A Television Simulator
In today’s world of huge, sharp LCD monitors, it’s hard to remember what a videogame image looked like on an ordinary television of the late 1970s. Emulators like Stella make it possible to play Atari games on modern computers, serving the function of archival tool, development platform, and player for these original games. But unfortunately, they also give an inaccurate impression of what Atari games looked like on a television.
An Atari game played on a television would exhibit a number of visual characteristics that cannot be seen on an LCD display: texture, … afterimage, … color bleed, … noise.
This dedication to recreating the past with all its flaws is truly touching. It’s also interesting to see how programmers used these imperfections for the better, so that some games actually look better on an emulated, flawed tv screen than on today’s crisp LCDs. (via)
