrong, especially after a few decades have passed.
Do you recall seeing rainbows in Sonic’s waterfalls back in the day? Let us know by voting in the poll below.
Go on.... treat yourself to a new game.
