What is the definition of 'retro' to you?

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

By that logic nothing is retro. NES is current, SNES is current, Dreamcast is current and so on.
People have generally agreed for decades now that console generations are a shorthand for an era in Gaming. I have no idea how you could say "Vita and 3DS released at current era" since they released slightly before PS4. The two systems are still, technically, from last years of PS3 and Wii being current systems. No idea what logic dictates PS3 and Wii as "current" consoles but the same logic needing to apply, we would need to just call everything current era that just breaks any conventional understanding of words and how they have been applied historically in niche of video game hobbyists.
How do you even claim "Something will be always part of the current era"? That is not how time works you need to start calling pyramids and lead plumbing current inventions by that logic.

Try thinking about things before responding to them.

How do you even claim "Something will be always part of the current era"? That is not how time works you need to start calling pyramids and lead plumbing current inventions by that logic.

I can see that reading comprehension isn't your strong point. The claim I made is that the 3DS and the vita are part of the era of gaming which we are currently in, not that they will always be part of whatever era we will be in at any given time.

There is a lot of room for discussion regarding the different eras of gaming, but if we group gaming into two eras (Modern and Retro) with smaller "micro eras" within, than the split happens during the sixth gen. The dividing point would be arcades and the internet: The Dreamcast was the last console where games were still designed with an arcade approach before arcades started morphing into halls for music games, UFO catchers and horse betting simulators.

On the other hand, the Xbox marks the birth of Modern gaming with Xbox live which introduced paid DLC and online updates. That was all cemented in 2006 as we hit the point-of-no-return when the horse armor released.

Retro games were largely designed around arcades (outliers exist, and arcade approach or arcade-style approach became less common as we got closer to the modern era. Types of games changed, high scores disappeared, difficulty dropped, etc). Modern games are largely designed around the internet (outliers exist, especially in the early days when the transition was still taking place).

The Vita and 3DS are part of that internet-bases generation of gaming, which is the modern era. Not retro. They are very different than actual retro consoles. Retro consoles all have arcade games as a significant portion of their library and those games were built around the idea of practicing at home and setting scores in the arcade, or bringing the fun of the arcade game home later on. everything social happened in and around arcades. But modern consoles are designed so that everything social happens through the internet or internet-like features (Street Pass) and have little or no arcade games in their library (not including virtual console downloads).

I would argue that gaming has many, many, many more eras than just Retro and Modern, but you and everyone else seem to focus on those two so the easiest way the separate the two eras would be internet and arcades. So as I said, 3DS and Vita are not retro. They are modern. Modern gaming began over 20 years ago, and this will continue until the gaming landscape changes enough to define a new era. It's no different than how eras work in fine art, for example.

 

[RebelofDaNeonGod]

The sands of times escape your worn hands faster and faster, each grain an unrecoverable second, minute, hour, day, week and year. Age will ravage your languid body until you are naught but ash and bleach white bones. Tick tock tick tock, old man

 

[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 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.

 

[Plumpodrome Plumpodrome]

To me, retro is a "time", not a specific year.

I will always, and always, maintain that retro stops at the end of the ps2/gc/xbox lifecycle. Yes, you had online, but the real change in the climate regarding what online meant, and how it was approached - came with the 360 and the ps3. That was the time for digital purchases to become commonplace as well, paving the way for "updates" and DLC.

Since then, things haven't changed that much in regards to how "the boys get on COD". Aside from that, it was also the main shift between analog and digital signals.

 

[dr grim]

i'll define retro as an era.. like vintage.

Vintage gaming beginning's - end 70's ( pong - pac-man and stuff ) 1st and maybe 2nd gen

Retro gaming 80's to 00's - like 3rd to 6th

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

if the release year starts with a "2", then it's not retro. Either that, or the death of the Dreamcast marks the end of retro, so more like 2001. It's not decided by age, it's more like categorizing eras of gaming. The rest of gen 6, 7 and a bit of 8 are their own thing. Beyond that is modern era.

This is just the way I like to think about it, I'd break it down by console like this:

Retro
NES, SMS, PCE, SMD, SNES, GB, GG, SS, PS1, N64, GBC, SDC

Post-Retro/Pre-Modern (honestly idk what to call this one lol)
PS2, NGC, XBOX, GBA, 360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PSP, Wii U, VITA, 3DS

Gen 8 is truly the end of this era, but VITA and 3DS get included because they where the last of the proper handheld consoles with unique libraries, Wii U makes it in for a similar reason as the Dreamcast for retro, dying early in the gen. I guess you could say the death of the Wii U kinda sorta marks the current "modern" era, but you'd have to take a few liberties to make that work.

Modern era is just a bunch of homogenized consoles with basically all the same library, PS4 and Xbone started this trend and it only got worse from there.

I'd also consider pre-NES as it's own era as well, the Japanese consoles really changed how games where made and feel very different to what came before. It's also a chunk of retro that many don't bother to revisit.

Anyway, those are just my insane ramblings on the topic I'm sure most don't agree.

 

[Deleted member 908078]

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

2011 Pitbull songs are now under the category of retro music

Post automatically merged: Jan 20, 2026

That's sad, Alexa play my favorite retro song,

 

[Zerohour2k12]

Every definition is different. I'd point out one but will not match others. Plus as years go by the list grows so it's a matter of when we're at.

 

[tonyhoro]

I think that 15 year old games can be classified as retro already. So right now, the PS3/360 era is being seeing as nostalgic for people who grew up with them.

 

[nathman]

Any game released before Halo Reach.

 

[Efreet]

Honestly i kinda agree with the idea that everything not current gen can be considered retro, after all we're usually talking 7+ y ago and stuff you can't easily buy.
I personally use the term for everything that can't output native HD resolution but then there's the issue of how to call everything else in-between those and current gen.

 

[Spiral1407]

I focus more on how the games actually look and play rather than a specific time. Mainly because console lifecycles have increased significantly since the 7th gen and so the same rules can't really be applied anymore

For example, early 360/PS3 games generally look outdated, while later ones can still hold up today. So I'd say that generation is half retro and half modern.

 

[petran79]

I'd say that currently everything analog is retro.

 

[Ikagura]

Twenty Years is a good guess because that's where the term "vintage" came from.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

If the game can no longer be found in stores, it’s retro to me

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

I tended to definite "retro" as "anything from my childhood and before"... But that concept doesn't really hold water anymore, does it? Time moves on, things that were new and belonged to the future while I was busy sticking to that rule have long-since met the criteria I used to think of them as old.

So... Maybe games belonging to consoles that are no longer being produced and haven't for at least a decade? It's still not perfect, but it's the hill I've chosen to die on.

 

[blahbleh]

retro is all about age. If you were a child at the time, it's retro to you.

 

[dropsmegamega]

Honestly I can only really see as retro up to PS1/N64 blocky early 3D. Even PS2 doesn't really feel retro to me. But like the users above said, it's because we only see as retro stuff that was from our childhood and before.

 

[MajesticSiN]

pretty old

 

[Bakuma1997]

IDK, i haven't seen his driving license

Jokes aside... that's a tough one, i said between two and three generations ago, XBOX ONE is merely an old console, but 360 is full Retro, The Wii U can be seen as Retro too, consoles that are no questions asked must be the fitth generation ones

 

[VampireLord1024VampireLord1024's icon]

I'd say something that came out years ago.