What is the definition of 'retro' to you?

[popckorn]

I was downloading a bunch of SHMUPs to play on my brand "new" PSOne using FreePSXBoot...
And I found a game called:

RETRO FORCE

It was Retro the day it was released! LOL
So I begun wondering the same old question...
I guess most of us agree 2 generation is fair enough

I would say Retro means consoles and games companies do not send as much Cease and Desist notices for, but then again... Companies are greedy and will change their "rules" if they can profit off overpriced remakes or virtual consoles.

 

[Trix_]

We're getting old. For me it's games/consoles that are 15-20 years old. I consider the PS2 retro now.
I don't understand why there are so many flamewars around this topic, it's not that serious...
A bit weird to think that the PS3 was released a few days after my 8th birthday.

 

[MasterChiefX]

My friend believes "retro" is a feeling and has nothing to do when the game came out. He calls some modern games "retro" even.

 

[KyleOnDemand]

To me retro is “what was relevant 25+ years ago”

To my oldest daughter, much to my mortality, it’s anything 10+ years old

 

[Deleted member 420614]

Retro to me is 20+ years old anything less is to young. honestly if we should treat games as we treat humans old and retro should technically be 50+ as you seen as old when you hit 50. To me "Retro" is what you call old things.

I mean the word has been used sense 1972 and was often consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the past and when they speak past we talk 1910-20-30 and not 1960.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

My friend believes "retro" is a feeling and has nothing to do when the game came out. He calls some modern games "retro" even.

I kinda like that approach as I saw some N64 games as retro back when the Wii was new.

 

[Hernan17]

To me, retro is everything that shows up before I was a teenager

 

[cruelty_sponge]

I told

 

[Tr4sh_Kun]

By my standards I'm was going for "when they were released two gens ago or more than a decade ago" I mean, by the time the Gamecube and GBA existed Nintendo was already adding emulable NES games on Animal Crossing and re-releasing NES games on cartridge or e-card form, so I think it's acceptable to say something from two generations ago can be considered retro

I also asked my friend about it and said it's a tricky question and he considers that a console/game can be considered retro when you can no longer oficially buy the console or games oficially (aka the console and games are discontinued)
He used the Xbox One and PS4 as examples, you can no longer buy an Xbox from Microsoft's store but you can still buy a brand new PS4 from Sony's store and both consoles were released on 2013, so would you consider the PS4 a retro console if we use the year of release as a way to define something as retro?

 

[cruelty_sponge]

I told

Sorry. Never trying to post from my phone before bed again.

What I was trying to say is I told someone in their twenties I like retro survival horror games, and they said, "Like DayZ?" when I was thinking more like Silent Hill because I'm in my thirties.

Silent Hill 1 must be ancient to them. I felt like the Crypt Keeper.

So what retro means to people is, yeah, very age-based.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

By my standards I'm was going for "when they were released two gens ago or more than a decade ago" I mean, by the time the Gamecube and GBA existed Nintendo was already adding emulable NES games on Animal Crossing and re-releasing NES games on cartridge or e-card form, so I think it's acceptable to say something from two generations ago can be considered retro

While these were NES games they were early, pre-Super Mario Bros ones (single screen or very limited scrolling arcade-like games). I mean let's be honest, Excitebike, Ice Climbers and Balloon Fight are extremely limited games even for NES/Famicom standard.

I cannot fathom enough how impactful Super Mario Bros was for the console and gaming as a whole. It's almost as if late NES games were a different gen from the first two years of the hardware.

I also asked my friend about it and said it's a tricky question and he considers that a console/game can be considered retro when you can no longer officially buy the console or games officially (aka the console and games are discontinued).
He used the Xbox One and PS4 as examples, you can no longer buy an Xbox from Microsoft's store but you can still buy a brand new PS4 from Sony's store and both consoles were released on 2013, so would you consider the PS4 a retro console if we use the year of release as a way to define something as retro?

What if they re-release a new model of an older console? Also some games are still sold in digital stores. Tomorrow if I wanted I could buy Xbox 360 games.

