At this arcade that sells the actual stand-ups many of the CRTs look to not be extremely clear like I'd expect. Don't these things typically use an RGB connection or something? Is it that the CRT is aged or maybe the contrast is set too high or what?

CRT's loose brightness as they get older so they are probably upping all the colour adjustments.

The other thing is if you are use to LCD's now then a CRT probably seems blurry to you.

> Is it that the CRT is aged or maybe the contrast is set too high or what?

A little here, a little there. I'd say about 95% (and probably more) of CRT displays are set way too bright. Sure, it makes the picture pop, but it really takes its toll on the tube. Even set correctly, CRTs'll wear out eventually anyway, so if they're old, ops'll do like jajig says, which kinda puts it into this death spiral.

> > Is it that the CRT is aged or maybe the contrast is set too high or what?
>
> A little here, a little there. I'd say about 95% (and probably more) of CRT
> displays are set way too bright. Sure, it makes the picture pop, but it really
> takes its toll on the tube. Even set correctly, CRTs'll wear out eventually
> anyway, so if they're old, ops'll do like jajig says, which kinda puts it into
> this death spiral.

These are both really good points, and most newer monitors have a board with a number of pots on them that allow you to adjust brightness, contrast, etc. to whatever level suits your taste.

I can't get at my cabinet right now to give you a more accurate description, but on mine the pots are attached via a ribbon cable that just dangles down from the back of the monitor.

Oh, yeah, if any of those pots are crapping out (or any of the discrete components on the board they're typically soldered to), it can also cause problems. I've seen a couple of monitors where this has been a problem, but not many more than that.