I just took the latest KNOPPIX out for a spin. Actually, it turns out to 
be pretty empty, actually. (Or perhaps "uncluttered" is the right term...)

Anyway, one thing I did discover is a screensaver simply named "6502".

Other emulators allow you to run programs written for various 8-bit home 
computers. This thing emulates the signal distortions of a cheap 
RF-modulator connected to a cheap 1980s CRT home TV. It's friggin' HARDCORE!

- You can see the scanlines.
- The whole screen sparkles with faint noise.
- Horizontal edges have strange fringes of colour, like dispersion.
- The image has slight horizontal ghosting, like you get from cheap 
unshielded RF cables.
- Large areas of bright colour cause slight horizontal width 
distortions. (I never understood why the hell CRTs do this, but they 
undeniably do...)

Even the colours look about right. It's really very convincing!

Ah, how far we have come. I'm running a dual-core 2 GHz CPU connected by 
an 800 MHz bus to 2 GB of RAM, and it's running Microsoft Windows XP, 
which is running VMware Workstation, which is emulating a single-core 2 
GHz CPU connected to 800 MB of RAM, which is running GNU/Linux 2.6.x, 
which is running a screen saver, which is emulating a 6502 CPU running 
at 1 MHz connected to 40 KB of RAM and 26 KB of ROM, and also emulating 
the cheap-arse video system it runs on.

AND IT'S STILL FASTER THAN THE ORIGINAL!

I am God.

http://www.xkcd.com/676/

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> - Large areas of bright colour cause slight horizontal width distortions. 
> (I never understood why the hell CRTs do this, but they undeniably do...)

To do with the power supply I think, if more current is drawn from it for 
the brightness (ie large white areas) then the timing of the beam scanning 
goes a bit wonky due to voltage drops or something.

On a CRT this can be easily seen by flicking between a completely white 
screen and a completely black screen with a thin white border, the physical 
size of outline should obviously stay the same, but it doesn't in practise 
(depending on the qualitiy of the CRT).

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