This is really vague.

 

[Deleted member 3339]

20 years or older= Retro
Cant believe xbox 360 is going to be retro this year, next year PS3.

 

[Hourai]

Retro to me is 20+ years old anything less is to young. honestly if we should treat games as we treat humans old and retro should technically be 50+ as you seen as old when you hit 50. To me "Retro" is what you call old things.

I mean the word has been used sense 1972 and was often consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the past and when they speak past we talk 1910-20-30 and not 1960.

I actually refer to things that happened in the 1800s as recent history, since it comparatively is recent. Time is a funny little thing, isn't it?

Retro to me is ten to fourteen years ago, since a decade is a long time to live through. Even though tech hasn't been progressing at half the rate it used to, the amount of time between the Vita's release and now is the same as when we called the SNES retro twenty years ago.

 

[popckorn]

Lol I got my first PS3 (new from Walmart) in 2013 i was SUPER SLIM and was about 300USD with 3 games included.
It is 10 years old to me... KEK
Admittedly I just got my PS4 Slim, used, last year...
What is a PS5 even?

Patient Gamers Rule The Budget!

 

[YULEcannon]

Personal definition: 6th Gen and earlier. The Dreamcast, GC and PS2 were the last times I was actively buying new games, and paying attention to the new releases in general. when the 7th gen started, I went backwards, and checked out some stuff I missed from the 16 bit era.

 

[Retro Doomer]

For me Retro Begins at the Ps2 and everything after may be old but doesn't feel Retro to me like the Ps3.But everyone has there own Opinion on that and I respect that.But just thinking that someday the ps4 and ps5 will be considered Retro by some people is Interesting to think about.By that time i will probably will be like a Dinosaur to this Kids.

 

[ColonelKurtz]

All systems playable with RetroAchievements are what I consider "retro."

 

[Esidemoken]

I think we all tended to consider two previous generations retro because the difference was so wide, but beyond the graphical aspect, do PS3, XBOX 360 and Wii U games really feel so different from current games?

Not for me and that's why I consider retro from the sixth generation back.

 

[popckorn]

Yeah the jump from PS3 to PS4 felt like going to PS3 PRO.
The PS4 and the PS5 are the same thing to me.
Mainly because I still play on 1080, happily.
Even on PC I run 60fps, I see the difference with 120fps so negligible that it is not worth a thousand dollars more for a GPU upgrade.
I guess living during the jump from 2D to 3D helps put things in perspective, nowadays it is more of a FOMO thing than actual novelty.

The other day I saw a graphic of a cave explaining the difference the jump in polygons made from Ps1 tp PS2 to PS3... the jump from PS4 to PS5 is in a tiny level of detail that is difficult to see without 4k and a huge screen.... I wish I had saved it.

 

[rugal]

for me the definition of retro is a old consol and the game to it has that old retro feeling

ps3 is semi retro to me since the consol is old but the game have to modern feel to them

 

[Retro Doomer]

for me the definition of retro is a old consol and the game to it has that old retro feeling

ps3 is semi retro to me since the consol is old but the game have to modern feel to them

Seeing or just Calling the Ps3 Retro feels just wrong to me somehow.Old Yes but Retro no,but this is just my Opinion.

 

[rugal]

Seeing or just Calling the Ps3 Retro feels just wrong to me somehow.Old Yes but Retro no,but this is just my Opinion.

i agree with you that it feels wrong to calling ps3 retro that is why i see the ps3 as semi retro
because the game to ps3 do not have the retro feel to them

 

[fmsynthetic]

I think my standard is that anything from a time when they had to either use hand-drawn art or graphical tricks to make things look real, is retro. So everything before PS3.

That might just be a cope because I'm old though

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I think my standard is that anything from a time when they had to either use hand-drawn art or graphical tricks to make things look real, is retro. So everything before PS3.

Hand drawn art existed after the PS3, right?

 

[jiyuuboyetsvi]

MFW I see YouTube Shorts about being quirky with cute aesthetic "retro" PSPs