cool-retro-term
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 16 of 40 terminal emulators by recommenders
Recommended for its authentic CRT look and nostalgic visuals; critics say it is not a very good terminal, with bugs and missing features.
Recommended for its authentic CRT look and nostalgic visuals; critics say it is not a very good terminal, with bugs and missing features.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Striking CRT visual effects
“cool-retro-term's extreme CRT effects implemented in an all-points-addressable low-res mode”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “Both Cobolsky and Fortransky looks great on Swordfish90's cool-retro-term”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: We built a terminal-only Bluesky / AT Proto client written in Fortran” “Cool project, love the visuals.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” Fun, nostalgic retro feel
“because I love cool retro terminal and kitty”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Closing Canario Terminal source code” “the amber mode on this really takes me back”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “Super fun but so much not for me.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” Lifts mood and helps eyes
“Adding some visual noise can mask my own eye problems”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “It looked wild while in use, but really did help.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “it lifts my mood consistenly”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Effects look unrealistic or caricatured
“The phosphor fading in the demo images is unrealistically slow.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “The bloom is also too blobby, because it's a gaussian blur.”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “the amount of ghosting on the DOS example is insane”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” - Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs”
Weak as a terminal
“Cool Retro Term does these effects very well, but it's also not a very good terminal.”
Comment from 17 Nov 2025 in “Ned: ImGui Text Editor with GL Shaders” “the lack of functionality was a bummer”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” Buggy unicode and blurry text
“it seems buggy at rendering some unicode characters”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs” “I think it's the blurry text.”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Cool-retro-term: terminal emulator which mimics look and feel of CRTs”
Other terminal emulators people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal emulators, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghostty | 401 | 158 | 72% | 12 | 3 mo22 owners | Approved |
| Termux | 188 | 31 | 86% | 12 | 1 yr6 owners | Approved |
| iTerm2 | 95 | 69 | 58% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | — |
| Warp terminal | 84 | 86 | 49% | 11 | 1 yr5 owners | — |
| cool-retro-termThis page | 19 | 8 | 70% | 4 | — | Approved |
What people said
25 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“because I love cool retro terminal and kitty”
“Both Cobolsky and Fortransky looks great on Swordfish90's cool-retro-term”
“It looked wild while in use, but really did help.”
“the amber mode on this really takes me back”
“The lag has seemed normal in CRT for me”
“if this got sixel support it would be just perfect”
“The phosphor fading in the demo images is unrealistically slow.”
“The bloom is also too blobby, because it's a gaussian blur.”
“it seems buggy at rendering some unicode characters”
“Adding some visual noise can mask my own eye problems”
“Super fun but so much not for me.”
“the lack of functionality was a bummer”
“Letters showing up on the screen the instant you press the keyboard button”
“cool-retro-term's extreme CRT effects implemented in an all-points-addressable low-res mode”
“It works consistently around 5-6% cpu for me.”
“it would peg the CPU at 100%”
“It's almost like a caricature of a CRT.”
“it lifts my mood consistenly”
“I think it's the blurry text.”
“Sadly bit rot has set in and the project doesn't work that well now days.”
“for actually getting shit done, they are an annoyance”
“it's not possible to specify the size, in rows and columns, of the screen, such as 24x80”
“Cool project, love the visuals.”
“the amount of ghosting on the DOS example is insane”
“Cool Retro Term does these effects very well, but it's also not a very good terminal.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.