Back in the late 70's and early 80's, many of us enjoyed arcade classics on our beloved Atari VCS (2600) consoles.

These days, not as many people really know or understand what it was to play Space Invaders on an Atari console. Pretty much every gaming enthusiast has played it through emulation, but that's a very different experience - from look to feel.

Take a look at this beautiful close-up image of an Atari Space Invader:

A Real Space Invader (Atari VCS Version)

If you have time, read the write-up about why that is a "real Space Invader" too.

That's what it looked like when I was a kid playing it in the early 80's. Not quite what you see in an emulator. I tell you - the experience was truly magical back then.

I suppose I should mention that the link is to an image and article I wrote up on my website. It's the kind of thing I would want to share with my TRON-loving friends regardless of who authored it. I don't mean to pat myself on the back or anything, but I think that image is really cool - not just for its content, but for the way it also captures the look of the old school analog/digital combination of home gaming of that time.

I mean to just take that picture and display it as one of the growing number of photos I've been publishing on my site. After seeing it though, I got all chatty about my feelings on the real thing vs. emulation.

If you're a member of other nerd-friendly forums where retro-gaming is a frequent subject, please share the link. Help this little fellow invade the screens of other gaming enthusiasts.

TRON.dll Wrote:I dunno, I've played both the Atari 2600 and actual Arcade versions of Space Invaders and I still like the arcade version better. But you're right, it is always fun to fire up the good old 2600 once in a while.

I agree - the arcade Space Invaders is truly the real Space Invaders. If I had access to an arcade version of the game, it would have been that image I took a photo of up close. In fact, that is what inspired the image I took - I always wanted to get a really close image of an arcade invader, but that's not going to happen any time soon. So I did it with my Atari version. After all, that is how I grew up with the game. I loved playing it in the arcade, but never had much money to spend there (not to mention, there were none that had this game close by). Instead, I was happy playing it on my 2600. My childhood memory of this game is mostly on the Atari because of that.

The write-up I did was mainly focused on the emulated game vs. the real deal (in this case a real Atari VCS), not arcade vs. Atari.

In retrospect, I kind of wish I hadn't done that kind of write up. I should have just written about the cool and interesting look of the image as seen in its original form rather than my rambling on and on about emulated game vs. console. Oh well - I got nostalgic and went with it.

abortion pills online abortion questions cytotec abortion

Mr. Sinistar Wrote:One a side note, I have notice that some emulators are trying to make up for the lack of CRT tubes (take this example of DOSBox "CRT" emulations):

I thought about that after posting my write-up about not being able to emulate the experience on today's technology. I figured with a monitor's resolution so high, why not recreate the red, green, and blue patterns that exist naturally on a tube-TV? In addition, why not emulate the electronic interference that causes the audio humming noises? I'm sure all of that can be calculated and recreated to bring old school console emulation closer to the original experience.

I like your example of the emulated CRT display. I think it would have worked better if they tried to create the appearance of scan lines as well. Perhaps they're working on that for the next rev.

I'd love to see an Atari emulator for the PC that faithfully (or came really close) to recreating the look of the games on the old CRT's. I'd like to see them do the audio hum as well. The real thing would still be preferable, but the emulation of it would be a better experience than it currently is. At least it would for those of us who grew up playing the games like that.

It's funny how some things that are so minute often get lost in emulation and they have the biggest impact.

Those minute things aren't so minute when they're not properly emulated, are they? They tend to stand out like a sore thumb and draw one's attention to them. Things like that can really dampen the experience, as I think you've found. Bummer, huh?