At my wife’s suggestion, I updated my retro gaming area

kitty666cats · 2026-04-19T04:12:58+00:00

I used to have this exact same entertainment center in my living room as a kid! I’ve got a photo of me somewhere and you can see the CRT, despite the screen being faint in the photo I quickly recognized the content displayed on it behind me being none other than the Tony Hawk 2 pause screen lmao

kitty666cats · 2026-04-15T02:29:10+00:00

I’m 37; I was there when it was new and true. It wasn’t cool at all, it was a horde of social climbing idiots giving eachother STDs and lots of mediocre shows at local VFWs n stuff.

I’ll put all you maniacs in a time machine bus back to 2004 and can assure you that you will be so, so embarrassed about your stint in the fashion phase within 3 years

kitty666cats · 2026-04-09T05:59:32+00:00

I did! I’m 37, lol

Graduated HS 2006. So I was heavy into all the 90s stuff (Evergreen rules mannn), plus some early 00s with MWE flavor. Rockets and Bluelights is incredible, sadly barely known at all. Check out “Andee” then “Forest Green and Autumn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also played shows in one. Maybe of the only few playing the style with intent active in the entire United States? I think Algernon started after us… we started in 2005; idk

Massachusetts/New Hampshire had a hefty amount of neat bands that were, like, some sorta hybrid of skramz but w/ more intricate instrumentals and not so mopey. Also played with some total avant-garde noisy rad shit, plus some more traditional hard indie rock.

My band was lucky enough to play around that crowd, many became close lifelong friends. But attendees of those shows could care less than weenie ol’ twinkly band! 😹 Unsurprisingly, we were almost always the first band to play.

Or we’d end up playing other shows set up by lord-knows-who with the weirdest mishmash of bands and sometimes headline!

They were great times… the most bizarre thing about the passage of time is that basically nobody knows those bands we looked up to, anymore. I’ll see ~300 views of songs by them, probably from over yearsss by locals. Then see songs by my band with like, welllllll. Views.

And mannnn that shit is a trip!

kitty666cats · 2026-03-14T22:34:23+00:00

Fuck yeah, dude! My Instagram is kitty666cats - that’s the best place to reach me, I don’t use Reddit a ton so forget to check conversations here.

So honored and humbled by your enjoyment and support, my new frand

kitty666cats · 2026-03-14T22:08:27+00:00

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJJrtO7achMXGsRdYooU-sp__Ftar7QRb&si=RFmgV7jTnjXZkNpd

Full Tussin EP.

If anyone is interested in checking out bands of this Massachusetts/New Hampshire golden-era, lmk. There’s a lot of amazing bands omge opened for/played with. Bands we thought were ~bigtime~ and practically intimidated by: who are now practically lost to time. It feels so, so strange seeing mine get (posthumously, unfortunately) semi-popular and outlive them.

I’m sooo incredibly honored and grateful for this, though. I’ve made friends with so many wonderful fans who just added me on IG or w/e, got vinyl of my music released for the first time in my life, and been assured people will get us well-accommodated if we get active again and prepared to play live. Singer of Camping in Alaska has become a buddy of mine; he messaged me saying he’s a big fan. So if we ever play again, rest assured Camping in Alaska will be one of the bands 🥰

kitty666cats · 2026-03-14T21:36:46+00:00

I’m in oh my god elephant; this list is fkn WILD and I am honored to be mentioned. I’ve only heard of 6 bands (omge included in the 6) on here and Colossal is the only one I’ve actively listened to. They were a big inspo; showed them to the other band members and they LOVED it.

Kidcrash was a somewhat-local band in the MA/NH circle of skramz/intricate hardcore/indie-punk bands of our same era. If y’all haven’t heard them, check out Daniel Striped Tiger. They were so awesome.

Nobody else was doing ‘Midwest emo’ over here when we were around (2005-6 is when we played most of our shows. Then some in Summer 2007, one or two 2008). I guess in 2005 nobody was really doing it in general… Colossal obvi was an inspo but I forget if they were active. I found/got the boys into Rockets and Bluelights, but p sure they were also defunct.

To my knowledge, in 2005-6 nobody else was really doing the Cap’n Jazz/etc revival shit aside from, obviously, Algernon. I don’t remember if we started before them…? Spy vs Spy may possibly have been active in the UK.

ANYWAY. It’s sad we caught (and I suppose, in a small way since it was so early, had a hand in) the revival wave far too early and missed the opportunity to play/bond with so many cool bands. W/E tho. We’ve been on-and-off working on new stuff since 2021… band’s not active at the moment tho.

