History Main / OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture

* Justified in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. [[AlternateHistory The transistor wasn't invented until 2067]] (roughly a hundred years after the real-world silicon transistor), leading to the common computers just before the Great War of 2077 being very simplistic, equivalent to late 1970s' personal computers. Displays are massive monochromatic green/amber cathode ray tubes; even the Institute in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' still uses [=CRTs=] despite having had two centuries to improve. Holograms were developed and the technology was in its infancy at the end of the world. The Sierra Madre Casino in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has fairly realistic albeit monochromatic HardLight holographic security drones and entertainers.

* Justified in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. [[AlternateHistory The transistor wasn't invented until 2067]] - roughly a hundred years after the real-world silicon transistor - leading to the common computers just before the Great War of 2077 being very simplistic, equivalent to late 1970s' personal computers. Displays are massive monochromatic green/amber cathode ray tubes; even the Institute in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' still uses [=CRTs=] despite having had two centuries to improve. Holograms were developed and the technology was in its infancy at the end of the world. The Sierra Madre Casino in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has fairly realistic albeit monochromatic HardLight holographic security drones and entertainers.

Can be arguably [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in a scenario when functionality is preferable to looks. After all, the last thing you want to see on the screen of your spaceship's on-board computer in the middle of a crucial operation is a graphics driver error. This is TruthInTelevision in a surprising number of cases, where complex graphics are not only unnecessary, but are actually a hindrance, or even ''dangerous''. Although in the future, [[TechnologyMarchesOn our graphic cards will probably be way better and more reliable too]].

* In an obvious stylistic choice, ''Anime/KillLaKill'' is set at most TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture or possibly in a higher-tech alternate present, yet all the screens shown are low-res, grayscale LCD displays, even when they're attached to supercomputers or smartphones.

* At least they did better than ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'', which doesn't even have [=GUIs=] who knows how many centuries in the future. [[WordofGod Word of God]] has hinted that the "Universal Century" (the [[AlternativeCalendar main timeline]] of Gundam) begins in the mid-2100s, putting the original series into the early 23rd century. Given that the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam first TV series]] was produced in 1979, five years before the Apple Macintosh debuted with a built in GUI,[[note]]First experimental [=GUIs=] did already exist at the time, but they were created in the rarified world of bespectacled, bearded and lab-coated computer scientists working with UsefulNotes/MainframesAndMinicomputers, and had yet to enter the public consciousness.[[/note]] it's not surprise that they didn't show advanced [=GUIs=] beyond handrawn line images.
* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'': Although there are very advanced-looking 3D monitors, the GPS system that Section 9 uses to track criminals is like a bare-bones Google Maps.

* ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'': As seen in ''ComicBook/TheGreatDarknessSaga'', the Legion's computers, built by the greatest genius in the 30th century galaxy, have displays with very simple 2-D graphics, and plain green screensavers.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In Episode IV, the fighters' targeting computers had very plain graphics,[[note]]The vector graphic Death Star trench animation used in the movie was done using a state-of-the-art (for the mid-1970s) system running a rendering system called GRASS and took hours per frame.[[/note]] as did the Rebels' displays at the Yavin base. In later (and [[{{Prequel}} "earlier"]]) installations, Lucas and company apparently understood how computers were changing.[[note]]As well they should; by 1980, when the second movie was released, there was a ''Star Wars'' arcade game with graphics similar to ones used in the Death Star trench animation from the first movie... except ''in color'' and ''in real time''; this served as a pretty good object lesson in how rapidly graphics capabilities were advancing.[[/note]] For ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', they didn't put any graphics that would actually appear on a computer screen onscreen (though they continued to show holograms). Even for the prequels, they kept such visuals to a minimum, though they likely could have created any interface they liked with effects. Rule still applies, even if taking place "long ago".
** Could be justified with the limited amounts of power the onboard computers of mass-produced (for the Empire's bloated war machine) ships could afford.
** Even so, the holograms are [[HologramProjectionImperfection black and white and flickery]], not half as good an image as any video technology that would've existed when the first ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' movie was ''filmed.'' However, it does add UsedFuture appeal.
** On the other hand in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Nute Gunray had a huge TV like transmitter that had very good graphics like a traditional TV.
** The ''VideoGame/XWing'' video game actually used the Episode IV visuals for its targeting computers. Apparently deciding that they could do better, in ''VideoGame/TIEFighter'' Lucasarts gave the [=TIEs=] a targeting computer that showed the target from the perspective of the pilot's ship, including orientation, though the viewpoint of the "camera" was always from the same distance. It might have been a decision to give the [=TIEs=] more advanced equipment, except that all future iterations gave player-controlled craft an identical targeting computer.
** In the ''VideoGame/RogueSquadron'' games, the targeting computer has the same color scheme as the films but puts a [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience color overlay]] on top of the game's own graphics instead of using grids and dots.
** Many of the displays in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' look more updated....except for the targeting computer of the Falcon which has the exact same Atari looking graphics it had in 1977.
** Downright enforced by ''Film/RogueOne'' and ''Film/{{Solo}}'', which are set shortly before the original movie, and [[ZeerustCanon deliberately keep the displays with very simple graphics]].

