When is gaming 'Retro'?

[TwistedEllipses]

To cut a long story short, I've become involved in a major argument about whether playing a Playstation one game counts as 'retro' gaming...

What do you define 'retro' as?

when does a game or console become 'retro'?

Or do not like the term 'retro' whatsoever?

EDIT: examples welcome

 

[L.B. Jeffries]

Well...dictionary.com lists retro as meaning of another period or time. The problem with that definition is that you can't really get a grip on an era or time period until everyone from it is dead and long past.

Culturally? I dunno, do you rate video games by popular genre or the consoles coming out? It's tempting to just group everything by the consoles but I think game design is the better designator. FPS is popular now, it used to be 3-D platformers, and before that it was 2-D.

So anything 2-D is retro, but honestly it's subjective.

 

[NeedAUserName]

I always thought retro was just a 70's/80's time period thing. I didn't realize that retro is always moving forward... weird...

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Retro is a term used to describe, denote or classify culturally outdated or aged trends, modes, or fashions, from the overall postmodern past. So anything before PS2 in my opinion.

 

[countrysteaksauce]

I'm thinking pretty much before 3D became mainstream.

For me personally:

10 years or less - oldie.
20 years or more - retro.

So anything from 80s - retro for me.

EDIT: when it comes to games, PS1 is an oldie, and anything before that (N64 included) - retro.

Wouldn't that leave a gap for things that are more than 10 years old but less than 20?

 

[shatnershaman]

I don't like the word "retro" it makes me feel old. For me retro is pre-SNES since if I say 2-D is retro LBP becomes retro and Monster Maze is modern.

 

[Zallest]

Retro is when your dad says "Oh i remember playing this game when i was your age"

 

[ctf1990]

A game is retro when you have to blow into the cartridge to make it work.

 

[TelegraphCat]

it is hard to define retro when the industry changes so much. i think a retro game is any game that could have been played by the last generation in their childhood/teenage/college years. or something like that.

 

[dieseldub]

I think the term retro gets even harder to define with technology as the subject. Now a stand up Pac Man game machine to me is retro. An old green screen computer is retro. A playstation 1 game is in my opinion still pretty new in the technology realm. It was the first time that gaming really felt like it was bringing character and story immersion into a game. While I do see differances in graphics and loading etc. the PS1 games still had a feeling of current generation games. I never had that type of feeling with say Donkey Kong. Maybe in 10 years when we see the next "big thing" in console games I would say that it is retro. Of course this is all just my humble opinion. Besides I was still buying PS1 games 4 years ago. To me that isn't a very long time.

Oh, and the comment about blowing into a cartridge as retro....agreed. Funny comment.

 

[Bofus Teefus]

I always thought retro was just a 70's/80's time period thing. I didn't realize that retro is always moving forward... weird...

This would be "progressive retro." I'll be honest, I just made that up.

I consider NES and back to all be retro. SNES came out when I was 13, and I remember that as being the first time that I was seriously impressed by the graphics and sound of a game. I think anything with less than 16 bit graphics and/or a soundtrack that sounds like it was made on a moog synthesizer is retro to me.

 

[gigastrike]

A game is retro when it's 3 generations old.

 

[Jaythulhu]

Well, going off the dictionary.com definition, I'd say if you're gaming on any hardware from the pre-pc era. So, punchcard reading computers, that sort thing I guess. Were there games for the coleco?

 

[Fire Daemon]

If we are in "Next Gen" at the moment then that means the Xbox, Ps2 and gamecube is "current gen" therefore making the PS1 and Nintendo 64 "last gen". So no, it is not retro. Besides I think that for something to be retro it needs to be part of a decades soul and identity. When you think of the middle to late 90s you don't think of PS1, you think of Furby or something. Furby can be considered retro because It's is 90s. Pac Man can be considered retro because it us the 80s. Space Invaders is retro because it is the 70s. The PS1 is not retro because it is not the 90s.

 

[DDarkRavenC]

IMO, anything that can't be run easily without emulators, adapters, workarounds or whatnot on current equiptment availiable at mainstream outlets.

 

[Vortigar]

Retro is when your dad says "Oh i remember playing this game when i was your age"

Wow, that'd make no games retro whatsoever as my dad has never played any.

 

[Galletea]

I figure 3 generations is retro. That's when they're in the retro section of the second hand game stores anyway, and I'll go with that.