cool-retro-term

cool-retro-term is a nostalgic terminal emulator that recreates the authentic look and feel of vintage cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors from computing's early days. Unlike modern terminals that prioritize clean aesthetics, this terminal deliberately embraces retro visual effects including screen curvature, scanlines, phosphor glow, and color bleeding to deliver an immersive throwback experience.

Built on Qt6 and utilizing the QML port of qtermwidget from Konsole, cool-retro-term offers extensive customization options while maintaining reasonable performance. Users can adjust colors, fonts, and visual effects through an intuitive context menu, allowing them to fine-tune everything from amber and green monochrome displays to full-color setups that mimic specific vintage systems like IBM DOS.

This terminal is perfect for developers, retro computing enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to add some nostalgic flair to their command-line work. While it may not be the fastest terminal available due to its visual effects, it strikes a good balance between eye-candy appeal and practical usability. The terminal works on both Linux and macOS, making it accessible to a broad range of users who appreciate vintage computing aesthetics.

Installation

# via Official Release
Download latest AppImage (Linux) or dmg (macOS) from Releases page

# via Distribution Package
Available in official repositories for Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and other distributions