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Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

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Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#61

Post by rbanffy »

john-waterwood wrote: post #23
kubiiii wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better resolution and frames per second than modern games :)

Like a plotter, effectively infinite resolution (not really infinite because of the phosphor elements being finite, but still). The limitation shifted elsewhere of course, and that's in the complexity of the scene, specifically the number of objects. Still, interesting tech and can even be adapted to control a laser unit that renders on say a big building or even the clouds (the real ones).

Playing Asteroids on a building would be kind of neat. Has anybody tried that?

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#62

Post by rbanffy »

thomasfl wrote: post #43

Someone™ posted an issue last july that this exquisite piece of software retro art did not compile on OS X. After a while someone™ actually managed to compile it on OSX, and the original author is working on a port, but until then we have to make do with the Cathode app. Only problem with the Cathode app is that it flickers more and more till you get an epileptic fit if you don't upgrade to the paid version.

Pay the Cathode guys. They really deserve your money.

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#63

Post by g047f4c3 »

teddyh wrote: post #20

See also “Phosphor”¹, a screen saver part of XScreenSaver², but also usable as a terminal : /usr/lib/xscreensaver/phosphor -scale 2 -delay 0 $SHELL ① http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ZWTrl7pV0 ② http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/

Also xscreensaver-data-extra,

  /usr/lib/xscreensaver/apple2 -text -fast -program $SHELL

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#64

Post by joezydeco »

john-waterwood wrote: post #23
kubiiii wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better resolution and frames per second than modern games :)

Like a plotter, effectively infinite resolution (not really infinite because of the phosphor elements being finite, but still). The limitation shifted elsewhere of course, and that's in the complexity of the scene, specifically the number of objects. Still, interesting tech and can even be adapted to control a laser unit that renders on say a big building or even the clouds (the real ones).

not really infinite because of the phosphor elements being finite

There are other limitations, such as beam deflection imprecision and precision/speed of the A/D converter and the size of the electron beam in relation to it's brightness. Tighten the beam focus to get more precision, but it will be way dimmer and harder for a player to see. Make the beam stronger to compensate and you'll burn a hole in the phosphor. Your costs also go up with the fancier parts and beefier power supply.

The Atari system settled on 1024 points of resolution on each axis (but clipped to 1024x768 for the 4:3 monitors used at the time). Still a lot more resolution than the low-res arcade monitors of the day, which were roughly CGA-class (around 320x240).

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#65

Post by outworlder »

Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #42
SG- wrote: post #4

Reminds of "Cathode" app for OSX: http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/ it seems they have an iOS version now too that lets you SSH to your servers. Also I believe the demo version would appear as tho the cathode screen was about to fail and get worse and worse.

Great, except not authentic. They forget that image on the screen, affects the image on the screen. So basically same dim image looks different than same bright image. Geometry often also changed when brightnes was changed. It's complex thing to receate authentic CRT. Also many emulations fail with phosphor decay in very obvious ways. So it's not being done in a correctly at all. This cathode project is good, but man…

Ooooh, a MSX. I guess you are not from the USA, then :)

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#66

Post by coolj »

peatmoss wrote: post #6

In a modern world where we backlight semiconductors to produce high dpi screens, it almost feels weird to think we used to fire electron guns towards our eyes. I was always partial to the amber screen. Has anyone recently played with an old Asteroids cabinet? The screen is a black and white CRT. When you fire a missile, the screen effect is insanely bright. I'd forgotten just how intense that was. I can't wait until…

Way back in the 90's my CRT monitor went out. Money was tight so I had to wait a couple of weeks before I could replace it. I went to a local computer repair shop (as in, actual repair, like replacing blown capacitors on mainboards and such) to see what I could get for cheap, as a stopgap. The guy had an old monochrome CRT he had repaired--the kind with green pixels--probably 6-7 years old at the time. He sold it to me for like 8 bucks. I figured I could at least use bitchx and links on it until I could get a new monitor. After a few hours in front of it, I started feeling really itchy, and the screen had enough static charge to raise the hairs on my forearm if I moved near it. Pretty sure it was shooting cancer directly into my face. Good times!

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#68

Post by joezydeco »

rbanffy wrote: post #61
john-waterwood wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like a plotter, effectively infinite resolution (not really infinite because of the phosphor elements being finite, but still). The limitation shifted elsewhere of course, and that's in the complexity of the scene, specifically the number of objects. Still, interesting tech and can even be adapted to control a laser unit that renders on say a big building or even the clouds (the real ones).

Playing Asteroids on a building would be kind of neat. Has anybody tried that?

Yup. There were some laser enthusiasts that connected their projection systems to MAME and created Laser MAME.

Laser galvo speed is a big factor in making it work effectively but there have been some great demos, like John Knoll (from ILM) playing Atari Star Wars on a theatre screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4REBVgm4Nc

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#69

Post by peatmoss »

coolj wrote: post #66
peatmoss wrote: post #6

In a modern world where we backlight semiconductors to produce high dpi screens, it almost feels weird to think we used to fire electron guns towards our eyes. I was always partial to the amber screen. Has anyone recently played with an old Asteroids cabinet? The screen is a black and white CRT. When you fire a missile, the screen effect is insanely bright. I'd forgotten just how intense that was. I can't wait until…

Way back in the 90's my CRT monitor went out. Money was tight so I had to wait a couple of weeks before I could replace it. I went to a local computer repair shop (as in, actual repair, like replacing blown capacitors on mainboards and such) to see what I could get for cheap, as a stopgap. The guy had an old monochrome CRT he had repaired--the kind with green pixels--probably 6-7 years old at the time. He sold it to…

> Pretty sure it was shooting cancer directly into my face.

I always assumed the metallic aftertaste I got after long coding sessions was unrelated.

Re: Cool-retro-term: A terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display

#70

Post by teh_klev »

Sami_Lehtinen wrote: post #42
SG- wrote: post #4

Reminds of "Cathode" app for OSX: http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/ it seems they have an iOS version now too that lets you SSH to your servers. Also I believe the demo version would appear as tho the cathode screen was about to fail and get worse and worse.

Great, except not authentic. They forget that image on the screen, affects the image on the screen. So basically same dim image looks different than same bright image. Geometry often also changed when brightnes was changed. It's complex thing to receate authentic CRT. Also many emulations fail with phosphor decay in very obvious ways. So it's not being done in a correctly at all. This cathode project is good, but man…

That Philips monitor, that's a blast from the past! My parents bought me one of those back in 1984 for my BBC micro. Then I had it hooked up as a second monitor on my Opus 286 PC that I bought when I started college in 1985 (1MB RAM, 12Mhz 286, 37.5MB RLL 3.5" disk) for C debugging. I was a bit fancy back then and had two video cards in my PC. The C compiler I used (pretty sure it was the Microsoft C V5 one) knew how to talk to a second video card.

I kept the Philips around for years and years then donated it somewhere along the way with a couple of CGA and EGA monitors I'd collected over the years.

Just a wee nitpick, that particular Philips monitor wasn't "colour" as such, it had amber phosphor instead of green or white. That said it was a really nice display, very crisp and sharp and a bargain at around 99 quid in the day.

Getting back on topic, the best displays (in their day) I ever used were the Data General Dasher 2 and D200's. Sadly the later Dashers (the model 20's with the cream and brown cases) shipped with crappier CRT's that would wobble when sat next to any switched mode power supply.

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