I don’t mean BETTER. That’s a different conversation. I mean cooler.
An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.
If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.
That’s just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.
How did it generate that sound without batteries? Was it literally the audio from the clicking of the buttons? Genuine questions.
edit: Thanks for the several answers. They all seem prone to interference, but it is nice that they worked without power.
Buttons and springs would make it click loudly at a predicable frequency.
It’s why remotes are often referred to as “clickers”.
It’s not a circle, it’s a spiral!
The button pressed a spring-loaded thing that struck a piece of metal, almost like a wind chime, emitting an ultrasonic note. I discovered by accident that I could make my parents’ stereo change channels by clinking coins together.
Tuning forks!!! The Zenith clicker The buttons would work strikers that would hit tuned rods. A different one doing a different function.
Zenith Space Command remote.
Ah, so more like the bell on a bicycle
Except there’s another bell that vibrates in response to trigger a switch!
It’s like auditory entanglement.
Spooky action across the room!
