Gaming Myths

LLB9977 · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 12:31 am Post subject: Gaming Myths

Hey all,
Thought i would bring up a topic. Gaming Myths (beit with Handhelds or consoles) are there any that you know of involving a games release or gameplay or with gaming in general. The reason i ask is that 1 myth (at least i think it was) prevented my brother (and myself) from getting the 2600 we were begging for as kids. My old man was convinced that the atari was going to ruin the television set. And in the 80's we were like most families who only had 1 tv. and he wasnt going to ruin that nifty furniture piece electrohome on some "Junk". It lasted a few yrs then my mom bought us an Odyssey 2,lol right around the time the odyssey 2's became extinct. But thats cool, i embrace the O2 as my 1st console. I guess history has proved that video game consoles are safe for tv's.

cheers
Lee Smile

Dan · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 3:53 pm Post subject:

Actually that's not a myth, if a CRT (a screen in a TV or computer monitor) is subjected to the same image for too long (especially one with sharp edges, e.g. blocky Atari graphics), it will suffer from screen burn and you will eventually see a ghostly version of the offending image all the time, even when the TV or monitor is turned off in extreme cases.

And older TV's were more susceptible to this phenomenon.

Even my 2002 big screen TV occasionally recenters the picture a little to avoid this!

blue6demon · Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 4:13 am Post subject:

Yeah you're absolutely right Dan on that one, that's why most DVD players have screen savers when you put the image on pause for too much time !

And i've seen a burned tv screen with pac man (atari) in my friend's house when i was a kid, the parents were not happy at all Laughing

_________________
Keep on playing... no matter what !

Rik · Posted: Mon Jan 19, 2009 5:39 pm Post subject:

Yeah, burn in was probably the concern. You'd have to be a playing it a lot, and only playing the same game for it to be an actual problem, but the threat was there... Look at any old 80's arcade game when it's turned off, you will most likely see it...

This is why the 2600 will start changing color on the TV if you just let it sit and don't touch it... (At least, some game do this, not sure if it had to be programmed in the game cartridge, or if the console did it).

Fortunately, some of the newer TV technology doesn't do this- LCD and DLP screens can't burn in. CRT and Plasma can though.

That80sGuy · Posted: Mon Jan 25, 2010 5:49 am Post subject:

Yup .. screen burn is a real problem. Never leave static image on a CRT for too long..especially if you have brightness and contrast turned up. I beleive there might have been a fine print warning on the Atari packaging or in the instruction manual.