r/RetroGaming is very strict about retro. They say the Nintendo 64 is retro while the PlayStation 2 is modern. This despite the fact the PlayStation 2 is now 25 years old.
So I got to wonder about this community deems as “retro”.
Or a better question: what’s considered retro and not retro? What’s the fine line between retro and modern?
In regards to what feels retro to me, I personally consider Gen 6 GameCube/PS2/XBOX and everything older to be undoubtedly retro.
I think that the Gen 7 Wii, PS3 & Xbox 360 should technically be considered retro now due to their age, but personally generation 6 and earlier is what feels retro to me.
Anything that isn’t HD and on a console that’s designed to be always online. So PS3 and 360 aren’t retro to me, but Wii is, as are most portables prior to the Switch. It’s not the age of the game that makes it retro to me, but its design philosophy. And of course any new game intentionally designed to look or feel old is retro, the original meaning of the word.
anything that came out before 2011
Anything before the GameCube, PS2, and Original Xbox.
So PS1, Sega Saturn, and Nintendo64 and older are “retro.”
The Atari 2600 and Colecovision are “vintage.”
Pong and the Magnavox Odyssey are “antique.”
What about Dreamcast? 🤔
Original Xbox, GameCube, PS2, Dreamcast - “old.”
PS3, Xbox 360, Wii - “modern.”
PS4, Xbox One - “previous gen”
PS5, Xbox Series - “current gen”
Nintendo Switch - “2015 smartphone”
But the PS3 / 360 are coming up to 20 years old. Hell, one of my adult colleagues was born after the 360 was released. Can they really be considered modern anymore?
“Modernism” is a term used to refer to art and culture from 1930s-1940s America. Searching for something like furniture or architecture in that style would mean you use search terms like “modern furniture” or “modern architecture.” Can that really be considered “modern” anymore?
When the PS4 and Xbox One are no longer the “previous gen” I will be calling them “next gen,” as that is the term most associated with those consoles. Even after the consoles were released and well into their lifespan they were still called “next gen.”
I call future consoles that haven’t released yet “upcoming gen” or “future gen” interchangeably.
Just “old”
Retro means new things that look like they’re old. As in “looking backwards” for inspiration. Like pixel art. Prime example: VVVVVV.
I’m mostly being pedantic, but it’s a pet peeve of mine that gamers (and only gamers) use “retro” wrong. Every other type of collector correctly uses the word “vintage” instead: Vintage clothing, furniture, coins, wine, etc. And they use “retro” to mean new things that look old, like retro clothing. Only gamers call vintage things “retro”.
In my experience when I point this out, gamers just get mad. I don’t understand that. But I’m kind of a language nerd who watches linguistics videos for fun. And yes, I know language changes and evolves, and words mean how people use them, and dictionaries are not prescriptive, etc., etc. It’s still wrong, damnit! It’s a niche use by specific group of people that confuses everyone else because of its wrongness.
When people are calling modern things they know are modern “retro”, I think it’s just a simpler form of saying “retro-style”. I mean, when I’m talking about modern retro styled things that aren’t videogames, I personally say “retro-styled” myself; and I consider that to be what people also mean when they call modern things “retro”.
For games, I have to disagree that Retro can also mean games that look old. Again, I consider these to be “retro-styled” as well, not “Retro”, which to me indicates its actual age. VVVVVV isn’t retro, it’s retro-styled. Alwa’s Awakening is an NES style metroidvania game released in 2017, designed to feel exactly like something that could run on real NES hardware. Then in 2022, they actually did just that; they ported the game to real NES hardware and released it as the “8-Bit Edition”. To play it, you either need to flash it on a cart and play it on a real NES, or simply emulate it on modern hardware. In my opinion, this game isn’t retro at all; it’s “retro-styled”, even if you consider the fact it released on an actual retro console.
When people are calling modern things they know are modern “retro”, I think it’s just a simpler form of saying “retro-style”.
“People” in general? No. Only certain gamers.
It seems like you missed the entire point of my comment, and you’re the exact kind of person I’m talking about. A person who has no idea what retro means. You are using it wrong. And by wrong I mean unlike everybody else in the world.
This is what people mean when they say retro, (except you and some other gamers):
relating to, reviving, or being the styles and especially the fashions of the past : fashionably nostalgic or old-fashioned
a retro look
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retro
Saying retro style is redundant. Retro is already referring to style.
“Retro”, which to me indicates its actual age.
The word you’re looking for is “vintage”. Retro means in the style of the past.
You’re right. I looked into it some more and you seem to be right that Retro is indeed referring to the style, not the age. Forgive me for the long comment, my intention was only to express my subjective opinion about whether something is retro or retro-styled. I feel very weird calling old games that I thought of as retro “vintage” now, but I guess I have to; I’m going to have a lot of people thinking I’m calling it the wrong thing now. I guess this subreddit should more accurately be called Vintage Gaming, but I have no idea how it would be possible to shift the entire “retro” gaming community’s perspective on what makes a game retro or not.
