It simulates old Cathode tube monitors from days past. You can pretend you are working on an old Lost era 1970 Aames research terminal, a 286 from 1980, even a Commodore 64, a Pet, or pretty much any old UNIX workstations long before flat panel LCD. You even have the degauss effects, blur, random jitter, RF static as if you are on a real old school terminal. In short, cool.
This is how it looks on my Retina 15" Macbook Pro.
I had low expectations; thinking it would come with at most, 3-4 themes. I was pleasantly surprise to see the myriad of options: screen themes, monitor faceplate themes, fonts, and you can even configure the background CRT reflection. In short, you can configure this in a hundred different permutations. For example, you can pretend you have Commodore 64 connected to a 9" TV from 1976 with a janky RF adapter. You'll get the RF backfeed, fuzz, noise, scan-lines, and refresh. If you are old enough to remember switching between Channel 3 and 4 due to local tv station back-feed while connecting a home computer to a television set in the 80s, you'll know what I am talking about.
The apps is even retina optimized so you can see with extreme clarity.
Here are some screen shots.
$10 doesn't seem so bad considering I am in the terminal 90% of the time. It makes it fun. And with Apple's download policies, I can install this on multiple macs I own via the App-store. In essence, it takes the bite out of $10 for a terminal app when you spread it across 4-5 macs. It is definitely worth it for the fun and nostalgia.
I only wish for a 1990 MacTerm and Nextstep theme to complete this. And if this developer ever made this app as an SSH client for the iPad, I will be the first one in line to download.
Lastly, I finally have a reason to pull out my old 7" portable USB displaylink monitors. At 800x480, they're pretty useless but as a second terminal window, they're pretty cool.
Link on App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cathode/id499233976?mt=12
Does that ever bring back the memories!
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed is that you're running Arch Linux ARM. I always like seeing random snippets and screen shots from our OS. Thanks!
ReplyDelete-Mike
I really like seeing snippets and screen caps from our distribution. Thanks for using Arch Linux ARM! :D
ReplyDelete-Mike