[HN Gopher] Cool Retro Terminal
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Cool Retro Terminal
Author : qazpot
Score : 261 points
Date : 2023-07-20 10:37 UTC (12 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| LinuxBender wrote:
| Someone 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...]
| tmtvl wrote:
| OpenSUSE has it packaged for Tumbleweed:
| <https://software.opensuse.org/package/cool-retro-
| term?search...>
| lizknope wrote:
| I just checked Fedora and it is there.
| Linux-Fan wrote:
| It is also in Debian:
|
| 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 :)
| amelius wrote:
| Too 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?
| glimshe wrote:
| The 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.
| cbm-vic-20 wrote:
| Can 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 wrote:
| VT420 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.
| gtirloni wrote:
| You can disable the effects individually to renew your virtual
| monitor.
| aktuel wrote:
| Not just disable also adjust.
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| Very 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!
| zokier wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| Yea 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
| jonas-w wrote:
| Windows Terminal already has something similar built in (not as
| good as TFA) https://learn.microsoft.com/en-
| us/windows/terminal/custom-te...
| shortrounddev2 wrote:
| There'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 wrote:
| i love how they mention the PxPlus fonts without crediting
| where they came from
|
| https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/
| zgluck wrote:
| Is it abandoned? Last commit was Mar 31, 2022 and there are 24
| open PRs - most without any discussion happening.
| mysterydip wrote:
| I 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?
| pjmlp wrote:
| I 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.
| gtirloni wrote:
| _> That is why I don 't get the CLI revivalism culture, I
| lived through the days it was the only option._
|
| You mean you prefer GUIs as natural evolution of CLIs?
| pjmlp wrote:
| GUIs and REPL environments, like on Xerox PARC world.
| jug wrote:
| I think it's a bit overdone for a solid first impression but
| maybe a bit too much in the long run? Maybe if it could be
| toned down a bit for just a slight glow and amber warmth, haha.
| blueflow wrote:
| I found the input latency unbearable.
| dsr_ wrote:
| At the time (up through 1993), that was what we had. In open
| labs, there would be some jockeying for the better (newer,
| almost always) terminals -- a VT420 with white phosphor being
| the pinnacle of experiences, anything in amber usually being
| ranked lower than the same in green, except for one Wyse series
| I had mostly forgotten, where the green was eye-searingly bad
| with the brightness up, and muddy/blurry with the brightness
| down.
|
| And then we had Linux on PCs and that was so much better nobody
| wanted to use the terminals again if they could avoid them.
| ja27 wrote:
| I don't run it as a daily driver but sometimes I'll fire it up
| on my MBP or Chromebook for a few hours of work. I dial back a
| lot of the effects somewhat. I like the low-fi focus I get from
| using it it.
| qbasic_forever wrote:
| Turn off some of the effects like the moving scan line or noise
| and it's fine in my experience.
|
| Sometimes I like to have a process like htop running and easily
| find the window on my desktop by making it look different than
| other terminals--this works great for a use case like that,
| it's unmistakeable what terminal is running the process you
| want to monitor.
| sangriafria wrote:
| I 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
| pawelduda wrote:
| I used it a few years back but I found it crashed far too often
| (I use tmux so session wasn't lost but still annoying). The
| visual effects can also be distracting after novelty wears off
| and performance-wise it doesn't match something like kitty
| reaperducer wrote:
| Crashing is a feature, not a bug.
|
| It crashes deliberately on exit. Because in the era it's
| simulating, that happened a lot with terminal programs.
|
| Not necessarily terminals, but certainly terminal programs.
| Blackthorn wrote:
| I use it as my daily driver. I turn a lot of the effects down
| (I think the defaults are extreme) and it just looks like an
| old terminal emulator on a CRT used to. Feels nice.
| eddieroger wrote:
| That's exactly the experience I had with a similar app a few
| years ago. It was fun for the throwback, but most of my
| terminal use is meant to be productive (which isn't mutually
| exclusive from fun), and the neat features this had become more
| of a distraction.
