Don’t believe everything you hear about razor sharp RGB in arcades. I’ve been told by Mortal Kombat devs that they leveraged CRT blending for the title’s visuals. Similarly don’t believe folks who cry “false nostalgia” at pixels, because there are lots of examples of blocky little sprites as well.

Spent some time this week at Rapid Fire Arcade near Kansas City. I always love checking in on how arcade monitors are holding up in real world scenarios. You could tell these folks have taken really great care of their hardware. Only a couple of Madway racers had been sadly swapped to LCDs.

The real issue here is size. Look at this honker compared to my supposedly 20” PVM! Not only is the chassis nearly 23” wide compared to the PVM’s ~17.5”, but the tube itself is at least an inch larger in each direction!

Considering letting the 20” JVC D-Series go, because i just don’t have the room for it, but then I start playing arcade games on it again and man…

Feeling burnt out lately after an insane amount of life change. Asked my partner for a weekend off so I could start the new year with a little retreat. “Gonna spend some time with those games you bought on the Winter Sale?” “Nah, I’ve got something else in mind.”

Donkey Kong (1982, Coleco) - Intellivision I’m not saying any of this is preferable, but it’s a far cry from the blocky objects I’m used to seeing when I’ve played games from this era via emulation over the years. But man… no wonder the NES felt like a revelation lol.

Centipede (1983, Atari) - Intellivision What is striking to me is how in motion, through the haze, this truly does FEEL like playing Centipede. The player can make out just enough information to keep things playable, and the soundscape is mostly in tact as well.

Frogger (1983, Sega) - Intellivision This isn’t standard RF noise either. It is definitely a few steps above the Famicom for example. Hard to believe this is the reality of how players saw the home versions of their favorite arcade games for many years.

Demon Attack (1982, Imagic) - Intellivision I spent my morning testing out a Mattel Intellivision that a friend gave me and came to some pretty startling conclusions. The console’s (very) noisy RF signal goes some way to adding texture to its simplistic graphics.

Gotta celebrate @noodleawesome.bsky.social’s work on this #scanlinesunday as well, because damn he included some genuinely well-shot examples

What a great day to be thankful for what you have! Once you start to see the value in “obsolete” technology, it’s impossible to justify just how short our upgrade cycles have become. Call me crazy, but I think TVs, phones, computers, etc SHOULD last for decades.

Found this old test footage of Aliens vs. Predator (1994) running on a cheap Hitachi via the MiSTer Analog IO Board's composite. After everything, CRTs are still so magical to me

Final Fantasy IX marks the moment I fell in love with the craft of video games and the artists who bring them to life. That small, thoughtfully considered detail can outshine the broadest horizon.

Happy 25th anniversary to Final Fantasy IX, my favorite game of all time ❤️ Still chasing that high.

If you know someone who repairs CRT TVs within a few hours of Kansas City, you can save a life

So, there you have it for now. I have more minor nitpicks, wishes (orchestrated soundtrack DLC PLEASE), and praises, but what matters is that The Ivalice Chronicles is a great way to experience Final Fantasy Tactics, for the first time, or another time. And you absolutely should.

Minor characters now truly become the iconic figures of a fittingly sweeping tale. Milleuda, a character I’d always glanced over in previous playthroughs, has become one of my favorites. I would also push Argath off the nearest ledge at any given opportunity. The 2007 script now feels definitive.

At first I wasn’t sure what to make of the new mountain of voiced dialogue. In practice however, every unit now feels like a genuine character rather than a faceless grunt. Soldiers jubilant praises or personalized death throes go a long way to driving home the game’s themes.

However, there is one addition here that I absolutely cannot ignore. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles might just have the best voice acting performances of any video game I have ever played. It genuinely enhances the drama, script, and story in every way.

However, the Enhanced version does add a lovely (optional) Focal Effect blur, added lighting and contrast depth, as well a possible attempt at recreating the PS1’s dithering via a storybook filter effect. These touches do a nice job calling back to the strengths of the original on a CRT TV.

I would have preferred an option to simply switch to the original, pixellated sprites rather than an entire “Classic” version. That or have each sprite completely redone in a more hand drawn, fittingly HD art style. Your mileage may vary. Here is a quick comparison vs my JVC D-Series CRT’s S-Video

My biggest issue is with the “Enhanced” visuals. Environmental textures have been smoothed out using a filter, while sprites appear to have been scaled up and drawn over. Details can smudge together or look a bit off like Gragoroth’s fingers here or Wiegraf’s boot.

Sadly, the Classic version seems to use some kind of AI upscaling for its FMVs. The scenes themselves appear suitably pixelated to the original resolution, but in motion details smudge together as if the FMVs were AI upscaled and then recompressed. A minor, but odd decision.

The Ivalice Chronicles also offers a separate Classic version, which retains the PS1 visuals with 16:9 support, but removes PS1 dithering. It also adds an autosave feature, a lifesaver, and the somewhat controversial 2007 War of the Lions translation. More on that later.

The Ivalice Chronicles does a fantastic job onboarding new (or lapsed) players with modernized tutorials, rebalanced difficulty options, and a slew of quality of life features. All of these gameplay features feel like genuine enhancements that don’t detract from the core game.

I consider Final Fantasy Tactics to be not only one of the greatest games of all time, but an essential work of fiction. While I always adored its poignant story, I found the idiosyncrasies of its mechanics a bit impenetrable in my youth. Today, they’re second nature.