Atari Branded CRT televisions

[Riko]

This will sound absolutely ludicrous and unlikely profitable ( getting the infrastructure to do this would be rough as well ) ; though having an Atari branded CRT TVs specifically made to play older games in their native 240/480p resolution would be kinda cool.

 

Am prepared to hear why this is never going to happened and how impractical this is, though sounds hecking cool to me! 😄 

Edited October 30 by Riko

[Razzie.P]

That would be cool, but in reality, we'd just get a LCD with emulated CRT stuff on it to pretend it's the same while playing slightly worse.  😕

 

But I'd love to see CRTs readily available again and Atari logo would just be an extra bit of awesome, even if not needed.

[jhd]

 

Are CRTs even still being manufactured anywhere? I recall that this is an issue for older arcade games -- the hardware is now unobtanium.

 

As an alternative, someone could buy up old CRT TVs and apply an Atari stickler over the original label. This may increase the resale value marginally.  

[Crazy Climber]

26 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

Are CRTs even still being manufactured anywhere? I recall that this is an issue for older arcade games -- the hardware is now unobtanium.

 

As an alternative, someone could buy up old CRT TVs and apply an Atari stickler over the original label. This may increase the resale value marginally.  

Most of the parts (chassis/etc) are available so you can repair them, but a full on NEW drop in replacement monitor is long gone haha

 

Smaller name brand (COLOR!) CRT's are getting pretty hard to find...especially the cool woodgrain ones

[Lost Monkey]

48 minutes ago, Crazy Climber said:

Most of the parts (chassis/etc) are available so you can repair them, but a full on NEW drop in replacement monitor is long gone haha

 

Smaller name brand (COLOR!) CRT's are getting pretty hard to find...especially the cool woodgrain ones

It doesn't help that a lot of thrift stores in the early 2000's stopped accepting them.  Around here Value Village wouldn't put them out.  They would cut the cord off and send them to the dump.

[HatefulGravey]

I bought the CRT I have at a local auction a few years ago. I wanted something with a lot of inputs and a good size, totally forgetting those things are heavy as hell. 

 

If someone started to make them again the price would be out of this world. There just isn't much demand. To make it worth their time they would have to charge a ton.

[+pboland]

It would be very impractical today. The best that could be done is an emulated CRT screen that was really a LCD screen and it would most likely only be about 12 inch in size to keep the cost down.

 

I've seen where some people have put a lens (made of epoxy) over an LCD and it did look pretty damn close to a CRT. I'm sure you could also use a print of some kind (under the lens) to emulate scan lines. Again this would be used to keep costs down. Yes, I know you can emulate scan lines, but cost wise it's much easier to use a printed film/transparency.

[Flyindrew]

Ill stick with the Atari themed barbeque sauces 😄

[Riko]

The amount of people, and even folks far younger then me find tube tv's kinda fascinating since most under 20 haven't really grown up with them; finding used ones is progressively getting harder to find and there will come a point where they will be effectively extinct. 

 

I actually did some rather loose number crunching and to get the infrastructure to actually produce these, the skill and training to do it, parts, and production; and assuming you maybe only produce two sizes  ( small , med ) you would be looking at well over a million - 5 million just to get that ship going again and the tubes would have to be sold at least between 350 - 800 to make it viable.

 

Needless to say, whoever decides to pick up the torch and make these again for vintage or retro purposes would essentially have a monopoly on it overnight.

[zzip]

There was a brand of CRT TVs that had a logo that was similar to the Atari Fuji Logo.   I think it was Quasar?  Or Sylvania?    I can't find examples of the logo online though.

[davidcalgary29]

I did see one or two Atari-branded A8 monitors around the Toronto area in the 80s at shows and such. I believe that Atari did try the idea as a promo, hoping that it they could produce the next Commodore 1702, but I don't think it was economically feasible for them. The last one that I saw on eBay went for more than a thousand dollars, and I don't even know if it was in working conditions.

[+Stephen]

1 hour ago, zzip said:

There was a brand of CRT TVs that had a logo that was similar to the Atari Fuji Logo.   I think it was Quasar?  Or Sylvania?    I can't find examples of the logo online though.

It was Quasar:

[youxia]

5 hours ago, HatefulGravey said:

 There just isn't much demand.

You'd be surprised. As for price, well, in this hobby people pay crazy money for things I'd never consider viable, like couple hundred for a replica keyboard, etc. The latest retro-styled 4:3 IPS monitor from Checkmate costs well over 500$ with assorted modules and is sold out in advance.

 

The biggest issue is the tube. Everything else can be easily replicated (there are even open source universal CRT schematics on github) but nobody has the means to make the glass. Otherwise, China would have covered this part of retro market long time ago. And they are indeed bulky, heavy, and fragile, so shipping costs add to the logistic headache.

 

I guess in a hundred years or so there will be a Universal Nano Printer capable of replicating anything, the question is will anybody be interested.

