Doom 64 Brightness

[The Civ]

I'll admit that I haven't gotten around to playing Doom 64 until just now. I picked up an actual cartridge for my N64, and got to playing it.
So far, I'm really enjoying it, but I have on question:
What should I do about the brightness?
I feel like it's supposed to be played on the default brightness level, (the bottom of the slider), but half of the time I can't see where I'm going, and I can only see clearly when it's pushed all the way up.
I should note that I am using a CRT Screen Television to play it on, so that may be a factor.
What should I do? Play it on the default brightness, and if not, what are the recommended settings?

[scifista42]

The Civ said:

I am using a CRT Screen Television to play it on, so that may be a factor.

Yes, it definitely is.

The Civ said:

What should I do?

Increase the brightness (gamma correction?) level until you feel comfortable with it.

[Da Werecat]

I'd say, the slider is there for a reason.

I once heard that the developers got the brightness wrong, because they didn't test the game on typical consumer-grade CRT displays or something. So the default setting is darker than it should be. I don't know whether it's true or just a speculation.

[MeetyourUnmaker]

Are you using a more modern monitor? I remember it looking really dark on old tv's. However, with EX on new monitors or if you're playing on a new TV in general it looks more like the real thing rather than being smudgy or too dark.

What level are you on so far? (just curious)

[Dragonsbrethren]

The PAL and Japanese releases of Doom 64 change the default brightness to being halfway up the slider. Make of that what you will.

[ReFracture]

On every TV I've ever played Doom 64 on (LCD, Plasma, CRT) I either almost or completely max the brightness.. the game is just plain dark by default.

[Avoozl]

I remember enjoying the level of darkness the game had.

[Maes]

Oh Sodaholic, wherefore art thou?

[Doomkid]

Dragonsbrethren said:

The PAL and Japanese releases of Doom 64 change the default brightness to being halfway up the slider. Make of that what you will.

This explains why I never took issue with the light level in this game, I have a PAL copy. Even so I think I turned it up a notch or two just for the sake of clairty.

[Koko Ricky]

Max brightness with all the lights turned off at night is really the only way to get a good picture.

[Deleted_Account]

I don't think I've ever had issues with the darkness in Doom 64. Just play the game in a dark environment or fine tune the brightness settings.

[Vorpal]

For Doom64, I usually calibrate brightness so that, from the starting point of map01, you can discern the walls of the room you are facing (which is dark but with the bright overhead lamp in it), but dark enough so that you CAN'T really tell there is a hallway opening directly ahead.

For me on Doom64EX with an old LCD, it's a gamma of about 1.6 to 1.8, depending on time of day.

Of course, also do a brightness/color calibration for your monitor before doing this (windows has the Color Management tool in control panel, I dunno what other OSen have but you can always fall back to comparing a printed photo with the digitally displayed photo).

edit: I do this specific calibration for Doom64, since my most vivid memory of it in the 90's on an n64 with an expensive CRT is exactly that; the sense of a vague square room ahead, and then the total surprise of a hallway entrance once you hop down and grab the shotgun