And what category does the PS2, Wii, Xbox, Nintendo DS/3DS fit into? They aren’t retro, but they’re not really “modern” either
Edit:sorry about posting 4 times, it kept telling me that it had a correction error
You must log in or register to comment.
It’s a moving target. For me, I would say anything older than about 15-20 years is “retro” and anything older than 30 years is “vintage.”
The way I see it based on what was retro 20 years ago, something becomes retro when it’s 20+ years old. In the 90’s, stuff from the 70’s was retro. In the 2000’s, 80’s stuff was retro. Now in 2023, stuff from the 2000’s is technically retro.
But by pure dictionary definition, anything older than current stuff is retro. Memes from just last month that aren’t relevant anymore would technically be retro, by definition of the word.
By pure dictionary definition. something new that’s made to look old is retro, not things that are actually old.
relating to, reviving, or being the styles and especially the fashions of the past : fashionably nostalgic or old-fashioned
Imitation is just one kind of retro. Actual old stuff is also retro. It also means to go backwards, or regress.
Don’t just go by the singular definition Google gives in their dumbass blurb. Look in an actual dictionary.
@InkstainTheBat most people draw the line at about ~3 console generations ago. So now anything in PS2 era and under is considered retro. As people get older, and console generations are longer (see: Switch, PS4) it tends to get a bit messy.
Two generations, so the 360, Wii, and PS3 are currently the cutting edge of retro.
I am reminded of the huge arguments on RGVC on Usenet when people started discussing NES games in the mid-90s. Since they were two generations old at that point (PS1 and Saturn having just launched), they were grudgingly allowed. I think that remains a good barometer.
GameCube, PS2, and Xbox are now retro since Xbox Series X and PS5 are out.
When PS6 and Xbox 5 comes out, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii will be retro.
I would argue that retro is individual. Depending on when you grew up and which games you played back then.
I think of “retro” as pixel-based and early 3D games that were sorta killed during the PS1/Saturn/N64 era.
Once we get into more advanced 3D / Polygonal games (PS2/GameCube/Xbox), it’s a different era; but it’s not due to the visual shift alone, but the design philosophy and craft/code itself. I would consider them “modern” and point to series like Zelda as an example.
Games like WindWaker feel more connected to Breath of the Wild than it does to Link to the Past or even Ocarina of Time. And I think the same goes for series like Mario, Metal Gear, and so on.
Retro is everything you were in to when you were 12.
Anything with a capacitor about to blow. Seriously get rid of your clock capacitor xbox collectors!
For me I’d say retro is Gen 6 and below, but specifically including the Dreamcast and PS2, but probably excluding the Xbox, and maybe GameCube.
The Xbox was the first console with internal storage built in and both the Xbox and GameCube used shader pipelining aka modern GPU architecture. Basically, I feel if shader compilation is a requirement for emulating it, I don’t consider it retro.
I feel like gc is retro because it had weird conventions. Weird ass controller. Weird controls. Xbox had started to settle in with modern standard schemes. Especially for things like fps and tps.
True, and it’s why I’m on the fence about GameCube. It’s kinda retro but kinda not. The weird controller and small disc sizes make it feel retro, but it has modern-ish dual stage triggers, and a PowerPC architecture with a modern GPU design, double precision floats, OOE compute.
Meanwhile the PS2 was still weird, included the PS1 chip, and mostly just had a massive fill rate to make up for its shortcomings.
In my POV, anything past the current generation - 1(so current gen + previous gen), it is considered retro Xbox One X? Not retro. Xbox One? Not retro. Xbox 360? Retro.
Agreed. As much as it pains me to say my primary console from college is retro, it’s been almost two decades since then (:
That’s when you look at yourself and say “damn im getting old…”
I’m not really sure I consider anything retro? Old tech ends up still getting supported, just by indie hobbyists. But outside of that I guess XB360 and below since it’s not being produced anymore.
Anything that does not get made anymore is classed as retro is it not?
That’s where I currently draw the line. Unfortunately, there’s a perception that obsolete is not necessarily retro. Typically, a machine that was just abandoned (ie the Xbox One) is not considered fashionably retro… just old.
Things were a lot easier back in the 1990s where the line was more easily drawn. Everything before the video game crash was retro; everything after was modern. But time marched on and the 21st century arrived, and the rules changed. Now even game systems with polygons are retro! Now even game systems with hyper-realistic graphics, like the Xbox 360, are retro! I feel like Danny Glover. I’m getting too old to keep track of this shit.
It still doesn’t feel like anything on the XBox 360 and maybe even the PS2 is retro in the same way that older games are retro. In the Xbox 360 era games had already settled into conventions we are using to this day.
Hell, GTA 5 and Skyrim have been released for the XBox 360 and they keep being rereleased remastered with no significant gameplay changes to this day.
But SNES? PS1? That’s a whole different world.
like the Xbox 360, are retro
That’s just one generation ag… oh
What classifies as Retro… Hmm… The last retro consoles would have to be the original Xbox, PS2, GameCube and Dreamcast.
Xbox360, PS3, Wii would still be in that middle ground of not quite retro but not quite modern either. They won’t exactly be retro, atleast for me, till 2035-36 at the latest.
I don’t know about the 2035 part, but I completely agree that that’s the last retro generation
I guess it really just depends on you and what you experienced, or were too young to experience.
Im sure younger zoomers see those systems as retro, much in the same way we saw NES as retro in the early 00s.
For me its hard to consider PS2 or Xbox as retro. That era was the first time I had disposable income as a young adult, living at home. And I think experiencing them as an adult, to me, makes it feel like these systems are still very new and cutting edge… even though theyre very much not anymore.