*** Now contrast the graphics of ''Alien'' and ''Aliens'' with the state of the art-looking holograms, projections, and imagery present in ''{{Film/Prometheus}}'', theoretically set long before ''Alien.'' Possibly justified, since the ''Nostromo'' from ''Alien'' was a [[TheAllegedCar low-end old space tug]] and the ''Sulaco'' from ''Aliens'' was a [[StandardHumanSpaceship rugged military transport]], while the ''Prometheus'' was the shiny state-of-the-art CoolStarship

* Averted (a bit) in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', which used modified cel animation to depict computer readouts that would otherwise be difficult or impossible in 1968, such as David Bowman watching television on a [[DataPad paper-thin tablet]] aboard the ''Discovery'', but played painfully straight in the sequel ''Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'', with graphics and controls typical of 1984. On the other hand, the Soviet ''Alexei Leonov'' isn't nearly as advanced as the American ''Discovery'' despite the ''Leonov'' being several years younger.

* The text we see when Franchise/RoboCop [[RoboCam is first activated]] in ''Film/RoboCop1987'' shows that he is running under [=MS-DOS=] 3.3.

* In ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'', they can make DNA tests in seconds, but they have neither touchscreens nor high resolution.
* ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' is set in 1997, but is forced to use 1981 graphics. The effect helps create an UnintentionalPeriodPiece.
** The glider computer's green wireframe graphics were too expensive to do back then, so the model of Manhattan made for different scenes in the movie was painted black, outlined with green reflective tape and filmed. Truly, the past is another country.
* Inexplicably done in ''Film/RealSteel'', with a Generation 2 controller that Bailey dug up for Max to use with Atom. Seeing that 2007 was a date mentioned where Charlie was still boxing, the monochrome low-res screen on the G2 controller should be more advanced than that.
* ''Film/SexMission'', made in 1984: It is set in 2044, but computers still use wireframe 3-D green-lined graphics... and, at one point, what is clearly UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum graphics.
* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' featured Marty getting scared by a hologram sprouting from a theater marquee for ''Film/{{Jaws}}: [[RidiculousFutureSequelisation 19]]''. The hologram [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070112173103/bttf/images/4/4b/Jaws19-2.jpg is shown with low-detail CGI and bug eyes,]] which makes Marty's "The shark still looks fake." line that much funnier.
* ''Film/SpaceMutiny'' simulates the fighting space ships in the beginning with very primitive vector graphics that only show a vague resemblance to their counterparts.

