What is the definition of 'retro' to you?

[fmsynthetic]

Hand drawn art existed after the PS3, right?

It's never completely gone away, although it's much more popular now that sad old men with disposable income (like me) are nostalgic for that past. But the difference is that it isn't necessary now. You can essentially have photorealism, with greater or lesser fidelity, without taking any shortcuts to tell the audience that an image signifies something other than what it immediately appears to be.

I would say that started sometime in the late 2000s. So to me, nothing after that can be retro. I also think that graphics don't ever really need to be better than they were at that time, and that games need to regress to that level of visual fidelity. So I'm not impartial here, is what I'm saying.

 

[RandomHajile]

To me, Retro is before gaming went mainstream. I know it's debateable, and people have different ideas as to when it DID go mainstream, but to me, it's the 32 bit generation. PS1 mainstreamed gaming and got a lot of folks who weren't into japanese culture - which is what gaming essentially was in the 8 and 16 bit eras - into the hobby.

I am willing to consider the Saturn/PSX/N64 generation as retro though, simply because the aestthetics those systems made popular are now being used in retro indie games (The PSX aesthetic is especially popular, just look at Lunacid, Tyrant's Realm, Psychopomp Gold, Gunmetal Gothic, Labyrinth of the Demon King...just to name a few)

 

[fmsynthetic]

To me, Retro is before gaming went mainstream. I know it's debateable, and people have different ideas as to when it DID go mainstream, but to me, it's the 32 bit generation. PS1 mainstreamed gaming and got a lot of folks who weren't into japanese culture - which is what gaming essentially was in the 8 and 16 bit eras - into the hobby.

I am willing to consider the Saturn/PSX/N64 generation as retro though, simply because the aestthetics those systems made popular are now being used in retro indie games (The PSX aesthetic is especially popular, just look at Lunacid, Tyrant's Realm, Psychopomp Gold, Gunmetal Gothic, Labyrinth of the Demon King...just to name a few)

You're kind of ignoring Western PC gaming here

 

[Anti-Law Savior]

Old, but not in a bad way. Retro to me is a gateway to the past, sometimes even an escape, sometimes I yearn for something I was never there for, its a feeling hard to describe almost like the 80s aesthetic, but there's something about it that always makes feel welcome.

Not like today.

 

[ciro64 ciro64]

This is so retro. It has pixels n' shit.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

View attachment 66479

This is so retro. It has pixels n' shit.

That game's already 10 right?

 

[WesternYokai]

"Retro" to me is everything that is obsolete and is not easy accessible nowadays. Like, most TVs doesn't come with analog inputs anymore, so I can't play my PS2 natively on them. PS3 is another story tho, they can be hooked up on a brand new TV and work perfectly.

It's just an example. The line is much more blurred but I draw it in this period, like between PS2 and PS3 generations. So this is why I voted "PS2 era and before".

But I could easily voted on "Retro is a market term" because it is. I hate how the hobby became so expensive for the sake of speculation.

 

[Deleted member 526220]

I think the 90s were such a retro time because back then it was also slowly starting with console games .

 

[fmsynthetic]

"Retro" to me is everything that is obsolete and is not easy accessible nowadays. Like, most TVs doesn't come with analog inputs anymore, so I can't play my PS2 natively on them. PS3 is another story tho, they can be hooked up on a brand new TV and work perfectly.

It's just an example. The line is much more blurred but I draw it in this period, like between PS2 and PS3 generations. So this is why I voted "PS2 era and before".

But I could easily voted on "Retro is a market term" because it is. I hate how the hobby became so expensive for the sake of speculation.

You can still get CRTs from Boomers on FB Marketplace or garage sales. Anyone younger tries to sell them as 'retro gaming TVs' and jacks up the price.

Let's not even talk about the retro gaming resale market. Thank God I bought pretty much everything I wanted years ago.

 

[ciro64 ciro64]

"Retro" to me is everything that is obsolete and is not easy accessible nowadays. Like, most TVs doesn't come with analog inputs anymore, so I can't play my PS2 natively on them. PS3 is another story tho, they can be hooked up on a brand new TV and work perfectly.

This is partially my point, but my other argument is that game design from the 7th generation excluding the Wii is much more resembling of modern games than the previous generation.

