this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
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I don't mean BETTER. That's a different conversation. I mean cooler.

An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.

If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.

That's just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Ships' sails. I mean, I know some small vessels still use them, but look at any paintings from 1500s-1800s and tell me those huge white pieces of cloth don't look cool.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 hours ago

They definitely have a look, although I like the sleek, almost solar punk look of modern sails.

We went from bedsheets that get blown around to clean and optimized vertical wings.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I love that about CRTs, man.

How the fuck could we invent a tiny pocket sized particle accelerator electron beam gun that magnetically aimed its fire with such precision as to hit every individual phosphor, with the appropriate charge to make the right color, across an entire fucking screen, and do that 30+ times a second (for TV, or 60+ for a monitor)..

Yet the LCD is the high tech fancy monitor when its just a little grid of globs being electronically fired? How did the CRT get invented before the LCD?!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

Turns out manufacturing individual, low-power-draw, micron-sized lights is not easy. Even if it's conceptually not as cool, it requires much better manufacturing processes and materials.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

Trains and railways are cooler and better than cars and highways. Imagine making everyone get their own personal vehicle, engine, tires, fuel, service, license, and insurance, just to watch them all crash into each other and die constantly.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago

Yes although I would argue cars and highways are just evolutions of horse carts on dirt roads, a way older technology than trains.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

Trains aren't old tech though. Just tech that got pushed out by auto-maker lobbying. In places (like Japan, or China, or parts of Europe) where they kept evolving they only got better.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 hours ago

Neither sure how to call it, nor is it a technology, more like a mindset. I am just gonna name it: "Prideful Craftsmanship"

Basically the incorporation of "useless" decorations and embellishments, to show off ones skill and maybe market oneself a little. Definitely superseded in the capitalist world. Things were just prettier or more interesting to look at, even stuff that wasn't meant to be flashy.

But with nearly everything being made to a price point, this practice has been somewhat lost.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 hours ago (3 children)

CDs and DVDs, because ownership beats convenience when you can get them second hand for pennies on the pound

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 hours ago

And the technology has evolved that I can actually record and re-record to these plastic discs using lasers and it all fits inside a 1cm-tall drive that sits on my desk. And if the manufacturer uses high-quality materials, the disc will last hundreds of years.

Also some discs I can then either ink-print or laser-print on the top of it? Simply amazing.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 hours ago

Also:

FUCKING LASERS DUDE! Lasers will never NOT be cool.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 hours ago (8 children)

Video games. Way back then there was imagination involved, and companies took risks. Nowadays every game seems to iterate on the same tired formula. The only recent entry I can think of that bucked this trend in the past few decades was maybe Portal, but there have been few to no other recent games that come to mind. Fight me.

[–] Cethin 8 points 5 hours ago

You're talking about the AAA space. Fuck those games. Play indies. There are so many creators carrying out the legacy of game development you're talking about. Don't buy the games directed by suits. Currently I'm playing Factorio: Space Age, which is great. I recently played Lorelie and the Laser Eyes, which is a really cool puzzle game where you're actually going to want to write notes on paper, which feels very classic. There are so many out there, but you actually have to look because the don't have the marketing budget of Ubisoft or EA.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago

What is the formula you're talking about? Games are so diverse it's pretty hard to see what single formula there could be that covers them all.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 hours ago

Along with the others I'd also mention Outer Wilds and Viewfinder

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

The imagination came from the limitations of the hardware.

Computers today are too powerful for gaming. Its resulted all the famous studios racing to the bottom with graphics their primary and generally only concern, and everything else coming a distant second.

But at least it left the door open for indie devs, whose lack of resources and experience are still capable of keeping that ember of imagination and innovation burning.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Not a fan of indie games are you?

Baba is you, is a pretty original puzzle game. I'm not really into factorio, but it made tower defense cool again. There's lots more that are weird and interesting like brigadore, airships conquer the skies, cruelty squad, superliminal.

As far as I remember, portal was a mod or indie game that valve picked up because they thought the idea was really good. It was really good.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

A student project, actually. Valve saw a college student doing fun/weird shit inside their engine and went "You're hired".

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 hours ago

That only makes it cooler

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago

If you're only talking about AAA games, sure.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 hours ago

Alan Wake 2 and Control are fantastic!

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