* Many a Trekkie has suffered brain damage trying to explain the dichotomy between the ViewerFriendlyInterface on computers in ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' and the flashy lights and hand-made slides in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' -- we get a little help from the fact that we almost never see the screens of video displays on TOS showing anything other than fullscreen video. We get a better look at a TOS-era display in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "In a Mirror, Darkly", where it appears to be a sort of art deco version of the TNG-era LCARS interface.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' suffered from the same problem mentioned in the trope description of frame rate refresh being visible on screen. For that reason, only specialised TV monitors whose refresh rate could be adjusted to match that of the cameras were used, which meant that there you rarely saw an animated display in the background, only the ones necessary for the plot.
** While [=DS9=] has considerably more animated displays than TNG, it makes it look like the Cardassians [[SaltTheEarth trashing the station on their way out]] replaced [[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bajoran_Intelligence_net?file=Bajoran_Intelligence_net.jpg certain displays]] with 377-year-old UsefulNotes/{{Macintosh}}es, if the Chicago font is any indication. At least some of us wouldn't put it past those AffablyEvil Cardassians....
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' retconned this by having a time traveler introduce computer technology to the 20th century. The result was an alternate timeline similar to our own.
* In ''Series/KnightRider'', all of KITT's "complex" displays are source listings of BASIC programs. Given that the software is non-commercial, intended for use by a single trained user, and designed by a very small team to interface with custom hardware at a time with a shortage of third-party cross-platform GUI libraries, a text display was quite realistic for the period, of course - but that doesn't mean it was chosen as a result of the staff [[ShownTheirWork doing their homework]].
* Even worse, in ''{{Timeslip}}'', a futuristic (evil) computer can output ''directly as brainwaves'' or on a video screen. The video screen ''shows the image of a teletype printing out the computer's output.''

* In ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' we learn that at least part of [=SkyNet=] is written in Visual Basic and that Terminator [=CPUs=] plug into small subsection of PCI bus. No wonder they want to kill humanity.
* ''Series/LookAroundYou'', keeping with its {{Retraux}} theme, makes use of BBC Micros, using one in the first series opening titles to run a laughably simple BASIC program. The second series features a BBC Micro with glitchy voice software welcoming viewers to the future of "Look Around Yog", while a toaster with a BBC Micro attached is a "futuristic toasting system".
* ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1981'' (BBC miniseries)'s producers looked at what the BBC's own effects department offered for the guide. It wasn't pretty. So they averted this by using very painstakingly detailed cel animation and clever rear projection tricks to show "advanced" computer displays (such as the tiny non-flat flatscreen of the guide, the gigantic widescreen display on the Heart of Gold, etc).

* ''Series/MaxHeadroom''. Everything is in wire frames. Then again, it ''was'' the TropeNamer for TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture....

* ''Series/MoonbaseThree'': The computers were certainly more advanced looking than those used in 1973 - considering that they didn't take up a room - but there are no graphic interfaces.

* Varies heavily in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', set in the far off future of 3025 and beyond. [[HumongousMecha Battlemech]] heads up displays and cockpit displays are often depicted as being fairly simple affairs, albeit more for readability in combat rather than a lack of processing power. Third-dimensional holographic displays exist with great graphical capacity, but are uncommon due to excessive costs versus standard flatscreens, and interstellar transmissions are always sent in the smaller flatscreen format to save bandwidth. The depiction of display graphics has varied heavily in the franchise, having run [[LongRunners since 1984]], with older works using trending towards simplistic displays while [[TechnologyMarchesOn newer ones use flatscreens, tablets, and holograms]].

* The computers in ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' appear to be teletypes hooked up to enormous amber-monochrome screens. It fits with the Art Deco theming everywhere. It's also never explicitly stated just when the game is set; if anything, it seems to be around the Forties or Fifties, which would make them ''advanced'' for their time.

* Used in ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}''. Most likely intentional given how the game is a love letter to 'classic' sci-fi.

