When did LCDs overtake CRTs at QuakeCon? A photographic investigation.

[signal]

I was looking at old QuakeCon photos and wanted to see when there was an obvious shift from CRTs to LCDs. Dreamhack information not listed here.


1996 - 2001: Not really any LCDs during these years.

Though the exception here seems to be the Apple setups:

2001 - 2004 is mostly still CRTs, but some vendors seem to have LCDs as a part of their displays. The odd individual also seems to have one. Apple still representing:

Still CRTs in 2005, but I think there's a slight increase in the individuals that have their own LCDs over 2004:

2006 still has CRTs, but also way more LCDs:

And 2007 - no CRTs in sight! I guess this was the year:

So, 2007 I guess. I wonder what the bandwidth carbon footprint of this thread is to just say "2007"?

Bonus Fact: Consumpion of Bawls™ energy drink appears to have peaked in 2003 - 2004

 

[Deleted member 420]

This is a nice thread.

FUCK LCD

 

[diablogg]

Well I liked all the back 2 the past pictures

 

[Wariobenotware]

Poor CRT's. They were pretty much perfect displays for gaming but then everyone took a massive step back with LCD.

 

[Annihilo]

2007 was the beginning of the end for a lot of things

 

[Bomblord]

Man I can't even imagine the power draw of all those CRT's

 

[Iolo]

Poor CRT's. They were pretty much perfect displays for gaming but then everyone took a massive step back with LCD.

Click to shrink...

Imagine the cooling bill though.

 

[Pargon]

Man I can't even imagine the power draw of all those CRT's

Click to shrink...

The power draw of CRTs was greatly exaggerated to sell flat panels that often consumed just as much - or more - power.
It was not until LED backlights that we started to see really efficient displays.

 

[Firebrand]

The transition from CRT to LCD was so, so rough, forced upon me from my Samsung SyncMaster starting to whine and wobble in the late 2000s.

Still not happy with LCDs, then again I also don't have one of them superduper 144Hz ones. At least the geometry is on point...? 2D gaming on my Sony Trinitron was a mess.

 

[Deleted member 8752]

Well... this thread is a bummer. So many great CRTs lost :-(

 

[Mbolibombo]

Cool!

I cant really remember when I swapped my CRT for a flat screen myself. I remember having a CRT on Dreamhack 2004, but after that my memory falls a bit short..

 

[empo]

Surprised LCD took over so fast, I guess the weight was much more reasonable for LANs.
I don't remember exactly when I got my first LCD screen but there's no way any of them were even decent back in 2007.

 

[Ramsiege]

I remember moving CRTs around back in the day. Lift with your legs!

 

[Neuromancer]

Great thread OP. I was enthralled.

 

[killuglypop]

So that's where the ice caps went. Jokes aside, what a fun time to be a competitive gamer.

I wince when I think of what became of old CRTs, we made the switch at home around 05/06 I believe

 

[Kittens McMittens]

Wow. I went to QuakeCon in 97. Seeing those pictures was a big nostalgia hit.

I missing my old 19" CRT again cos of this thread.

 

[Necron]

So around 2007 is the year where high refresh rate was sacrificed...

Dark1x are you seeing this? :(

 

[Duxxy3]

Loved my crt, but I hated carrying it anywhere. Really though, that's about all that changed in PC gaming (in terms of your typical setup). Still have the box, keyboard, mouse and mousepad. My headphones got better though.

 

[Deleted member 8468]

That Aspyr setup looks like the one from 2002. I remember seeing some of those thicker LCD screens there that year, but most folks had CRTs. I lugged my own into thr BYOC room that year and everyone around me had CRTs too.

 

[8byte]

Weight, heat output, shipping costs, space, etc. Lots of reasons, I imagine.

 

[DanteMenethil]

You now remember the static over the CRT monitor lifting your fingers hairs when swiping a smudge

 

[Emmz]

Urban Terror and a bunch of Ratpadz in the same picture. Fucking nostalgia overload.

 

[DanteMenethil]

I pity the zoomers who will never experience CRTs

 

[Wariobenotware]

For some reason in my head i always picture that we went from huge fat ass CRT Tv's to perfectly slim and sleek looking LCD displays but looking at some old pics is always a good reminder of how hideous most early LCD looked like.

 

[Nexus2049]

You now remember the static over the CRT monitor lifting your fingers hairs when swiping a smudge

Click to shrink...

I can feel it.

 

[Deleted member 25042]

Going from high end early-mid 2000s CRT to blurry as hell with awful black levels and viewing angles LCD was an atrocious experience.

 

[qrac]

The headphones... I remember everyone just using whatever cheapo headphones they could find. Today's it's a whole different story. Same with mice/keyboards.

