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- By John Hancock, from issue #4 (April 2008)
Over the recent years, there have been many radical changes in electronic technology. 25 years ago, hooking up and playing video game consoles was pretty straightforward. In general, you would plug in a wall ac adaptor, screw in the RF modulator, turn your TV set to channel 3, and poof! There would be your video game setup. Things were easy. Hooking up video game consoles was easy. For the most part, it did not matter what console you had (Atari, Intellivision, or Colecovision), they all hooked up the same.
Let’s fast forward to the current times. The very device that we have hooked up to play countless video games is going through a revolution. No longer are we restricted to low resolution TV sets. High Definition TV sets (HDTVs) are quickly becoming the current standard model being sold. Current video game consoles now support this new “super television”. With graphics being more intense, TV resolution is ever so much more important.
Is everyone happy? You may think that this is great for video games abroad. Who wouldn’t want a 50 inch HDTV for some gaming goodness? The answer is simple: HDTV sets are great for CURRENT video game consoles. I unfortunately found out the hard way…by experiencing it myself. I recently bought an LCD 26’’ HDTV for my own game room. Happily, I wanted to share my prized new television set with many of my video game consoles. I hooked up my Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and 3DO to my new HDTV. Expecting a sharp resolution picture, I was in shock when I saw the game screens…the picture looked AWFUL. I even went out of my way to have s-video cables for each system! Aside from not having the greatest picture, seeing the classic consoles in motion was also a disappointment. I noticed some “ghosting” of movement with some of the moving characters. To make sure that it wasn’t my TV set, I hooked up some modern game systems to the TV set. I played several games on my Xbox 360 on the TV and it was excellent in both picture and sound. Sadly, I disconnected my classic consoles and hooked them back up to my standard 19 inch flat screen TV.
The question is….why do old video game consoles looking so bad on an HDTV? The truth of the matter is that HDTVs project an image in HIGH DEFINATION, meaning that every pixel and sprite is in a higher resolution. Also there is the widescreen presentation issue. Almost all video game consoles before the Playstation 2 will present the game screen with “black bars” on the sides of the screen on an HDTV. This can be countered on many of the TV sets by “stretching” the image onto the HDTV. This often makes the image look worse and out of proportion.
The bottom line is that classic consoles (pre PS2) will look better on regular TV sets. Before too long, it will become a little harder to find old standard TV sets in decent shape. I recommend any classic gamer to keep one around for your classic consoles. Here are also some tips to get the best picture for classic consoles on your standard TV sets.
1. Make sure that you have the best connection possible supported by your TV set and game console.
2. Game connections can be confusing, but it goes like this. Component video (Teal, Purple, and Red) are the best, followed by S-video (red, white, black). Thirdly there is the standard AV cable (red, white, yellow) followed by the ultimate classic way of hooking up…RF(cable port).
3. Many consoles support s-video cables without modding(SNES, N64, Saturn, Dreamcast, 3DO, Playstation). These cables can easily be bought off the internet. If your TV supports it, this will greatly improve your video game picture.
4. A bigger TV set does not mean a better picture. In fact, a bigger TV usually makes the TV picture worse. I recommend a standard 19” TV set for anything Playstation and before. Obviously for multiplayer and split screen playing on a bigger TV might be needed.
5. Do you like playing vintage? When hooking up vintage consoles (2600, Intellivision, Colecovision) through RF signal, sometimes using an amplified RF modulator will help boost the signal to your TV. This also can reduce the “snow” or fuzziness that sometimes can be seen. Another recommendation is to set the channel to 2 instead of 3.
6. Is the cable from your game system to your TV broken? Taped? Wires exposed? Just by replacing this piece of hardware, you can possibly see a much more improved picture.
For the hardcore, you might want to get your classic console modded with options to output a higher resolution. These can be found with a little searching online. Everything from an Atari to Sega Genesis can be modded to S-video out. While the picture does look far superior, these services are often expensive (sometimes in the $70 to $100 for a professional job). Wasn’t the reason to collect old game consoles was that it was cheap?