* In the mid-90s UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} adventure game ''VideoGame/DreamWeb'' (taking place in the near future), home computers similarly have no graphics at all, and no user interface either. The user is stuck with a clumsy DOS-like interface to access everything from his e-mail to fetching the latest news broadcast (which consists purely of text, too).
* In the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series, we have whizzy holographic monitors with monochrome visuals (usually amber, sometimes blue). Even non-holograms tend to be grainy, full of static, or blurry.
** The sequels justify this in-game by explaining that all of the important holographic conversations occur instantly across pan-galactic distances via quantum entanglement technology, which is still very much in its infancy. Quite literally, it looks crummy because only a tiny handful exist in the galaxy, and most of the ones used by the Alliance had to be reverse engineered from what they could steal from Cerberus and the Normandy SR-2. Getting it to run in 1080p before the Reapers arrived probably wasn't their highest priority. Given every other computer display in the series is just as bad, they did a pretty good job.
*** The regular work space holographic displays look like they were specifically made to cause seizures or otherwise injure their operators. They're pointlessly layered (making text illegible), out of focus, and flicker constantly. The Codex justifies it by pointing out that people working on displays use haptic implants in their fingers and special glasses or implanted lenses to ''properly'' see what they're working on. Without those, the display looks messy.

* Played with in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto Grand Theft Auto]]: [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Vice City Stories]]'' with the advertisement for the Fruit LC personal computer, with features like 18 kilobytes of memory and a two-tone, 8-inch display. In 1984, when the game is set, this would still have been a rather respectable system.
* Justified in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. [[AlternateHistory The transistor wasn't invented until 2067]] - roughly a hundred years after the real-world silicon transistor - leading to the common computers just before the Great War of 2077 being very simplistic, equivalent to late 1970s' personal computers. Displays are massive monochromatic green/amber cathode ray tubes; even the Institute in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' still uses [=CRTs=] despite having had two centuries to improve. Holograms were developed and the technology was in its infancy at the end of the world. The Sierra Madre Casino in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has fairly realistic albeit monochromatic HardLight holographic security drones and entertainers.
* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'', being a spiritual successor to ''Fallout'', very much do the same, despite humanity being in a space age. Unlike ''Fallout'', no real attempt is made to explain why technology is backwards compared to the real world. It's just how the setting is.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Superhot}}'', the OS for the player's computer and most of the apps on it are made of ASCII art, but there are hints of CyberPunk levels of technology available to [[spoiler:the System]], most prominently [[spoiler:their BrainUploading]].
* ''VideoGame/PlanetSide'' uses this for its virtual reality training areas for soldiers to experiment with new equipment before unlocking it. In the first game, objects in the VR had thick outlines and the terrain was super low-resolution and overlaid with wireframe. In the second game, objects look just like real life up close but beyond a few hundred meters the world fades away to black-and-white wireframe.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-eXQevSDzQ intro]] for the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem version of ''Super'' ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders'', even if the game takes place in 2073, features CRT-like graphics and a BeepingComputer.
* ''VideoGame/{{Speedball}} 2: Brutal Deluxe'' has a text introduction about the history of the Speedball sport in the period around the turn of the 22nd century. This text is presented in monospaced all-caps with a blinking block cursor.
* Embraced by ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' as part of its beautifully-realized RetroUniverse. The game itself has spectacular environmental graphics, particularly for 2014, but all the HUD elements, menus, and in-universe computer terminals are designed to look chunky and lo-fi. [[Creator/CreativeAssembly CA's]] art team really had their work cut out for them, considering this was the company's first first-person game: the team had access to original sound effects and high-quality assets from the original film, and even utilized early-80s video technology to provide another layer of authenticity, transferring some visual elements onto VHS tapes, introducing distortion with high-powered magnets, and scanning the result back into the game. Sevastopol station is littered with two-bit CRT computer monitors, punch-card slots, and massive mainframe computers making buzzing mechanical noises, [[ZeerustCanon much like]] those from the original ''Film/{{Alien}}'' movie.

* Displays for gem tech in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' tend to be simple shapes in few colors or monochrome (in whatever color the screen is). All of them seem capable of displaying photos and video, which have clear resolution but heavy tinting in the screen's color.

