Why Did Old Games Look Better on CRT TVs? A TINDZINE Editor Solves the Mystery with Dithering and Scanlines

When Square Enix remastered "Final Fantasy Tactics," it removed the original's dithering effect from "Classic Mode." The decision sounds like an art-direction trade-off, but it's actually a matter of physics: dithering, the old technique of creating checkerboard-pattern noise between color blocks to simulate color gradients, only works properly when displayed on a phosphor-coated CRT screen. Move it to an LCD or OLED, and it's just a bunch of noise that looks like dirt. TINDZINE editor Igor Bonifacic cites this example in his piece to make a point: those prettier old game visuals you remember aren't some filter-induced nostalgic illusion—they're a real gap created by a generational shift in display technology.

The issue comes down to how CRT (cathode ray tube) TVs form images, which operates on completely different logic from modern panels. Bonifacic explains that inside a CRT are one or more electron guns that scan across a phosphor coating on the front of the screen, drawing each horizontal "scanline" of an image from left to right, top to bottom—fast enough that the human eye can't perceive it being drawn in stages. LCD and OLED panels, on the other hand, use "sample-and-hold": the entire frame is drawn and then held static until the next refresh. This difference meant CRTs delivered far clearer motion than LCDs for a long stretch of time, until high-refresh-rate panels finally caught up in recent years. The article uses "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" as an example—its frame rate dipped as low as 20FPS and was inconsistent, yet playing it as a kid didn't feel that choppy, and the key reason lies in how CRTs handle motion.

240p and 480i: Two Resolutions You've Probably Never Heard of But Play Every Day

CRTs don't have a fixed native resolution like modern panels do, so they can render all sorts of images directly without the blurring commonly seen on LCDs running at non-native resolutions. The article points out that before the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 generation, home consoles almost always locked onto one of two standard-definition resolutions: 240p and 480i. The "i" in 480i stands for interlaced—the TV would draw all the odd-numbered lines first, then go back and fill in the even-numbered lines, a bandwidth-saving method from the era of limited data throughput, with the side effect of that characteristic CRT flicker. The "p" in 240p stands for progressive—drawn top to bottom in one pass with no flicker, and the preferred resolution for most consoles before the PS2/GameCube generation. But on a standard-definition CRT displaying 240p, the even-numbered lines are actually left black; many people mistake these black lines for "scanlines," which isn't strictly accurate, but it's precisely the source of that distinctive look when pixel art meets CRT.

Why Modern TVs Can't Bring This Look Back

Bonifacic points out several fatal flaws in modern TVs: most LCD and OLED TVs have pretty basic analog inputs, and even with composite connectors, the signal itself is prone to picking up noise. Even worse is "deinterlacing"—the TV has to use software to convert 480i to 480p before it can display it, and this process introduces input lag. Many TVs even misidentify 240p as 480i and deinterlace it anyway, resulting in artifacts like motion blur. All of this happens before the TV even stretches the 480p image up to 1080p or 4K—the article states bluntly that unless you use a dedicated signal upscaler like the RetroTink 4K, forcing 240p up to 4K just isn't going to look good. The piece also includes side-by-side comparisons from CRT Pixels (@crtpixels.bsky.social) on Bluesky—1995's "Chrono Trigger" by Squaresoft output via composite on a Sony KV-14M10, and 1997's "Final Fantasy Tactics" displayed on a Sony KV-27S43—both directly comparing PC emulator footage against real CRT hardware output.

There are also titles like "Silent Hill 2" and "Doom 3," which Bonifacic notes look washed out on any screen besides CRT or OLED—a result of LCD panels' long-standing reliance on backlighting, which couldn't achieve sufficiently deep black levels until local dimming technology emerged in recent years.

So should you actually go buy a CRT? Bonifacic's answer is refreshingly honest: he himself owns a Sony KV-9PT50 and still believes CRT is the best way to experience retro games, but he doesn't recommend that people actually go out and buy one. These TVs are heavy, noisy, difficult and even risky to repair, and sellers who know the market have already priced the slightly more desirable models out of reach for most people. Instead, he recommends new hardware like the Analogue 3D, or the CRT filters built into many emulators today, which can already replicate over 90% of the effect—though he adds that if you're still determined to go dig one up on Facebook Marketplace, he won't stop you either.