 

[BloodRayne]

I was told CRTs were more harmful to your eyes than LCDs. But I loved my CRTs!

 

[rsfour]

All those amazing cargo shorts.

And lol, some of those PC cases, owned a few.

 

[FinKL]

What a blast from the blast. I know when I made the switch. I had an old Compaq CRT that somehow burned out (smelled like burnt electronics) in Summer 2015. What blew my mind was how laggy my new Sceptre LCD was and I couldn't figure it out why when playing Guild Wars/CS. I bought a 2nd Samsung LCD monitor and the lag was less extreme.

 

[Biggersmaller]

Excellent thread idea! This pic perfectly captures that 2004 feel for me.

 

[dmr87]

Friend of mine had that case, good times.

 

[AaronMT]

Take me back to the days of Quake 2 and 3 LAN. I miss those days. Counter Strike Betas, Unreal Tournament 99, Day of Defeat, Action Quake, Team Fortress. Good times.

 

[MagnusGman]

No Quakecon this year hurts my soul. It'll feel extra good to be back next year though.

 

[big_z]

I wish SED didn't get patent squat'd out of existence. LCD sucked hard back then and still kinda does today.

 

[Sacrilicious]

For some reason in my head i always picture that we went from huge fat ass CRT Tv's to perfectly slim and sleek looking LCD displays but looking at some old pics is always a good reminder of how hideous most early LCD looked like.

Click to shrink...

Compared to modern displays, sure, but they're definitely a lot sleeker than contemporary CRTs.

Naturally they use similar external materials and aesthetics, those reflect the design standards of the time rather than with technological jumps, but the thin form factor goes a long way.

It is easy to forget that transitions tend to be gradual, even technological breakthroughs.

 

[gnexus]

I miss Bawls, and when ThinkGeek was like a caffeine drug dealer

 

[Deleted member 1659]

I could never go back to CRTs. I can't believe so many people here actually miss them.

I would take the trade off in visual fidelity for space saving convenience everytime. The standard screen size for CRTS back in the day were between 14-19 inches - with thick bezels.

Yeah I get they had a faster refresh rate and more brilliant colours but it's because of LCD's that the standard monitor size has.

 

[Rygar 8Bit]

I could never go back to CRTs. I can't believe so many people here actually miss them.

I would take the trade off in visual fidelity for space saving convenience everytime. The standard screen size for CRTS back in the day were between 14-19 inches - with thick bezels.

Yeah I get they had a faster refresh rate and more brilliant colours but it's because of LCD's that the standard monitor size has.

Click to shrink...

I don't miss lugging them around that's for sure.

 

[Tarot Deck]

Good times.

I guess this means we are all old fucks, right ?

I expect more of this nostalgic threads in the next years.

 

[low-G]

I didn't give up on CRT monitors until 2009. 2007? Amateurs...

I'm just glad LCDs keep improving because I'd be fucking depressed if we still had 2007 LCD tech.

 

[Transistor]

Heh. I'm in one of these pictures :P

I miss Quakecon

 

[ColdSun]

Fantastic OP and it's made me greatly miss Quakecon :(

 

[PS9]

Soul Calibur 2 tournament 8PM Friday

 

[Bluelote]

interesting, my first LCD was around mid 2005, my newest CRT is from 2007.

 

[Deleted member 6215]

So glad I still have my CRT from the early 2000s. Modern displays still haven't caught up yet.

 

[signal]

That Aspyr setup looks like the one from 2002. I remember seeing some of those thicker LCD screens there that year, but most folks had CRTs. I lugged my own into thr BYOC room that year and everyone around me had CRTs too.

Click to shrink...

Even today I like those thicker LCDs. It's why those boxy professional colour grading ones or whatever look good to me lol. Or that pro Somy monitor that Apple was comparing their XDR display to.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

That's roughly around when LCDs started to become more affordable for most people and the image quality wasn't nearly as shit. For a long the the dimness and expense wasn't worth it. Hell I think this may have been around when I got my first flat panel, as well. Not much worse than having to deal with a terrible frequency whine or, if you were really unlucky, capacitor/PSU whine on a CRT and being the only one who can hear it.

 

[Spark]

I don't know what it would have been like transitioning from a CRT with great motion clarity and contrast to a 2003 era LCD. It would have been a complete step down, why did people want to transition so fast?

 

[nullref]

Great thread. Very nostalgic, as this covered my peak university comp-sci PC gaming years, and I recognize a lot of specific hardware. The CRTs were great, but man, PC cases, peripherals, etc. of the era were such ugly junk.

One of my roommates had a couple dozen cases of Bawls shipped to him, because we couldn't buy it anywhere in our small Canadian city. He'd sell some to other nerds we knew, but mostly we drank it all.