| gtirloni wrote:
| I 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.
| jcfrei wrote:
| 2022: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30734137
|
| 2018: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17413911
|
| 2015: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9093545
|
| 2014: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8399461
|
| Someone in 2024 please continue this list
| ycombinete wrote:
| The trend implies the next one be posted in 2026 :)
| shkurski_ wrote:
| Fibonacci starting 1,3, so 2030.
| BaudouinVH wrote:
| I expect someone to post a link to free-for.dev any minute :)
| dist-epoch wrote:
| Really 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 wrote:
| It'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).
| sbuk wrote:
| This is triggering memories of late-night job monitoring and tape
| swaps!
| ungruntled wrote:
| I 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
| weinzierl wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| > 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...
|
| [2] https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-
| term/commits/maste...
| masklinn wrote:
| Cathode 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.
| weinzierl wrote:
| Oh, cool. I'm a bit surprised, but it makes sense since I've
| known Cathode well before.
| DrNosferatu wrote:
| Does anyone know how to have a terminal with the classic DOS
| narrow font?
|
| (or Linux early boot up messages)
| blueflow wrote:
| https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/?1#ibm-bios
| mike_hock wrote:
| On Debian, install fonts-pc
| llimos wrote:
| Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
| Jun8 wrote:
| Not 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.
| neom wrote:
| That'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
| ja27 wrote:
| I do the same but use the VT323 Google Font:
| https://fonts.google.com/specimen/VT323
| tiborsaas wrote:
| You 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 wrote:
| Whoah, that's very cool! Looks great!! Thanks so much Tibor,
| appreciate it. :)
| lloeki wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| I'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)
| mxuribe wrote:
| @neom Your site looked great even before the recent css/styling
| from @tiborsaas , and now looks even better! Kudos! (I'm such a
| fan of the look-and-feel from things like Cool Retro terminal,
| etc.)
| surteen wrote:
| I think you mean to use "cat" instead of "pico" to show your
| text file. Otherwise it should draw pico's interface.
| thih9 wrote:
| Note 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...
| atorodius wrote:
| wow that example with the beast is impressive, it does look
| much more 3D on a CRT
| mbork_pl wrote:
| Thanks!!! 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! ;-)
| enriquto wrote:
| Now, if this thing supported sixels, it would be a great tool for
| giving eye-catching interactive presentations.
| jackhack wrote:
| anyone who likes this will probably also enjoy Blinky - a retro-
| CRT text editor for osx. https://blinky.en.softonic.com/mac
| susam wrote:
| I 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-...
|
| [2] https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-
| term/blob/f157648d...
| pserwylo wrote:
| I 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 wrote:
| But 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.
| unpixer wrote:
| Or you could be a nerd of the 1990s and be permanently stuck
| on the Rotating Cube effect.
| rendaw wrote:
| How was wobbly windows useful?
| Symmetry wrote:
| The wobble and stickyness made it easier to arrange windows
| side by side without overlap.
| glhaynes wrote:
| I can easily imagine how stickiness helped, but how did
| wobbliness?
| Symmetry wrote:
| The stickiness felt more natural with the windows
| changing shape/size slightly.
| mike_hock wrote:
| In fact, this needs to be a global Compiz effect. It should
| apply to the entire desktop rather than just a terminal.
| tuzemec wrote:
| Pretty cool! The reflections on the sides are a very nice touch.
| Blackthorn wrote:
| Cool 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.
| Karliss wrote:
| When 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 wrote:
| Pretty sure I saw someone do this in the recent Lisp Game Jam,
| too.
| mcdonje wrote:
| Wow, 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.
| spudlyo wrote:
| It'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
| adamredwoods wrote:
| The 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
| azubinski wrote:
| It's really made with love.
| F00Fbug wrote:
| I use this a couple of times a year when I crank up my Pandas
| version of TOPS-20 (http://panda.trailing-edge.com/). Now that
| VMS is ported to x86 I may use it more!
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(page generated 2023-07-20 23:02 UTC)