* Many processor and memory intensive tools, [=3D=] art programs, for example, use extremely primitive interfaces. The fraction of a second of lag as a computer renders the high-res font and drop shadows of a typical program's interface can become several seconds when a computer has 90% of its resources dedicated to rendering a high-poly mesh or HD resolution image. Multiply that by an entire day's work of opening and closing menus and panels and you begin to see why the typical GUI in an art program looks typical of the early '90s.

* The ''Voyager'' probes (and others), in one of the most epic dual-[[SubvertedTrope subversions]]/[[JustifiedTrope justifications]] in human history, as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Heacock Ray Heacock,]] spacecraft systems manager for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_program Voyager program]] once explained,
--> ''Any good... PC, today, will have [[TechnologyMarchesOn several hundred thousand words of memory]], and no one would think of buying a computer with the limited capabilities that the ''Voyager'' systems have. And of course, today, no one would think of building for spaceflight computers with such limited capabilities. But the thing that these computers had was reliability. And being programmable from Ground Operations, we can still have them perform very complex and sophisticated operations.''
--> -- interview, ''The Infinite Voyage'' series, ''Sail On, Voyager!'', 1990
:: NASA engineers chose computer systems for the spacecraft that were not the absolute most advanced even in their own day (1977), in favor of systems that were intended to never have the slightest chance of failing while in-mission. [[LongRunner 40 years later]], the still-functioning [[http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-nasa-confirms-voyager-1-has-exited-the-solar-system-20130912-story.html first spacecraft to ever leave the solar system]] bear testament to their constructors' foresight of valuing proven endurance over cutting-edge yet uncertain technology.
** There are also other concerns that keep computers in space slower as well. The first is the problem of cooling; while space is extremely cold (2.7K), the only cooling available is very slow thermal radiation (convective cooling, i.e. fans blowing cool air on the component, doesn't work in a vacuum for obvious reasons), so operating temperatures have to be minimized. The second is the sheer amount of radiation shielding and/or redundancy in design required to keep delicate electronics from being fried outside the natural protections we have on Earth (the atmosphere, magnetic field, etc). This also adds to the cooling problem - you can put your computer inside a lead box to prevent charged-particle radiation from scrambling the memory, but then the lead acts as a insulator... and finally, spacecraft components are ''expensive'', as they're built at best in very small numbers (to have spares to test what has failed when something goes wrong up there), and to update a component, besides having to design said component, may even mean a more or less through redesign of the spacecraft to account for things that may differ as power consumption, mass, etc.
* As of the mid-to-late 2010s, UI design languages are moving towards simpler, 'flatter' appearances from sleek, opulent appearance of late 2000s to the first half of 2010s, thanks to Microsoft's introduction of "Metro" (later renamed to "Modern" or "Microsoft Style" due to trademark issues) design language in 2012, though it sparks BrokenBase among those who are used with the sleek, opulent appearance. Other software and IT companies such as Google (signified with the change of its iconic logo like how Microsoft and Windows changes their iconic almost 20-year old logo) follow suit due to the lack of design style patent, along with the overall UI design on both PC and mobile operating systems and web pages.
** One [[http://daringfireball.net/2013/01/the_trend_against_skeuomorphism theory posits]] that earlier, more visually complex [=UIs=] were designed to compensate for lower screen resolutions, and trying to scale these items up takes a lot of work or produces ugly results.