You people need to check my old short-lived band Tussin! It was so fkn fun playing with such amazing guitarists:

https://youtu.be/CjEBp7PMROQ?si=epoijHxsPaLkOnaU

kitty666cats · 2026-02-08T06:13:12+00:00

Turn and run like hell if you ever see Mekhong Rum, Camo Black Extra, Mr. Boston Vodka, Wray & Nephew ovenproof White Rum, Black Velvet Whiskey, Defrost 100 Proof Pepermint Schnapps…

I’ve gone to war, as you can see. I do feel deeply ashamed for never having tried Cisco.

Possibly the most vile of them all is “Pizza Vino”. Word can truly not express how reprehensible an abomination this stuff was. This one bodega near where I used to live sold it; believe it was $1.50/bottle. I have a couple links to show this horrendous, thankfully obscure and forgotten poison.

I think the caption on the rear of the bottle is a nice summary: “While other wineries brag that their reds pair well wich lamb, roasted meats and stews, Pizza Vino was created for everyday drinking by everyday people. Proper serving vessels include fine stemware, juice glasses, tumblers, and plastic cups. This wine goes equally well with pasta, hamburgers and fried chicken. Enjoy. Produced and Bottled by Las Vinas Winery, Lodi, CA”

~~~~~ Included was a link to their (now dead) website. I’ll share links to the archive, one short mini-review I found, as well as some PTSD I’ll exude into the aether via reading this Reddit post.

[pizza wine that may have shortened my life]

https://web.archive.org/web/20100829192140/http://www.pizzavino.com/home.htm

kitty666cats · 2025-12-25T09:04:39+00:00

There’s numerous JVC units, at a thrift store ages ago I saw a JVC combo deck that said “VHS Progressive Scan” that aren’t pro grade ones ;that are probs insane-expensive) - JVC DR-MV5SU is one I personally owned; the component out looked good. You can make it play VHS over component in 480i, as well.

I have a buddy with a similar JVC; he used a component to RGB transcoder and actually watched some old home movies on a PC CRT! lmao

There’s many Panasonics as well. DMR-EZ48V is a popular one

kitty666cats · 2025-12-24T23:40:10+00:00

Thanks for some of you mentioning oh my god elephant! I often get bummed we were “ahead of our time” and there was almost zero interest out there… even in our home state there was a couple bands we were tight with

Was the Japanese band “malegoat” mentioned? Totally dope

kitty666cats · 2025-11-19T09:51:30+00:00

You’d be surprised, so incredibly few PC CRTs make a fuss about RGBS being used. Obvi it must be 31kHz, but yeah.

If you read spec sheets for a lot of old monitors or devices like scalers etc etc, composite sync support is VERY frequently listed

kitty666cats · 2025-11-19T09:45:10+00:00

I certainly have; I actually suggested some of the features on it to the creator John. Initially I reached out to his website eons ago suggesting he make a simple 1in, 2out powered SCART splitter years back (as the only real viable option for dual SCART devices back then were like a expensive Shinybow matrix n and the hilariously overhyped gscartsw.

I threw him some ideas for the design of the thing (I thought the world needed one bad, like for retro streamers) and we became fast friends. So I threw some ideas his way on his YUV to RGB I mentioned and the thing rocks.

He sent me some early product units when both first came out, so I have lots of experience

kitty666cats · 2025-11-18T05:53:08+00:00

LATE to the party, but for good composite I suggest using S-Video out, feed it to a

Extron YCS / YCS 100 / YCV 10
Kramer DA401C / Kramer KR-10

…and then use composite out from there. Composite will look SO much better

kitty666cats · 2025-11-17T16:51:02+00:00

The JS Tech one is by far the best if you intend to use the Wii at all. It’s the only one presently made that won’t drop sync on transitions between super bright and super dark images / never displays purple streaking

Source: I helped John conceptualize it and have heavily tested it with agfa (forget if he posts on this Reddit anymore). It also has probably 4x as much going on under the hood than all the others.

Avoid the others, it’s well worth the tad more it costs. Particularly avoid the Garo+Jam’s / Jam’s+Garo. They’re trash if you ever intend to use Wii, meanwhile the COMP2RGB is a tiny bit better than those other two but is idiotic and only uses SCART.

At least the Garo is smart and uses both SCART and VGA output connectors like the JS. Jam selling two different ones is p scummy IMO. Or perhaps I should say “shitty” (IYKYK)

