Friend, as a fellow gaming and electronics enthusiast, you may have wondered why serious Super Smash Bros. players insist on using old CRT (cathode ray tube) televisions instead of modern HD displays. As someone who has researched display technology extensively, let me walk you through the key reasons why CRT TVs remain the gold standard for competitive Smash Bros. play.
Minimal Input Lag is Crucial
The most crucial advantage of CRTs is that they have virtually zero input lag. This means the time between pressing a button on your controller and seeing the corresponding action happen on screen is instantaneous. Modern HDTVs have an average input lag of 50-100 milliseconds – not a huge delay for casual gaming, but critical in a fast-paced competitive game like Smash where reflexes and timing make all the difference. CRTs give players the split-second responsiveness needed to reliably pull off intricate moves and react to opponents.
To illustrate why lag matters so much, consider that at 60 frames per second, each frame lasts just 16.67 milliseconds. So a 100 millisecond delay means you‘d be seeing the results of your inputs over 6 frames later! When matches can be decided in the blink of an eye, CRT‘s lag-free gameplay provides a marked competitive edge.
No Scaling or Latency from Upscaling
Since CRT displays use an analog signal, they can cleanly show the native 240p resolution of older consoles like the Nintendo 64 and GameCube without any digital processing required. However, modern HDTVs have to upscale the much lower resolutions of these retro systems to today‘s 1080p and 4K standards. All that complex upscaling and processing introduces lag – often in the range of 1-2 frames.
By perfectly preserving the original unscaled source resolution, CRTs eliminate an entire layer of display latency. Every millisecond matters when you‘re trying to precisely space an aerial attack!
Superior Motion Clarity and Resolution
The fast phosphor decay rates in CRT screens provide outstanding motion clarity with minimal blurring compared to LCD displays. This blur-free crispness makes fast animations and movement much easier to see and react to.
Modern LCDs exhibit more motion blur and image persistence due to the sample-and-hold effect – instead of fading quickly like a CRT phosphor, each LCD pixel remains illuminated for the entire duration between refreshes. This leaves fast-moving objects blurred and obscured.
Additionally, CRT displays are not bound to a fixed pixel grid like LCDs. Instead they can display smooth gradients and angles unaffected by stairstep artifacts. This leads to CRTs rendering motion more accurately and sharply than the discrete pixel structure of digital displays.
Vibrant, Defined Graphics
The scanlines and phosphor effects of CRT displays, coupled with their high contrast and color depth, give retro game graphics and animations a vibrant, defined quality. Game elements stand out clearly against the background. On LCD displays, the smoothly filtered graphics tend to look less distinct with more subtle detail getting lost.
It is no coincidence that pixel art and retro graphics look their best on CRT displays. The original developers worked extensively with CRT reference monitors to optimize the graphics. So a CRT provides the most authentic experience the game artists intended.
Precision Analog Input Support
Since CRTs utilize analog inputs, they allow precise use of original analog controllers and peripherals – like light guns – that cannot function properly on modern digital displays with their higher latency and all-digital signal chains. This preserves the ability to play quick-reaction gameplay like Duck Hunt as originally designed.
Many third-party controllers and adapters designed for tournament play also rely on analog inputs or low-latency protocols only CRTs support. This analog preservation is yet another factor that keeps competitive players using CRTs today.
Advanced Display Calibration and Control
For serious players, professional CRT monitors like the Sony PVM and BVM series offer even faster response times along with extensive calibration options to dial in colors, brightness, contrast, and geometry perfectly. This is preferred for tournament and competitive play where every nuance matters.
Even consumer CRT sets allow granular tweaks to display settings like aspect ratio, overscan, and resolution filtering. This extensive customization lets players optimize gameplay precision and experience in a way just not possible on modern fixed-function HDTVs.
Developed and Tested for CRTs
We should remember that iconic games like the original Super Smash Bros were developed in an era when CRT monitors were still the norm for both game development and play. These games were optimized for and tested extensively on CRTs usually running at 60Hz.
Playing on a CRT provides the native experience developers intended – from character motions to gameplay timing to effects like screen shakes. Game engines were designed around the CRT‘s consistent scanout and timing. So CRTs bring an authenticity to these retro experiences.
Tournament Standard for Consistency
If you follow the professional Smash tournament scene, you‘ll notice all championship events continue to use CRTs connected to GameCubes or Wiis. That‘s because CRTs provide consistently ideal conditions all competitors are accustomed to. Attempting to play on modern displays with higher latency would fundamentally alter the timing and feel of gameplay in a way that could determine match outcomes.
With so much money and reputation on the line, it makes sense that major tournaments standardize on proven CRT display technology to create a level playing field. For the foreseeable future, CRTs will remain the competitive display choice.
Preserving Muscle Memory and Reflexes
We should also consider that today‘s top Smash players have spent countless hours over many years honing their complex muscle memory and reflexes on CRT displays. The nuanced techniques and split-second reactions they‘ve mastered are tied to the precise timings and visual feedback CRTs provide.
Suddenly competing on displays with different display lag and response could severely impact the hard-earned skills these pros rely on. So sticking with CRTs minimizes disruption to years of practice and real match experience.
Technical Origins and Evolution of CRT Gaming
Of course, CRT display technology itself evolved considerably in response to gaming needs prior to Smash Bros. cutting-edge arcade games in the late 70s already pushed the limits of early TVs and monitors. This drove rapid improvements in phosphor persistence, pixel response, and refresh rates.
The debut of the Sony Trinitron in the late 1960s introduced aperture grille CRTs which eventually dominated arcades and home gaming thanks to their brighter images and minimized bloom effects. Later professional monitors extended refresh rates to 100Hz and beyond – key for precision gameplay.
So in a sense, CRT tech and gaming grew up and influenced each other in a feedback loop for decades. The CRTs used today for retro gaming represent the pinnacle of this long co-evolution.
Preserving the Technology and Knowledge
Given the superior gameplay experience CRTs provide, the Smash community and retro gaming world at large is working hard to preserve CRT technology itself along with the specialized knowledge needed to maintain and properly set up these displays.
From collectors stockpiling old systems and CRTs to enthusiasts developing specialized upscalers and scan converters, the effort required to continue using this antique tech is considerable! But it speaks to the CRT‘s uniquely compelling gaming qualities.
I hope this guide has helped shed light on why CRTs still reign for serious Smash players. Let me know if you have any other CRT gaming questions! Game on.