[+Zeptari]

As someone that's been gaming for over 40+ years I don't get the fascination and desire for the gotta have a CRT with older consoles. As a child with a VCS I would have loved some of the modern 4:3 flatscreen displays with a AV modded 2600.

 

 

This is the one I use with my 7800 and 7800GD. It's awesome! Picture is for reference only.

[Riko]

21 minutes ago, Zeptari said:

As someone that's been gaming for over 40+ years I don't get the fascination and desire for the gotta have a CRT with older consoles. As a child with a VCS I would have loved some of the modern 4:3 flatscreen displays with a AV modded 2600.

 

 

This is the one I use with my 7800 and 7800GD. It's awesome! Picture is for reference only.

 

I guess for me personally it really depends on the circumstance. I can say with much experience that specifically using them to play games ( More so the 16-bit era and perhaps c64 era games) has a drastic improvement on the colors and how they blend together and move, it's a night and day different in some instances though that really does depend just how the sprites scenery and overall games were designed, some cases it can look more or less the same as it would on a modern display.

Most also don't want to have a huge 30lbs 100lbs tube on their table which is very valid since they take up a ton of space and the instances where stuff can look better is not always worth the trade off.

 

Really does depend overall though i guess for most having a huge giant box on your desk is not that desirable when you can settle for a smaller more reasonable display that looks good enough in a lot of cases.

 

 

Edited November 1 by Riko

[+Stephen]

99% of LCD TVs look like pure ass with the old consoles (old being anything pre-XBox 360 / PS2).  Even with my 1st gen modded XBox, running XBMC, nothing looks better than my 20" Sony PVM CRT.  480p video looks HD.  It's not just about still images either, but objects in motion.

 

To this day I have not seen a non-CRT screen that is able to show games such as River Raid and look as nice, without any ghosting.

 

For those of us that grew up with Pong and 2600 as our first consoles in the 70s, the CRT experience on said consoles cannot be duplicated.

[Riko]

1 hour ago, Stephen said:

99% of LCD TVs look like pure ass with the old consoles (old being anything pre-XBox 360 / PS2).  Even with my 1st gen modded XBox, running XBMC, nothing looks better than my 20" Sony PVM CRT.  480p video looks HD.  It's not just about still images either, but objects in motion.

 

To this day I have not seen a non-CRT screen that is able to show games such as River Raid and look as nice, without any ghosting.

 

For those of us that grew up with Pong and 2600 as our first consoles in the 70s, the CRT experience on said consoles cannot be duplicated.

So pretty in the dark too.

[ukiha]

Environmental regulations mean consumer CRT televisions are illegal to produce

[jhd]

1 hour ago, ukiha said:

Environmental regulations mean consumer CRT televisions are illegal to produce

 

I assume that this is in the United States.

 

What about manufacturing CRTs in a jurisdiction with less stringent environmental regulations and importing them. 

[Lost Monkey]

18 minutes ago, jhd said:

 

I assume that this is in the United States.

 

What about manufacturing CRTs in a jurisdiction with less stringent environmental regulations and importing them. 

Just wait a few months.

[Mockduck]

The amount of money I would pay for an Atari TV that took its design nods from the Kuba Komet is ridiculous.

[ukiha]

10 hours ago, jhd said:

 

I assume that this is in the United States.

 

What about manufacturing CRTs in a jurisdiction with less stringent environmental regulations and importing them. 

I think it was pretty globally agreed upon, the final ones were in the early 2010s in India I believe

[leech]

https://rsscloud.org/when-was-the-last-crt-tv-made/

Pretty nuts that their conclusion was, 'it's hard to pinpoint exactly when the last was made'  Since the 2015 ones were made from recycled parts.

[livingonwheels]

I had pre ordered one of these sets a couple years ago and will be receiving it shortly. I know it's not an actual CRT, but it has connections for everything from RF to HDMI and everything in between. It is being made specifically for retro systems.

Edited November 7 by livingonwheels

[Video]

That's actually pretty cool, I think the problem with LCD isn't actually the panel, but rather the crappy (or no) tuner.

 

Granted a CRT simply looks different, in stills or action, and most pre 2k systems simply look better on CRT. I love the look of CRT, especially for older games, but I'd sure not want to go back to giant heavy CRT. Still, I think there's definitely still a market for smaller sets, like 19" or so.

 

I remember them being fazed out with "environmental" as part of the reason, but not sure what that was, the tube is a glass bubble, granted filled with (???) For the mask, and phosphorus stuff. No idea what that's made of or how toxic it may be, but outside the tube, tv's have essentially the same things a modern display does.

 

Honestly, A good repair service would be much appreciated, the tube is the only real problem part, the rest should technically be repairable or replaceable. Of course, still not cheap, but its about preservation, and keeping whatever is toxic about it out of dumps, plus their still the best for old media options, old games, older format video, I'm fine with buying modern replacement when possible, but there are plenty of obscure titles, or even popular common stuff that likely will never make the leap to modern.