Reliving the Arcade: Making your own home arcade

[SanAndreasX]

Pemalite said:

HoloDust said:

Yeah, I was reading fairly recently about laser projectors/TVs and was wondering if that might be the answer in the future.

I've heard there was some new CRTs from China, but haven't figured out if it they were newly produced to meet retro gaming demands, or it was some old stock.

After scouring the net for some time, I found out that, apparently, to produce new CRTs it's not so much tech itself that is the problem, but the lack of people who know how to use it and assemble them.

There are a few small manufacturers that exist which make specialist CRT's for industrial and commercial purposes (Think Jets/Planes), but they tend to be extremely expensive as they cannot leverage scales of economies in order to bring costs down.

Larger tubes also tend to be bulky which compounds shipping/transport costs.

There is also the toxicity of their manufacturing as well requiring things like Lead, which require special permits/licenses depending on country/locality... And they often cost a pretty penny.

At one time, I had the largest size of CRT TV that was available to the public, a 36-inch Toshiba TV. This was around the time the Nintendo 64 launched, so I got to experience Super Mario 64 and Final Fantasy VII for the first time on a pretty good-sized screen. Moving that TV was absolutely awful and was a multi-person effort. On more than one occasion, me and my buddy got it up and down a flight of stairs.  I have no idea how much that TV weighed.

I now have a 65 inch Sony Bravia OLED screen. I can move that one pretty much by myself for short distances. 

So honestly, I'm content with leaving CRT technology in the past and to the enthusiasts who are willing to deal with them for the most authentic experience. I would like to get a 65-game JAMMA cocktail table. 

Last edited by SanAndreasX - on 24 April 2024