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Cool Retro Terminal
- sbuk 3y agoThis is triggering memories of late-night job monitoring and tape swaps!
- F00Fbug 3y agoI use this a couple of times a year when I crank up my Pandas version of TOPS-20 (http://panda.trailing-edge.com/ http://panda.trailing-edge.com/). Now that VMS is ported to x86 I may use it more!
- llimos 3y agoNostalgia isn't what it used to be.
- glimshe 3y agoThe effects are great! However, these feel like old-old terminals, as in terminals from 80s after decades of use. Good quality phosphor monitors are a lot crisper than the screenshots.
- gtirloni 3y agoYou can disable the effects individually to renew your virtual monitor.
- aktuel 3y agoNot just disable also adjust.
- cbm-vic-20 3y agoCan confirm. Source: the gently used VT420 on my desk that is hooked up to a RPi for retro-vibe goodness. Text is crisp and clear, no "smearing" like in the screenshots. (Can also confirm that heavily used terminals definitely show degradation.)
- erosenbe0 3y agoVT420 must have had a good crt design. They'd run 18 hours a day as catalog terminals in university libraries with no problems. I'm sure most made 5 years with only minor brightness or contrast loss. Good solution with minimal service required--just cleaning any debris from the keyboard. Basically plug and play to the serial multiplexer.
- dist-epoch 3y agoReally good, but the blur/bloom seems a bit overdone. I don't remember it being that fuzzy and blurry, in the picture the blur extends half a character around each block, which is a bit excessive.
- epakai 3y agoIt's all adjustable, but the default profiles tend to ham it up a bit in my experience. For something I found usable, but nice to look at; all my settings were < 10%, and a few disabled (burnin, glow line, ambient light).
- mysterydip 3y agoI get the nostalgia appeal, it would be neat for a few minutes, but it doesn't seem like something you could use as your daily driver terminal. If someone has, what's your experience with it?
- sangriafria 3y agoI remember trying this on macOS a while ago and I'm sure it had some odd quirks where things didn't work as expected which put me off using it, I'll have to try it again. There used to be a native macOS app called Cathode which was similar but it's been abandoned
- gtirloni 3y agoI tried to use it daily but it just takes too much real state. I often have many terminals opened and got used to them not having borders.
- pjmlp 3y agoI surely used actual terminals for amber and green ones, connected to the DG/UX server in one of the student labs. Not only was something that we could use, it was quite often the only option, as the IBM X Windows thin terminals were quite often busy with people playing either dungeon like games or talk sessions, splited across 4 xterms. That is why I don't get the CLI revivalism culture, I lived through the days it was the only option.
- dsr_ 3y ago
- tuzemec 3y agoPretty cool! The reflections on the sides are a very nice touch.
- shortrounddev2 3y agoVery cool! Windows Terminal will let you use hlsl files to define post-processing shaders so you could achieve this as a plug-in to windows terminal as well!
- jonas-w 3y agoWindows Terminal already has something similar built in (not as good as TFA) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/custom-terminal-gallery/retro-command-prompt https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/custom-te...
- shortrounddev2 3y agoThere's another shader floating around somewhere that includes the wraparound effect along with the phosphor effect (it can also be configured for full color support; doesn't have to be black/green)
- LoganDark 3y agoi love how they mention the PxPlus fonts without crediting where they came from https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/ https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/
- zokier 3y agoI wonder if you could plug in some of the crt emulation shaders from retro/emulation scene to terminal... It's just pixel shaders so should be fairly feasible, maybe just some cross-compilation?
- zadjii 3y agoYea the extent to which you can make custom terminal shaders for the Windows Terminal is pretty unbelievable. This repo has a huge collection of crazy stuff (including a better CRT one): https://github.com/Hammster/windows-terminal-shaders https://github.com/Hammster/windows-terminal-shaders
- weinzierl 3y agoI love this and I used it for fun occasionally. On my MacBook I also used Cathode before, but after I learned about Cool Retro Term the thought crossed my mind that the former might be a rip-off of the later. I do not wish to make any false accusations but the effects are pretty similar and maybe other commenters can confirm or dispel the suspicion. What I am looking for since some time now is a way to create these effects in good quality in a compositor. It would be much more convenient that way. Free and open would be cool, but I'd also pay for it. Does anyone know if there is a good plugin that works with Nuke, Natron or Blender?
- zimpenfish 3y ago> the former might be a rip-off of the later If you're suggesting Cathode might be ripping off Cool Retro Term, I think Cathode[1] (Jan 25, 2011) predates Cool Retro Term[2] (Nov 22, 2013) by almost three years. [1] https://www.macstories.net/mac/cathode-is-a-vintage-terminal-for-os-x/ https://www.macstories.net/mac/cathode-is-a-vintage-terminal... [2] https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term/commits/master?after=f157648d1e51878a10e02a8836c1e15aa8c59cc9+769&branch=master&qualified_name=refs%2Fheads%2Fmaster https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term/commits/maste...
- weinzierl 3y agoOh, cool. I'm a bit surprised, but it makes sense since I've known Cathode well before.
