The retro terminal (CRT) look
Published 28 September 2026.
The retro terminal look puts the whole reel on an old monitor. Everything is monospace, glowing in your brand colour (or classic green or amber), with scanlines and a faint flicker. Ideas arrive as typed commands, progress bars made of block characters and ASCII diagrams that assemble line by line. For a technical audience it reads as an in-joke they're in on.
Where the look comes from
Before flat screens, most computer displays were cathode ray tubes, like the televisions of the time, as the Computer History Museum puts it. Text terminals such as DEC's VT100, introduced in 1978, set the look many developers still picture: rows of monospace characters glowing on a dark tube. IBM's own manual for its 1981 PC monochrome display specifies a green phosphor screen showing 80 characters by 25 rows.
That's where the scanlines, the glow and the blinking cursor come from. Today they read as nostalgia for anyone who's worked in a terminal, and the command line is still where a lot of developer products live.
What's in this reel
- Words built from glowing blocks that morph from one to the next.
- Lines of scrambled characters that decode into the real text.
- An ASCII box diagram with a packet passing through an approval gate.
- Previews that dither in and sharpen, like an image loading over a slow line.
- Cuts that roll like a changing channel or collapse like an old set switching off.
Brands it suits, and ones it doesn't
It's made for developer tools, APIs, command-line products, security and infrastructure, and for founders launching on Product Hunt or Hacker News, where the audience grew up with a terminal open. Retro games and anything with a hacker streak fit it too.
Where doesn't it work? Consumer brands whose customers have never opened a terminal, and anything soft: wellness, fashion or food. They'd see an old computer rather than a wink, so choose a warmer look.
Music that pairs with it
- Synthwave (the reel above): the 1980s arps and gated snare fit the phosphor glow.
- Chiptune for playful dev tools and games.
- Minimal techno for a cooler, more serious infrastructure pitch.
- Drum & bass when the product is about speed.
Make one like this
Start from this reel and yours keeps its look, its scene order, its pacing and its kind of music. The words, facts, colours and logo are yours, only facts you've approved go on screen, and nothing from Adapt Progress Evolve carries over. It's priced like any other reel: the Short is £9, the Reel £29 and the Bundle, cut for 16:9, 9:16 and 4:5, £49.
No website yet? Start from your logo and a few facts, then pick this look on the style step.
Sources
All checked on 28 September 2026.
- Computer History Museum: Video displays
- Computer History Museum: VT100 terminal (introduced 1978)
- IBM: IBM Monochrome Display technical reference (green phosphor, 80 by 25; a scan hosted by a hobbyist archive)