And by wrong I mean unlike everybody else in the world.
Well, in Victoria, Australia, I think my incorrect understanding is very common, because age being the determining factor of what makes something retro is basically what I’ve been taught from childhood. Everyone I’ve ever met who I’ve had conversations about anything retro with, appear to think very similarly to me.
I feel very weird calling old games that I thought of as retro “vintage” now, but I guess I have to.
Nah. Maybe? Even I call them retro games sometimes. My favorite gaming hardware YouTube channel is called “Retro Game Corps”. It what gamers call them. Depending on who I’m addressing, I use either.
Like I said in my original comment, I was mostly being pedantic. Then again, if the entire gaming world shifted to calling them “vintage games”, I’d be thrilled. Someone recently started a thread here titled “What’s your favorite vintage game?” And I did a “Not bad Obama” face and nod.
in Victoria, Australia…
Well, yeah! I expect everything be upsidedown and backwards there! 😜
Now I’m curious how the Macquarie Dictionary defines the word. I can’t search it myself because it requires a login.
I don’t wanna make an account for that either lol and I don’t have a physical copy of Macquarie either. The newest Macquarie dictionary I could find on the internet archive that actually had the word Retro in it was the 1989 pocket dictionary. According to that edition, Retro is “a prefix meaning ‘backwards’ in space or time, as retrogression, restrospect.”, but of course that definition is probably outdated.
There’s a 1995 school version, but it doesn’t have the word in it. I looked on the website for my local regions network of libraries, and there’s a 2008 one in my local library two minutes walk away and a 2013 one in a library 20 mins drive away. So you know what, I might just walk down to the library tomorrow and see what it says and let you know haha (nobody here spoil it in the meantime 😄)
Update: It’s the next day and the library is closed. So I’ll have to try again tomorrow.
I used to be stricter with that. Now I consider retro any platform that are 2 generations behind (for the ones still active in the market). So PS3/360 and earlier.
Around 2 generations of consoles ago, or around 10 years, whatever comes “first”.
the ps3 is retro then?
10 years seems a bit short, that would mean Hearthstone, GTA5 and Sims 4 qualify.
Yes that’s what I said. PS3 era games and at this point, early PS4 start yo qualify for me. Although still actively developed games aren’t “fully” retro, clearly. I’m still on the fence about calling Bloodbkrne retro, for instance.
Anything that needs to be played on a CRT.
Old games don’t need to be played on a CRT any more than modern games need to be played on an OLED/LCD flat panel.
Then how about anything that plays better on a CRT vs a modern flat screen? Older games were absolutely made with CRT artifacts in mind and look worse on newer screens.
They’ll lag if you don’t.
So Gameboy isn’t retro?
Playing Super Mario Bros. on Switch = “not retro.”
I’d say, at 50, imo anything 32 bit and below is retro but there needs to be a new name for the “old” stuff that is 64bit
Back in the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube era the SNES and Megadrive seemed to be retro while the PS1 and N64 were just “old”. So maybe 2 generations ago is the start of retro.
I think it’s definitely a lot blurrier now though. The differences between consoles and the leaps between generations are less pronounced, and there are so many y rereleases and remasters now keeping older games fresh.
Any console that existed before me is retro. I started with the PS1 and N64 so those are modern and all the ones before are retro lol
To me, “retro” just means something that is now only possible for consumption through the previous, now impossible or highly impractical, acquisition of said medium. PS3? Retro. 3DS? Retro.
This seems like a good line to draw. Does it play natively on current consoles? Not retro. If you have to use an emulator or pull out an older console then that’s retro.
Retro is a style and astetic as much as a function of time or technology.
Even mathematicians struggle with dividing things into precise and consistent sets and categories. Try to relax.
If I were in charge, retro would mean games from 5th generation and earlier.
Modern game design hasn’t fundamentally evolved since the Xbox, PS2, and Dreamcast (Sixth gen) era. Pre 1998, 3D games were still figuring out how to take advantage of 3D, so they don’t quite reach the modern era, but almost all modern games can be traced back to sixth gen.
Likewise, I would classify the early days of 2D the ancient era, which would be anything before the SNES and Sega Genesis (Fourth gen). The NES has classic games, but it wasn’t until the SNES that those games were perfected into their modern formulas.
Microsoft, Sony, AMD, and NVIDIA are all betting big in AI so we might finally be entering a new distinct era soon. DLSS 4 is still blurry af, so we are for sure not there yet.
I’d say anything before the PlayStation era.
It goes on vibes. Historically I’d have said anything with an 8- or 16-bit CPU (NES/SNES, Megadrive, the surfeit of home computers before everyone standardised on beige-box Windows PCs). Nowadays I’d say anything slow enough to be emulated reasonably using present-day technology could be said to be retro, so PS2 would count. If video output is analogue PAL/NTSC, that probably also counts.
