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[ Dexter345's blog ]

Atari emulator mod developed to make games look like they used to
Dexter345 \| 6:26 PM on 05.05.2009	6 comments

A group of students at Georgia Tech were apparently dissatisfied with the way Atari games look when played on current LCD displays. While the ROMs are still available for download around the dark reaches of the Internet, they believe that a lot of what made the Atari graphics special back in the day could be attributed to the CRT televisions they were played on, and the shoddy RF adapters used to get the signal to the display.

These students developed add-on software for Atari emulation that supposedly replicates some of the artifacts that would have occurred with this more traditional setup. These include texture, afterimage, color bleed, and noise. Above, you can see the difference where the left half of the screen has the filters applied, while the right half does not.

Personally, I don't foster any sort of nostalgia for how Atari games looked, so I actually prefer the crisper right half of the image to the more washed out left half. Still, it is apparently more authentic to the original experience, and it's neat that they've done this.

What do you think, would you prefer a more accurate representation of how we used to game, or do you feel like now that we have better visual technology, we should embrace it?

[via Science Daily, picture courtesy of Georgia Tech]

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6 comments | showing # 1 to 6

HarassmentPanda says:
(# 0) on 05/05/2009 18:55

SCIENCE!! HAHA, nice find. I think I'll stick to the crisp images.

DaedHead8 says:
(# 1) on 05/05/2009 18:59

I too like the crisper image on the right but thats still pretty cool that they did that.

Holyetheline says:
(# 2) on 05/05/2009 19:19

Embrace the crispness!!!

Rifter01 says:
(# 3) on 05/05/2009 19:56

Nice post. I don't like Pac-Man for the 2600, (about the only game I won't play) but otherwise I would play 2600 games on CRT or LCD, either way.

Interlaced, or not.. Bilinear filtered (in emu), or not, the picture usually will look the same on TV's less than 25". On TV's around 25" or above, the scanlines on non-interlaced games (like they were presented originally) are more noticeable, and I don't like playing as much.

The real sad panda (in me) is that my collecting of old consoles is now halted due to both of my CRT TV's acting like they're ready to bite the dust. I won't get another CRT prolly. So, for now, I have an Atari 2600 connected to the smaller TV, and the larger CRT TV I use for everything last gen, up to Wii & occasionally Xbox 360.

I _don't_ want to discourage anyone from getting any old console they find a good deal on, yet, how will you play it in the future? (Like, in the next few years?) What are you going to hook it up to if (and when) your CRT's fail on you, (and all you have left is LCD's or Digital TV's)?

Plain composite (RCA video) looks pretty dim and blurry on digital devices, and screens to me.

I have an LCD, flatscreen, widescreen... And gaming older games is O.K. and all... However, my recently found Atari 2600 and my newly acquired RF-plug is in no way compatible with LCD. I think that what the students did is a great idea. Strangely, in some ways, older games, (incl. arcade games) look better/"crisper" on CRT than LCD. On LCD things tend to have a slight blur (esp. with motion) compared to plain ol' CRT or TV's.

Sorry for the long comment. Last thing I'd like to add is someone said that these older games and systems do need to be saved (and emulated) since there aren't any service options anymore, nor replacement parts. So no more guilt or feeling bad about having emu for older game systems and titles.

welkstar says:
(# 4) on 05/05/2009 22:03

The point of this emulator was the color bleed and motion blur. Later in the 2600 development cycle, programmers used tricks inherent to the CRT monitor to create effects (like smoother gradients) with only a few colors. Because they bled together, you could get a fancy sunset with 3 colors.

Narishma says:
(# 5) on 05/06/2009 10:52

Welkstar: Games on other SD consoles also used those tricks, and that's why when you play a PS2 or PS1 or even Wii game on an HDTV it looks like crap.

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