i remember when i was little, and went to my grandparents house, they had something like that.
If I walk into a house and see that setup I know there is a dead cat under one of the old sofas.
My next level is going back to that. Not with a huge CRT or a full-blown hifi system, but a nice place with a screen, some offline way to play music/audio, a few books maybe…
I don’t feel nostalgic for the dark times when our televisions weighed 80 lbs just to beam us an inferior image. Sure, maybe for when being a teenager at the mall meant meeting girls and having a good time with friends walking around, buying nothing because we were all broke. But only the social aspects were better. I’ll take today’s entertainment any day of the week.
CRT contrast ratios were unmatched until plasma. LEDs never compared until OLED. Flat screen CRT HDTVs were amazing.
The quality of the media was not as good perhaps but I do miss when the world moved just a little bit slower.
No 24h news cycle, no social media, no being pressured to be connected and available to work at all times.
Superior image*
*for the time when flat screens initially came out
But only the social aspects were better.
ok…
Hey, we socialized in person more before smart phones. There are a lot of studies that say so. But this isn’t even an appeal to authority. I remember the first time seeing a couple sitting across from each other in a restaurant, both staring at their phones. My buddy and I gave each other a look. It’s everyone now.
Haha I have this setup to this day.
I use it for my regular Nintendo and Sega Genesis.
I’ll take it off your hands. Got to strong boys here with me. It took three of us to get this into house. So true it’s freaking heavy. It also swivels which I do find neat. Besides the old game console look better on the equipment they were built for.
What do you use for you irregular Nintendo?
I’ll see myself out 🤣
Lol great comment. I say regular because it’s 2025 and some people hear Nintendo and think Switch, or as we used to if you didn’t say regular. People would think Super Nintendo.
I also enjoy retrogaming. Party on.
I’m old enough to remember when this was peak entertainment technology.
See, now that’s just the TV stand for the newer TV on top!
But seriously, why the fake drawers in these? The drawer handles even rotated, but you’d just be pulling against the wood.
I remember back in the 90s I found a cabinet just like that, but without the TV. Since I was broke back then, I took it back to my place and used it as a computer desk.
My grandparents had one very much like this. It was so much fancier than ours. It even had a remote!
Oh man, this reminds me of the Sony Trinitron my family had growing up. We inherited it from my grandparents on my dad’s side when I was very young.
My grandpa died before I was old enough to remember him being alive, and my grandma we lost to dementia/Alzheimer’s not long after… So we got their TV.
Worked great for so many years, but somewhere around the 25-30 year mark, the picture had all but lost most of the color and I’m pretty sure that we had a failure in one of the emitters so one of the colors would only sometimes be there. We didn’t keep it around after that started happening regularly.
It was like this, a huge cabinet on wheels, and it was flanked by two massive speakers the full height of the unit, and about 10" off each side of the screen.
That TV was home to our NES and SNES consoles for a long time, and eventually our Sega Genesis.
We had a lot of good times sitting on the floor playing games on that thing.
great picture. I’ll bet that TV didn’t even have one of the old style remotes to change channels
Looks like model used in cs_militia in Counter Strike Source. Or at least reminds me of it
Peak would’ve been a grey Zapper.
Oh my god !!! That’s the TV we had when I was a kid !!!
That’s eerily similar to what I grew up with. Like: “are you my sibling, and is that actually my old house”-level similar.
Edit:nm - we had wood floors, and the fan on the right was white.
Wow, old memory unlocked, we had that exact tv (or maybe another model that looked very similar). It was the good TV for a long time but never made it to be the less good TV in the basement because, well look at it, it’s a tube TV built into a fucking cabinet, just throw it out.
I remember my parents had a Magnavox wood finish tv console. That fucker weight more then a collapsed star I swear it took 3 people to move it from one corner to another.
We had a Zenith version of this idea, but it still had the clunky dials for changing channels instead of those fancy buttons.
I remember as a child, and occasional green spot would happen in the lower right of the screen and I would have to go hit it with a hammer until it went away.
I just took this photo. Is my setup next level? I RGB modded the Sony if it helps.whats an rgb mod?
It allows it to accept higher quality analog signal input for old video game systems. RGB separates the signals into 4 (in this case) separate inputs, one each for Red, Green, and Blue colors in the image, as well as sync on the fourth input. the image is much clearer than you’d have typically seen from systems on this TV back in the day using composite, or S-video if you were fancy. It’s the highest quality analog signal you can get for a CRT.
I had that TV back in the day. It was an amazing TV for it’s time.
That a RetroPie setup at the bottom left?
A7thStone is right, it’s a MiSTer in a custom “case” i made.
I think it’s a MiSTer.
it is!
Isn’t the MiSTer like, way bigger than that?
No. Can confirm, I have one.
No, that’s a Playstation 2 /s
Those trinitrons were the goat of the day.
Sweet man, that setup right there is next level!
thanks!
What’s the CRT on the bottom left?
Also yes.
G3 iMac 333Mhz
Nice. I’ve been meaning to pick up a CRT iMac or even an eMac.
nice! I bought this one like 15 years ago for like $20 from a guy in a mall parking lot, advertised as broken. it had like “University of Washington” written on it, so presumably he got it from a school several years before he sold it to me. Initially I wanted to gut it to make a fish tank, but i was lazy and also that was a stupid idea. Instead I fixed it and installed Mac OS Classic on it, as well as marathon.