- masklinn 3y agoCathode was also more full-featured, e.g. I don’t think CRT has sound effects or the dying tube effect. It’s been a while and I’m not on my computer but I’m not sure it even has the bitrate modifier.
- thih9 3y agoNote that older software was designed to be run on a screen like this. E.g. game dev artists took advantage of the technology quirks to make their titles look better. Source: https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/167804/did-retro-pixel-artists-design-with-crts-in-mind https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/questions/167804/did-retro...
- atorodius 3y agowow that example with the beast is impressive, it does look much more 3D on a CRT
- mbork_pl 3y agoThanks!!! I saw the screenshot from that answer a few years ago on some blog and then tried to find it again, to no avail. Now I wrote down the URL! ;-)
- chasil 3y agoMAME is actually able emulate a vt240 if you have the roms. I have set it up, and the appearance is similar.
- jcfrei 3y ago2022: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30734137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30734137 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17413911 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17413911 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9093545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9093545 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8399461 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8399461 Someone in 2024 please continue this list
- ycombinete 3y agoThe trend implies the next one be posted in 2026 :)
- shkurski_ 3y agoFibonacci starting 1,3, so 2030.
- BaudouinVH 3y agoI expect someone to post a link to free-for.dev any minute :)
- pserwylo 3y agoI always loved over-the-top, somewhat impractical visual effects like this. Reminds me of growing up playing with Compiz Fusion. For a retro Android game I maintain, I use the term "Gratuitous Eye Straining Effects" in the settings page. It needs to be toggleable, because I can only tolerate it for a short period. My naming was inspired by k9mail's settings called "Gaudy visual effects". May as well have some fun with words when implementing such effects.
- chrismorgan 3y agoBut Compiz Fusion wasn’t all about impractical visual effects: wobbly windows was seriously useful, and rather popular, perhaps the one thing that people would leave enabled after playing with all the fun ridiculous stuff for a bit.
- neom 3y agoThat's how I tried to make my personal website look! I actually asked GPT3 to write the code for me. I'm not a SWE so I'm not sure how well it did, but it works! http://h4x.club http://h4x.club
- tiborsaas 3y agoYou could add these styles to get closer to the CRT look: Add these to the body style: text-shadow: 1px 1px 6px #8aff00; filter: blur(0.3px); background-image: repeating-linear-gradient( to bottom, rgb(0 0 0), rgb(0 255 76 / 7%) 3px, rgb(100 100 100 / 23%) 7px ); Also bump the font-size to 18px, it looks a bit better imho.
- neom 3y agoWhoah, that's very cool! Looks great!! Thanks so much Tibor, appreciate it. :)
- lloeki 3y agoI did something like that a year ago for mine (but never published it), complete with scanlines, glow, and beam scan effect. It also handles images as well, making them monochrome, tinted, and subject to scanline bleeding as well. All in CSS so it's very fake but somewhat convincing, and probably not the most optimal way to do it (CPU is like 40% pegged)
- tiborsaas 3y agoI've also made an indie music TV project with this CRT effect and some text animation for retro terminal vibes. If you wait a bit, the ui glitches :) Fun fact, my USB-C monitor connections has a contact error and it produces a similar glitch effect. (I have a link to it in my bio)
- surteen 3y agoI think you mean to use "cat" instead of "pico" to show your text file. Otherwise it should draw pico's interface.
- mcdonje 3y agoWow, that look brings me back. The library in the city I grew up in had monitors like that well into the 90s. They implemented a library map on them that allowed you to zoom in to see a depiction of an atom, or out to see a depiction of the universe. Really blew my mind as a kid.
- susam 3y agoI enjoy using using cool-retro-term from time to time. I don't run it for long but I do run it sometimes for the sake of nostalgia. I usually run it in full screen and increase the font size to approximate 80x24/25 terminals for an immersive experience. To balance practicality with nostalgia, I run a tmux session in cool-retro-term. It helps with conveniently switching back and forth between cool-retro-term and a regular terminal without losing the terminal session. The terminal effects are configurable. I disable the settings named Burin, Glow Line, and RGB Shift to get a crispy and distraction-free experience. The RGB Shift setting is disabled for most built-in profiles anyway but enabled for some profiles like Vintage and IBM Dos. By the way, the Vintage profile is quite amusing. Many settings are cranked way up in this profile! The text is blurry, and the incessant flickering of the screen creates an unsettling impression that the monitor might break down any moment. A nice little detail I like about cool-retro-term is the reflection of the screen on the glossy frame of the monitor. If we increase the Screen Curvature setting to 50% or more, we can quite clearly see the reflection of the top line or bottom line of the terminal on the frame.[1] In case you haven't noticed it, the app is named cool-retro-term and it is abbreviated to CRT. The app icon[2] is also "CRT" written using large letters followed by a large cursor. Guess what else is abbreviated to CRT? Yes, "cathode-ray tube" of the cathode-ray tube computer monitors. [1] https://susam.github.io/blob/img/cool-retro-term/2023-07-20-crt.png https://susam.github.io/blob/img/cool-retro-term/2023-07-20-... [2] https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term/blob/f157648d1e51878a10e02a8836c1e15aa8c59cc9/app/icons/256x256/cool-retro-term.png https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term/blob/f157648d...
