Retro & Glitch
Tape Head Switching Noise
VHS head-switching dropout: frayed hash-noise band on the lower third, rising scanline ghosts, and a snapping chroma-split desync slice. Click boosts chaos.
canvasheavy complexityintense motionclick
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Worth keeping?
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When to use it
Retro or lo-fi hero backgrounds, VHS-themed pages, glitch art displays, or loading screens needing gritty analog texture.
When not to
Layouts with legible text in the lower third — noise band occupies ~34% of viewport. Avoid on low-end devices due to per-frame pixel writes.
Working with an AI agent
Every component ships agent-ready metadata. An example instruction for this one:
Change accent from blue-white to amber: replace 192,200,255 with 255,200,100 throughout, and update chroma echoes to warm tones (rgba(255,220,80,…) and rgba(255,100,50,…)).
Safe to edit
- band height fraction (H*0.34)
- noise density gate (0.10+tear*0.55+boost*0.25)
- accent color (192,200,255)
- horizontal jitter magnitude (Math.sin(t*0.9)*3 + Math.sin(t*5.3)*2)
- scanline ghost count (gn up to 7)
- desync snap frequency ((t*7|0)%13===0)
Keep intact
- low-res offscreen noise buffer (NW=240) — critical for perf
- IIFE wrapper with scoped canvas ID #ths-c
- visibilitychange pause/resume
- prefers-reduced-motion static-frame fallback
Known limitations
- Per-frame putImageData pixel writes are CPU-bound — may stutter on low-end devices
- Background hardcoded #0c0c0c in CSS — edit to change dark base
- Canvas lacks aria-hidden — add for screen reader hygiene
More Retro & Glitch components
- CRT scanline screenGreen-phosphor CRT terminal: rolling CSS scanlines, vignette, glowing oscilloscope wave, blinking boot-text rows, and random canvas glitch flashes.
- VHS tracking distortionVHS test-pattern color bars with 46-slice horizontal jitter, random tear events, a rolling tracking bar, and chroma-split REC text on a dark vermillion…
- Pixel-art sprite marchThree rows of 8x8 two-frame pixel sprites march across a scrolling starfield at varying speeds; pointer horizontal position controls march speed.
- ASCII shimmerGrid of ASCII ramp characters shimmers through interfering radial and plasma waves in green-teal hues; character density and wave center follow the pointer.
- Dot-matrix tickerAmber LED dot-matrix marquee scrolling GAME OVER / INSERT COIN / HIGH SCORE across a dim dot grid. Custom 5x7 bitmap font with pulsing brightness per column.
- Neon arcade signPink neon ARCADE sign with CSS flicker animations and a yellow chasing-light marquee around a glowing pink border frame.