Haha nice. I’m not sure what I’d use it for, but when I was a tad younger, I used my brother’s eMac a lot with Garageband, so pure nostalgia.
Have you softmodded the PS1 to accept backups? There’s a disc you can burn that if you do the swap trick with it it will configure a memory card to be used to load backups
I’ve got 2 PS1’s, and the one most visible in this photo is an SCPH-1001 with the RCA jacks on the back. I haven’t modded it because I’ve got better ways to play backups of PS1 games and it’s not quite worth the effort. I have used TonyHax on it though, which does the job. the other PSOne is barely visible right next to it. I got it from an estate sale and it actually came with a modchip! So i can play backup discs on that one if i want.
I’ve got a SCPH-5501, after they “fixed” the swap trick (you have to do it twice, with really good timing to do it on that model) so it was worth it to use a scam memory card that corrupted if I had more than 3 saves on it to make a tonyhax card.
Been a great time going back and playing ff7 and frogger 2.
hell yeah
No Saturn?
I’ve been wanting a Saturn for a while now, but not yet! I usually play Saturn games on my MiSTer.
Oh nice, how good is the MiSTer with Saturn games?
it’s not perfect, but still quite good!
I’ll call it “Starry Night over the Rhone” because it’s an extant masterpiece of a bygone golden era.
I remember. My family was always poor but my parents understood the value of technology. all of us had pcs, and we had a nintendo in the living room.
Granted, we were poor, so the tech we hooked up to the tv was a bit behind. I was hype as fuck to finally have a copy of The Guardian Legend for NES while my best friend was playing mario sunshine.
I think I had the better childhood.
It still is next level. Modern setups aren’t nearly as cool. TVs mounted to the wall, game consoles on the floor, and who even has a dedicated stereo system anymore?
I have a stereo system still, complete with tape deck and turntable.
There are dozens of us! DOZENS!
Yeah, I’m a little jealous of that cool ass setup. I used to have something like it, though not as nice.
I definitely would if I had the space and time to build it. Too many projects too little time (and space)
Not that compact stereo system. My old sharp boom box sounded better than those.
The turntable isn’t even on the top of the hifi separates unit. Pathetic!
I have that exact Aiwa music player.
Last Sunday when I went back to my parents house, I noticed that the clock was blinking because there was a blackout, so I turned on and I saw that the 5 CD changer not only gets stuck but the laser doesn’t see the discs anymore 😢
I’m sad
Probably a relatively easy fix.
I don’t want to brag but I have my 1985 Bang & Olufsen music system still in use. Cassette player, CD-player and vinyl player all work well. They don’t make devices like that anymore.
I have two AF Toshibas. One 27 inches and the other 14. I would have more if I had a house. They are still awesome!
Twenty-seven years ago that 27 inch TV was huge!
Now most people need massive TVs, but still spend most of the time looking at the small screen on the phone.
Then they put that massive TV so close to where they sit that it’s just painful to actually watch anything on it because there is just no way you can get the entire image in your field of vision comfortably.
Maybe I am old, but I miss the days when people had some sense and bought TVs actually sized for the distance they will be sitting from it.
Not me, I will refuse to watch any movie I’ve never seen on a tiny fucking phone screen. I at least have some standards
Same, I got a 65 inch OLED big boy for the cinematic experience. I’m going to use the bastard.
Dam. I was only able to afford the 55 inch in 2020 so I’m just rocking the CX. Which did have the hackable firmware to remove all ads from YouTube so I’m not complaining. https://rootmy.tv/
I got a CX too but I have no ads by just not signing the user agreement lol.
I’m talking about sponsor block for in video ads, but that’s very cool that you can just not agree to that, are you in Europe per chance. I’m also talking about ads before the YouTube video start
Nope, I’m in North America. All LG TVs no matter where you are let you do this. Also, I use an Nvidia Shield with smart tube and it has built in sponsor block + ad blocking.
Because unless you’re buying a quality panel the difference between a 45 inch and 65 is usually $150. For something that you need 3 or 4 of (tops, if you have a family or large house) that’ll last 5+ years, the value proposition is high enough to spend the extra money.
Those TVs were in a lot of middle class homes. I think huge is pretty exaggerated. Having a house on the block with those 4 person 40-50 in TV’s was pretty common in a lot of areas IMO.
They weren’t huge at all. They were huge for that day.
Sure there was 40+ inch tvs if you were willing to shell out 10k plus.
Not even close. We’re talking about $1000-$3000 for a decent high end. You could regularly find used for $400-$500 if you could find a team to lug them out.
Not that expensive at all.
In the 90s you could get a 40in for maybe like $500.
$500 in the 90s would be equivalent to around $1000 today. That’s a very expensive TV and more than I’ve spent on displays in total across my adult life (which includes some nice IPS computer displays)
I have a 75 in lg c1 in my theater and gaming room. Plenty of folks buy nicer displays. There are plenty of high end displays selling in volumes to support a very healthy display market.
This was true in the past as well. As stated, you talk to most middle class Americans and they knew at least one guy hosting a Superbowl party with a big ass TV.
I think it’s more a question of individual values in where to spend money. From my memory as a kid in the 90s I did not see very many TVs bigger than 30" in family’s homes. I did see a couple of projection screens that were comparatively massive but those of course had their own problems
raises hand
To play games from that era this is a next level setup.