* Modern tactical displays honestly ''do'' look a lot like computer screens in the ''[[Film/ANewHope New Hope]]'' — the lines are much thinner and overall picture is generally much sharper, but it's still the same spartan and simplistic vector graphics with purely functional look. If the video feed is featured, it's usually monochrome footage of thermal camera or image intensifier[[note]]read — night vision[[/note]], or, if a map is displayed, it's a bare vector version, overlaid with targeting reticles, unit icons, attack vectors, fields of fire, projected trajectories etc., all stark and functional, with simple alphanumeric readouts for required data. The last thing a commanding officer needs is unnecessary bells and whistles that could introduce ambiguity or tax the performance of their not very powerful heavy-duty hardware.
* There's a good reason for the command line interface's continued existence in spite of the advent of GUI and later touch interfaces. It consumes far less system resources than the latter and it's trivially easy to automate--just whip up a text file containing a bunch of commands and some flow control statements, and it's really light on network bandwidth when accessed remotely, since it's just sending a bunch of (hopefully encrypted) text instead of what amounts to a video feed of a desktop. But if even the crisp black background, 4k antialiased fonts, and eye-strain free flat panel displays of today's CLI just aren't retro enough, then there are "eye candy" terminal emulator programs like [[https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term Cool Retro Term]] which attempt to recreate the hazy, flickering, amber-tinted cathode ray tubes of the terminals of yore, complete with [[BeepingComputer incessant beeping on every key press]].

*** The regular work space holographic displays look like they were specifically made to cause seizures or otherwise injure their operators. They're pointlessly layered (making text illegible), out of focus, and flicker constantly.

* There's a good reason for the command line interface's continued existence in spite of the advent of GUI and later touch interfaces. It consumes far less system resources than the latter and it's trivially easy to automate--just whip up a text file containing a bunch of commands and some flow control statements, and it's really light on network bandwidth when accessed remotely, since it's just sending a bunch of (hopefully encrypted) text instead of what amounts to a video feed of a desktop. But if even the crisp black background, 4k antialiased fonts, and eye-strain free flat panel displays of today's CLI just aren't retro enough, then there are "eye candy" terminal emulator programs like [[http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/ cathode]] and [[https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term Cool Retro Term]] which attempt to recreate the hazy, flickering, amber-tinted cathode ray tubes of the terminals of yore, complete with [[BeepingComputer incessant beeping on every key press]].

* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' being a spiritual successor to fallout above very much do the same, despite humanity being in a veritable space age. Unlike Fallout, no real attempt is made to explain why technology is backwards compared to the real world. It's just how the setting is.

* Played with in ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto Grand Theft Auto]]: [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCityStories Vice City Stories]]'' with the advertisement for the Fruit LC personal computer, with features like 18 kilobytes of memory and a two-tone, 8-inch display. In 1984, when the game is set, this would have been nearly ''revolutionary.''

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/FoundationThePsychohistorians'': The 21st century artist [[InvokedTrope invokes]] the idea of early 1980s style computer graphics when representing the ''[[EncyclopediaExposita Encyclopedia Galactica]]'' entries, using pixelated green text and borders.

** ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools deliberately uses the outdated graphics from the first film]] (just see the image in our ZeerustCanon page) to evoke nostalgia and the feeling of trying to survive against a NighInvulnerable enemy with technology that is outdated even in-universe.

* Embraced by ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' as part of its RetroUniverse. The game itself has pretty good graphics for its 2014 release date, but all the in-universe computer terminals and the like have big blocky pixels, two-tone monitors, and punch-card slots, [[ZeerustCanon much like]] the shoddy computers from the ''Film/{{Alien}}'' movie.

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/FoundationThePsychohistorians'': The 21st century artist [[InvokedTrope invokes]] the idea of early 1980s style computer graphics when representing the ''[[EncyclopediaExposita Encyclopedia Galactica]]'' entries, using pixelated green text and borders.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films]]

See also ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation, HolographicTerminal, MagicFloppyDisk, and TheAestheticsOfTechnology. Related to ScienceMarchesOn and TechnologyMarchesOn.

* In the ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' SNES game (which takes place in the 2050s), office computers don't have any graphics at all! Whenever you use your cyberdeck to jack into the Matrix, you get a screen full of command lines in classic green-on-black monochrome scheme while the connection is established.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' featured Marty getting scared by a hologram from a poster for ''Film/{{Jaws}}: [[RidiculousFutureSequelisation 19]]''. The hologram [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070112173103/bttf/images/4/4b/Jaws19-2.jpg is shown with low-detail CGI and bug eyes,]] which makes Marty's "The shark still looks fake." line that much funnier.

