How Old is Retro?

[lestagio]

How old is retro? I always feel odd when I see people talking about ds, PS3, and more as "retro", although I guess these games are 15-20 years old at this point. Hell, I've even seen 3ds get referred to as retro!

Where do you draw the line between retro and modern? Can something be old without being retro? What is your criteria? Personally, I think PS1 and before is retro, and then Wii/PS3 and before are "old", but there's plenty of PS4 stuff hinging on 10-15 years now.

 

[DinoRexMax]

Retro is an aesthetic, not a moment in history. It's a factor of technology, not time. If time we're the deciding element, your games would be retro the moment they left the store.

Stuff on the PS4/XBO may never become retro, due to the growing stagnation of graphical technology. PS3/360 are retro since they must be specifically replicated through stylization (due to overuse of bloom in the 2000s) and their appearance can't be emulated casually by modern hardware (because we've moved beyond them).

Portable consoles are a grey area, since they possess a lower fidelity by intention. In fact, a lot of games wouldn't exist at the time of their release if it wasn't for the likes of portable systems like the GBA, DS and PSP.

 

[Blocky_Cube]

Retro is an aesthetic, not a moment in history. It's a factor of technology, not time. If time we're the deciding element, your games would be retro the moment they left the store.

Stuff on the PS4/XBO may never become retro, due to the growing stagnation of graphical technology. PS3/360 are retro since they must be specifically replicated through stylization (due to overuse of bloom in the 2000s) and their appearance can't be emulated casually by modern hardware (because we've moved beyond them).

Portable consoles are a grey area, since they possess a lower fidelity by intention. In fact, a lot of games wouldn't exist at the time of their release if it wasn't for the likes of portable systems like the GBA, DS and PSP.

If something being retro is decided by aesthetic, then would you consider modern titles that use a retro style (Ex. Shovel Knight) to still be retro games? In my opinion that doesn't sound right, I think they would be *retro-inspired* games rather than being retro outright, which implies a time-based element in what makes something retro.

 

[Scotty Scotty]

If it's at least 15 years old, then by definition, it is retro.

 

[SolemnlyDoc]

Currently I think of 2006 and back as retro. So I guess 20 years.