- New app simulates a CRT monitor or TV image for Mac and iOS
- It’s incredibly deep and realistic, it even simulates the chemistry of matches.
- Fans are very impressed and the app has a growing following, with calls for Windows and Android versions.
Have you ever missed the days of big, huge CRT monitors or televisions? If you do, a new app for iOS and macOS gives you the chance to relive those past images, with a very deep simulation of the image quality on offer.
A Redditor has developed Retro Analog TV Simulator, which is a passion project that really attempts to capture the authentic look of a CRT (cathode ray tube) and analog broadcasts, including simulating the physics involved.
The Analog TV Simulator app recreates “the entire analog television process from first principles,” and that includes simulating elements from transmitted image interference to CRT phosphor glow.
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The developer (Alastair Bor) explains that “there are no post-processing filters or shortcuts; every artifact (point tracking, chroma smearing, persistence phosphor, ghosting, etc.) emerges naturally from the physics (and chemistry of phosphors).”
You get simulation of various standards (such as NTSC and PAL, and many more), as well as VCR formats (VHS and Betamax, and more), and even historical test cards. (Like the BBC effort I’m very familiar with from my childhood here in the UK – yes, the TV used to stop at midnight in the early 1980s and a test card or pattern would appear on the screen, complete with an annoying constant tone that forced you to go to bed.)
On Mac, you can route any game or video player through the app to display it in CRT form, or even any window, or input from capture cards, USB webcams, and the like.
It’s all great, and you can download the app for macOS here (which costs $2) and for iOS here (for $1), or trials are free through the app’s website if you want to try it out without paying.
Magnet mode and much more
This is a really impressive and deep project. There are even controls, such as emulated service menu settings, which include geometry settings like pincushion or tilt, along with several Easter eggs as well.
One of the latter is “magnet mode” and, again, anyone who has owned an old TV or monitor in the past will be familiar with what happens if you place a magnet near it (a sort of psychedelic on-screen experience). The developer has even included a simulated degaussing button to return the screen to normal.
One Redditor observes: “Playing the macOS version is a lot of fun, and as someone who has made a career out of making ugly videos for network TV, has played with a lot of plugins, and has also been known to dump HD footage to tape and beat on the VTR while re-encoding it so it can be played on a 30-year-old CRT at 24fps… this is VERY cool.”
Another Redditor noted: “Wow, that’s like a dream come true for me. Insta bought it on my iPhone and I’m already floored. I can’t wait to try it on the bigger iPad screen later when I’m home!”
The idea is to provide a fun and educational experience, and it certainly seems to work well on both levels.
The app is currently available to download for Mac and iOS devices, as noted. However, there are more than a few requests for the developer to produce Windows and Android versions of the software, and I expect that interest to grow. The developer could eventually port it, saying on Reddit that: “I could use some AI tool like Claude Code to port it to Windows.”
I still remember the old CRT I used to play Doom and Quake deathmatch on; Although ridiculously bulky, that monitor provided very smooth gameplay for a competitive shooting session. And as for my 32-inch Sony widescreen CRT, I still fondly remember that giant TV (my back remembers it too, but not as fondly after several house moves and living room furniture changes).
CRT enthusiasts should note that it wasn’t long ago that a retro gamer took his old Iiyama Vision Master Pro512 CRT monitor to an incredibly smooth 700Hz. Apparently there’s still life in old CRTs, in one form or another.
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