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', apparently set in the late 3590s, also has bulky computers showing simplistic vector graphics. Not to mention floppy disks.

* ''Series/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (BBC miniseries)'s producers looked at what the BBC's own effects department offered for the guide. It wasn't pretty. So they averted this by using very painstakingly detailed cel animation and clever rear projection tricks to show "advanced" computer displays (such as the tiny non-flat flatscreen of the guide, the gigantic widescreen display on the Heart of Gold, etc).

* Monitors of any sort are rarely seen in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' (it being a miniatures wargame, after all) but the graphical quality of what little we do see [[ZigZaggedTrope tends to vary]]. Often justified since most races, especially humans, are living in a UsedFuture. The most recent example (at time of writing) is the ColdOpen in the tie-in video game ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine''. The Imperial command's monitor has a fully functional GUI and supports a click-and-zoom map of the galaxy, but can only display yellow, red, and black.

* Varies heavily in ''Tabletopgame/BattleTech'', set in the far off future of 3025 and beyond. [[HumongousMecha Battlemech]] heads up displays and cockpit displays are often depicted as being fairly simple affairs, albeit more for readability in combat rather than a lack of processing power. Third-dimensional holographic displays exist with great graphical capacity, but are uncommon due to excessive costs versus standard flatscreens, and interstellar transmissions are always sent in the smaller flatscreen format to save bandwidth. The depiction of display graphics has varied heavily in the franchise, having run [[LongRunners since 1984]], with older works using trending towards simplistic displays while [[TechnologyMarchesOn newer ones use flatscreens, tablets, and holograms]].

* Justified in the ''Videogame/{{Fallout}}'' series. [[AlternateHistory The transistor wasn't invented until 2067]] - roughly a hundred years after the real-world silicon transistor - leading to the common computers just before the Great War of 2077 being very simplistic, equivalent to late 1970s' personal computers. Displays are massive monochromatic green/amber cathode ray tubes; even the Institute in ''Videogame/{{Fallout 4}}'' still uses [=CRTs=] despite having had two centuries to improve. Holograms were developed and the technology was in its infancy at the end of the world. The Sierra Madre Casino in ''Videogame/FalloutNewVegas'' has fairly realistic albeit monochromatic HardLight holographic security drones and entertainers.
* ''Videogame/TheOuterWorlds'' being a spiritual successor to fallout above very much do the same, despite humanity being in a veritable space age. Unlike Fallout, no real attempt is made to explain why technology is backwards compared to the real world. It's just how the setting is.

* ''Videogame/PlanetSide'' uses this for its virtual reality training areas for soldiers to experiment with new equipment before unlocking it. In the first game, objects in the VR had thick outlines and the terrain was super low-resolution and overlaid with wireframe. In the second game, objects look just like real life up close but beyond a few hundred meters the world fades away to black-and-white wireframe.
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-eXQevSDzQ intro]] for the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem version of ''Super'' ''Videogame/SpaceInvaders'', even if the game takes place in 2073, features CRT-like graphics and a BeepingComputer.

The page image represents what a computer display in ''Franchise/StarWars'' looks like. Now look anywhere at your screen, and compare to what your computer can do.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ANewHope https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/anewhope_screen_8481.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Well, it ''was'' a long time ago.]]

** While [=DS9=] has considerably more animated displays than TNG, it makes it look like the Cardassians [[SaltTheEarth trashing the station on their way out]] replaced [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Bajoran_Intelligence_net.jpg certain displays]] with 377-year-old UsefulNotes/{{Macintosh}}es, if the Chicago font is any indication. At least some of us wouldn't put it past those AffablyEvil Cardassians....