- spudlyo 3y agoIt's been a while since I've checked this program out, so this morning I downloaded it and spent some time taming some of the more extreme effects and fooling around with fonts. Pretty happy with the results! I think I got it looking pretty great[0] in GNU Emacs and Org-mode. Admittedly the Unicode private use area icon sets look a little bit out of place in a retro terminal, so let's just call it futuristic retro terminal :) [0]: https://muppetlabs.com/~mikeh/crt_emacs.png https://muppetlabs.com/~mikeh/crt_emacs.png
- IggleSniggle 3y agoLooks great. Share your settings!
- spudlyo 3y agoBloom: 23% Burnin: Off Static Noise: 8% Jitter: 18% Glow Line: 1% Screen Curvature: 10% Ambient Light: 42% Flickering: 12% Horizontal Sync: 15% RGB Sync: Off Font: JetBrainsMono Nerd Font Mono Font: #0ccc68 Background: #000000 Brightness: 59% Contrast: 72% Margin: 78% Frame size: 39%
- DrNosferatu 3y agoDoes anyone know how to have a terminal with the classic DOS narrow font? (or Linux early boot up messages)
- azubinski 3y agoIt's really made with love.
- Karliss 3y agoWhen I made a terminal based game for a gamejam Cool Retro Terminal served as quick and easy way to make the final demonstration look nicer.
- schemescape 3y agoPretty sure I saw someone do this in the recent Lisp Game Jam, too.
- amelius 3y agoToo bad I have an older version of Qt on my system. Why is software deployment so hard these days, despite all the effort that is poured into package managers?
- LinuxBender 3y agoSomeone at VoidLinux added this. Curious how many other distros package this. xbps-query -Rs retro [-] cool-retro-term-1.1.1_1 Good looking terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display [snip...]
- Linux-Fan 3y agoIt is also in Debian: https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=cool-retro-term https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=cool-retro-term I have it installed here and rarely use it (daily driver is urxvt), but it occasionally pops up when a GUI program wants to launch a terminal and by whatever configuration mechanism they use these days prefers cool-retro-term in favor of the urxvt :)
- tmtvl 3y agoOpenSUSE has it packaged for Tumbleweed: <https://software.opensuse.org/package/cool-retro-term?search_term=cool-retro https://software.opensuse.org/package/cool-retro-term?search...>
- lizknope 3y agoI just checked Fedora and it is there.
- enriquto 3y agoNow, if this thing supported sixels, it would be a great tool for giving eye-catching interactive presentations.
- Blackthorn 3y agoCool Retro Term is my daily driver. Though I do turn off the screen curvature (look, terminals were straight on my CRT too, they were windows there) and the burn in (just a little too excessive for me, though I haven't tried turning it most of the way down). Tools that are a joy to use are fun as well as functional.
- jackhack 3y agoanyone who likes this will probably also enjoy Blinky - a retro-CRT text editor for osx. https://blinky.en.softonic.com/mac https://blinky.en.softonic.com/mac
- Jun8 3y agoNot retro for me! I still fondly remember the ADM-3A I used at Purdue in for 3-4 years after 1995. I would buy a working one in a heartbeat but they are kind of expensive now. Kicking myself for not snagging one when they were being thrown away by the truckload.
- adamredwoods 3y agoThe recent "Silo" series on AppleTv had some nice retro-terminals. I've been trying to find better pictures or references, so if anyone has any, gladly appreciated. Only reference I currently found: https://twitter.com/AdamRedwoods/status/1677878315284316161 https://twitter.com/AdamRedwoods/status/1677878315284316161
- zgluck 3y agoIs it abandoned? Last commit was Mar 31, 2022 and there are 24 open PRs - most without any discussion happening.
- ungruntled 3y agoI like this terminal and have used it frequently, but it should be noted that it is a fantasy representation of how these old displays actually looked. You may be able to tone down a lot of the settings but you still wont be able to achieve that similar of a look to original displays. The monochrome displays of the time had quite clear quality. I have an Apple ii monitor from the early 80s on my desk, and the similarities are more akin to an exaggerated caricature of a celebrity. But maybe my experience doesn't go far back enough
- II2II 3y agoI don't know about that. If you adjusted the "settings" of CRTs, some of the effects in Cool Retro Term would be achievable. For those unfamiliar with CRTs, you could adjust the value of some components. These adjustments could affect things like the beam brightness, sharpness of the picture, horizontal and vertical synchronization, and geometry of the screen. Typically this was done via user accessible knobs on the front or back of the monitor, though some were only accessible after opening the case. Adjusting these knobs is better described as calibration, rather than changing settings, since you were adjusting the physical properties of components that directly altered analog signals.
- RobKohr 3y agoIs there a css for textarea that anyone has done for this? I could use it on a project I'm working on
- thinkpad13 3y agofeels like playing fallout