I somewhat consider 3DS retro for not conforming with modern standards.

 

[WesternYokai]

You can still get CRTs from Boomers on FB Marketplace or garage sales. Anyone younger tries to sell them as 'retro gaming TVs' and jacks up the price.

Let's not even talk about the retro gaming resale market. Thank God I bought pretty much everything I wanted years ago.

I have the same feeling. I have virtually every console and every classic game phisically that I wanted. There's two or three games that I wish but it's impossible now and that's fine, idc.

This is partially my point, but my other argument is that game design from the 7th generation excluding the Wii is much more resembling of modern games than the previous generation.

I somewhat consider 3DS retro for not conforming with modern standards.

Yes, this is why I think the line is blurred. I simply don't know where to put Nintendo consoles since Wii in this though. Same for the PSP, like, you can still tecnichally buy digital games for it, but oh well

 

[sadasa]

marketing strategy to be able to sell goodwill dedicated to the entertainment business that at the time could not be sold due to oversupply and lack of demand and that due to mediocrity in the current supply of new products, are sold at super inflated prices encouraged by paid agents (influencers) through spurious economic agreements, obtaining monumental profits without the need to generate new content. For this reason there is the virus of "high quality / high definition" editions of the same game for current modern systems or junk remakes.

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[DjQuick2008]

Probably up to PSP era right now it still had games coming out after 2010 but certainly mid 2000s and before is retro without doubt.

 

[FrootyLoopsSamurai]

Retro games are games that make me feel old when I think about how old they are. PSWii60 games are retro now. Sonic 06 will be old enough to drink in a just a couple of years. What do you mean the 80's weren't 20 years ago? Feel inexorable march of time as you slowly turn to dust.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Sonic 06 will be old enough to drink in a just a couple of years.

And Sonic 2006 is also older than the original Sonic The Hedgehog game on the Genesis was back when '06 was released.

As for being old enough to drink it depends of the country so I don't think this is a good way to determinate if the game is old enough.

 

[Pokenami's iconPokenami]

Retro games makes me feel like I'm young and wild again. Up until Gen 8, I really had a hell of a time with the games that released. They had more passion and creativity to it and made me feel like the golden years of gaming.

I guess we're pass those years after Gen 8 started.

 

[Michael Frank]

Retro for me is something that is as old as my dead grandpa and cool like a early Judas Priest song (Like Tyrant, Sinner, Etc.) made with a passion and charm that's not common these days, meaning that even if it has jank (some platformers or early rpgs) or tanky controls (RE2, God Hand), nevertheless it has a quirk that makes it stood out in comparison to most of the modern games (i mean those are good, but not AS good).

 

[fmsynthetic]

'Fortune Cookie say: Baseball wrong. Man with 4 balls cannot walk.'

 

[Bonkers225]

20 years ago. So, PS2, PSP, X-Box, GBA, I consider retro.

 

[Boofytan]

Retro is vintage. Anything that smells of mold, cigarettes and deep regrets (yes I can smell it through the screen)

 

[shadowcat]

I voted that it's just a marketing term, but I'd say the PS1/Saturn/N64 is the last generation I'd consider retro, but that's only because I came into gaming in the middle of that era, and there were some parts of those console's lifespans that I missed.

 

[Burzuru]

old. if we consider 360 and ps3 games retro, what about an old game that originally released at the time those consoles where current leading platforms, but is still being developed today? like final fantasy 14 a realm reborn. would that game still have to be considered retro?

 

[Ogmios]

Whenever a game makes me feel like I'm deteriorating on the spot

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

old. if we consider 360 and ps3 games retro, what about an old game that originally released at the time those consoles where current leading platforms, but is still being developed today? like final fantasy 14 a realm reborn. would that game still have to be considered retro?

World of Warcraft as well but MMOs are exceptions.

On the other hand with the era of GaaS and continuous development I feel that games such as Minecraft are no longer able to become retro (unless we consider the Alpha and Beta as a separate game).

 

[iisoide]

Probably PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era and older for "retro" in its truest form based on where the industry is at now.

Although I would consider games ten years or older to also be "retro" so-to-speak because I grew up as a teenager playing games that were released in 2015-2018; those are games that would remind me of my teenage years and I'd call those retro based on my own experiences with them.