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In Episode IV, the fighters' targeting computers had very plain graphics,[[note]]The vector graphic Death Star trench animation used in the movie was done using a state-of-the-art (for the mid-1970s) system running a rendering system called GRASS and took hours per frame[[/note]] as did the Rebels' displays at the Yavin base. In later (and [[{{Prequel}} "earlier"]]) installations, Lucas and company apparently understood how computers were changing.[[note]]As well they should; by 1980 when the second movie was relased, there was a Star Wars arcade game with graphics similar to ones used in the Death Star trench animation from the first movie... except ''in color'' and ''in real time''; this served as a pretty good object lesson in how rapidly graphics capabilities were advancing[[/note]] For ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', they didn't put any graphics that would actually appear on a computer screen onscreen (though they continued to show holograms). Even for the prequels, they kept such visuals to a minimum, though they likely could have created any interface they liked with effects. Rule still applies, even if taking place "long ago".

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In Episode IV, the fighters' targeting computers had very plain graphics[[note]]The vector graphic Death Star trench animation used in the movie was done using a state-of-the-art (for the mid-1970s) system running a rendering system called GRASS and took hours per frame[[/note]], as did the Rebels' displays at the Yavin base. In later (and [[{{Prequel}} "earlier"]]) installations, Lucas and company apparently understood how computers were changing[[note]]As well they should; by 1980 when the second movie was relased, there was a Star Wars arcade game with graphics similar to ones used in the Death Star trench animation from the first movie... except ''in color'' and ''in real time''; this served as a pretty good object lesson in how rapidly graphics capabilities were advancing[[/note]]. For ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' and ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', they didn't put any graphics that would actually appear on a computer screen onscreen (though they continued to show holograms). Even for the prequels, they kept such visuals to a minimum, though they likely could have created any interface they liked with effects. Rule still applies, even if taking place "long ago".

Arguably can be [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in a scenario when functionality is preferable to looks. After all, the last thing you want to see on the screen of your spaceship's on-board computer in the middle of a crucial operation is a graphics driver error. This is TruthInTelevision in a surprising number of cases, where complex graphics are not only unnecessary, but are actually a hindrance, or even ''dangerous''. Although in the future, [[TechnologyMarchesOn our graphic cards will probably be way better and more reliable too]].

In earlier eras, the writers probably didn't think computer graphics could improve. As the nature of computer advancements became more apparent, however, such limitations have become more about budget and imagination.

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell'': Although there are very advanced-looking 3D monitors, the GPS system that Section 9 uses to track criminals is like a bare-bones Google Maps.

** Antiquated, reliable software, often written in antiquated, reliable languages (Ada in particular), is particularly common in militaries, making the ''StarWars'' page header something close to TruthInTelevision.

See also ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation, HolographicTerminal, MagicFloppyDisk. Related to ScienceMarchesOn and TechnologyMarchesOn.

* Many companies still use old software because it does what it needs to do, everyone is already trained on it, it's reliable and updating it would be a ''monumental'' undertaking. Often the code is cryptic, poorly documented, poorly understood and sometimes even written in some archaic language nobody programs for anymore. And the only ones who'd know how to migrate it to a newer architecture would be the original authors - who are now retired, too old to remember, or may even have [[AuthorExistenceFailure left this plane of existence altogether]]. At that point you can pay a whole devteam big money to rewrite the whole damn thing from scratch, or you can get an undergrad to spin up a virtual machine and just run your old software on that. Hmm, tough choice.

* The computers in ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' appear to be teletypes hooked up to enormous amber-monochrome screens. It fits with the Art Deco theming everywhere.
** It's also never explicitly stated just when the game is set; if anything, it seems to be around the Forties or Fifties, which would make them ''advanced'' for their time.

* Many companies still use old software because everyone is already trained on it and it's reliable -- and because most attempts to rewrite an old, established, poorly-documented (and they are always poorly-documented) system in a new language are expensive failures. A potential time traveler going forward in time from the past may indeed think this trope when visiting a company.