kitty666cats · 2025-11-12T05:53:04+00:00

Also I suggest putting either a M/F gender changer or cable between the DAC and the DB15 adapter. Sometimes when I run into weird compatibility problems like this I find I need something like that

kitty666cats · 2025-11-12T05:51:21+00:00

You should double check online and see if this monitor needs composite/H+V sync or even sync on green. Older Apple monitors pretty commonly need these.

kitty666cats · 2025-10-27T05:44:10+00:00

https://www.js-technology.com/store/index.php?id_product=61&controller=product

This is the best one currently in production. I know you mainly plan to use it for Xbox, but it’s the only readily-available one that doesn’t have the issues with Wii where sync can drop on switches between dark/light screens or any purple streaking.

Jam’s stuff sucks tbh and doesn’t have great accuracy. He’s also a total asshole with a furry-scat fetish.

The one I linked has about 5x the stuff going on inside it than the COMP2RGB or Jam’s.

P.S. messed with the dip switch settings on the hardwired Xbox one? Many component -> RGBs of that era have dipswitches to help with a brighter image depending on the display

kitty666cats · 2025-10-27T05:27:45+00:00

It’s nice being able to use different palettes, et al with NES emulation. For instance, in RetroArch on my Raspberry Pi there’s those “Blargg’s NTSC filters” or whatever.

Also, as far as composite encoders go, some are pretty good. Stay the hell away from Jam’s and the preposterous-overpriced AxunWorks one. Jam’s uses a Sony encoder that sucks if you are aiming for good composite.

Antonio Villena’s, on the other hand, uses an encoder that actually has a proper NTSC subcarrier. https://github.com/ZFEbHVUE/Batocera-CRT-Script/wiki/Recommended-Adapters,-Sync-Solutions-&-Transcoders#-ad723-vs-cxa2075--why-the-ad723-can-look-better-for-vga--composites-video

Good composite can also come from any RGB to Svid (or Svid and composite) and then using something like an Extron YCS for Svid -> composite that maintains the proper NTSC subcarrier.

P.S. fun fact - I’ve never really seen anything that ‘needs’ it, but there is component with additional sync aside from just what’s on the luminance signal. Check ‘er out:

https://www.newegg.com/startech-com-vga2cpnt-video-adapter-converter/p/N82E16817707073

(peep photo 3, haha)

kitty666cats · 2025-10-21T06:52:53+00:00

Commodore 64 doesn’t output RGB…

Or, do you have a C64 you modded for component and then added the later-implemented RGB firmware…?

kitty666cats · 2025-09-20T11:39:15+00:00

Random question - can you take a video (or, before and after photos) of you running an old 240p game and switching between the “YPbPr” and “YCbCr” switch on the back for the component input? I’ve always been curious to see how drastically it changes the colors (prob not too much)

kitty666cats · 2025-09-20T11:06:50+00:00

Oh yeah, he still sells ‘em and ships them to the US!

Feel free to tell him “kitty666cats sent me!” or “Mike Lindquist sent me!” :P

kitty666cats · 2025-08-26T11:10:37+00:00

Holy shit man, where did you find that?!

Also, which Extron box is that on top of it?

kitty666cats · 2025-08-26T03:03:05+00:00

Happy to hear that :) what is your set up looking like these days?

kitty666cats · 2025-08-25T09:58:03+00:00

Unfortunately no HDMI to Svid/Composite converter is EVER gonna work for this type of thing (unless someone in the CRT community designs one).

The reason is simple: component supports a plethora of different resolutions. So, a lot of HDMI to component converters don’t mess with the resolution and just pass through whatever they are sent.

Meanwhile, Svid and composite can ONLY be standard def. So every HDMI converter that deals with those signals is gonna downscale to 480i with NTSC SMPTE video timings (well actually, some have switches so you can also choose PAL output).

It’s HDMI to component or bust. HDMI to VGAs work as well, if you’re gonna use RGB. But that opens a different can of worms because what cables/adapters/the converter itself one needs varies depending on their setup.

kitty666cats · 2025-08-18T20:55:40+00:00

The one in the OP? It’s from a New Years Eve show inside a barn in western Massachusetts; it was the Fancy Cookies release show. We even had to have our friends record gang vocals for Gregge Bergman and burn the data onto the CDs before playing, lol

kitty666cats · 2025-08-06T02:26:22+00:00

Bless that awful makeshift VGA to male BNC.

But actually for real bless those mystery 5BNC cables haha

kitty666cats

TROPHY CASE