What is the definition of 'retro' to you?

[Retro Doomer]

I am Retro

darn it.
I would say early Ps3 if I am generous by now but normally more up to Ps2.

Someday people will consider the Ps4 Retro if not some already do...darn I scared myself there for a bit.

 

[Ikagura]

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 fifth generation ones.

Some people are trolling by calling some consoles retro because of the specs.

 

[Aunt Sarah]

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.

I agree with most of your reply, though it is a bit surprising to see people being accepting of PS3 and 360 as retro, probably because I used to post on reddit exclusively for a retro gaming sub reddit and they explicitly banned them from being discussed as retro.

 

[Ikagura]

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.

I wouldn't consider indie games having a retro aesthetic and homebrew games on retro consoles as such.

 

[Aunt Sarah]

I wouldn't consider indie games having a retro aesthetic and homebrew games on retro consoles as such.

I consider those indie games "modern retro" as a way to distinguish them. An awful lot of them try too hard in my opinion and don't quite hit the mark in presentation or gameplay. It's why I passed on the AVGN 8-bit game, because it's not 8-bit, it's a modern retro game. I'm waiting for the actual NES version.

 

[Leon]

We had a thread about this before but i'll reiterate what i said there.

2 generations back is Retro, ex. early Ps3, 360, wii, 2006 area is fine.
3-4 generations back is classic, ps1, ps2, saturn, dreamcast, xbox, gamecube, GBA etc.
Older than that, vintage, Genesis, SNES, nes, Atari 2600 etc.

 

[DinoRexMax DinoRexMax]

I wouldn't consider indie games having a retro aesthetic and homebrew games on retro consoles as such.

I think you misundertand, it's not the indie games that are retro, it's the games that they are emulating. If it takes a conscientious effort to rollback technology to replicate the look and feel of something, that's a retro style.

That way, it's classified as an "Retro Styled Indie game". Especially considering Independant games are sort of detached from the contemporary, it makes it difficult to pin them down to any particular era.

It's like, I make a bronze knife in my garage, that doesn't make it an ancient Mesopotamian artifact from the 2nd millennium (BC), it makes me a fucking weirdo for making bronze shit in the year 2026.

 

[Pretendedor]

I'd say its around the ps2 era, considering game mechanics which were still developing. The first fully modern game in my mind lore is gt4. Everything is polished to a mirror and (almost) everything holds up to this day.

 

[DjQuick2008]

20 years seems to be the given. PS3 will be acceptable by many soon.

 

[Aunt Sarah]

20 years seems to be the given. PS3 will be acceptable by many soon.

Tell the retro sub reddit that.

I guess I can see where they are coming from to some degree. I own a PS3 and a copy of Killzone 2, and even on the stock hardware that game looks startlingly close to current gen still. Least of all on RPCS3 at higher resolution.

 

[Ikagura]

Tell the retro sub reddit that.

I don't know that one well enough but what would they say?

I've seen people considering that 2000 was the year that separates before and after yet I feel like it's arbitrary (based on a number that is merely from one calendar).

 

[Aunt Sarah]

I don't know that one well enough but what would they say?

I've seen people considering that 2000 was the year that separates before and after yet I feel like it's arbitrary (based on a number that is merely from one calendar).

They can be aggressively assertive that 360/PS3 will never be retro and delete threads that mention them with extreme prejudice.

 

[DjQuick2008]

reddit is a platform id choose to avoid users can start an argument with their own shadow.

 

[Aunt Sarah]

reddit is a platform id choose to avoid users can start an argument with their own shadow.

I only used it because I had the itch to talk about retro stuff, and I tried to use other social media in a narrow focused way to do that but it never ever worked because UGH social media. I also tried a narrow use of Twitter and Bluesky. (NOPE) I even tried that big busy forum Resetera, but it's badly over moderated and I was always walking on egg shells to not get banned without notice.

I just wanna talk about my retro games and very occasional new horror game (Fatal Frame 2 Remake COME TO MOMMY!) thank you very much! This place seems to do a much better job giving me that. Reddit is in my rearview mirror with all other social media now.

 

[Ikagura]

Reddit is a platform id choose to avoid users can start an argument with their own shadow.

The moment I've learnt about the Karma system (and how basically you can get somehow banned for having a negative score) made me already see the issue about the system.

I even tried that big busy forum Resetera, but it's badly over moderated and I was always walking on egg shells to not get banned without notice.

Oh right, this infamous forum...

 

[diet_orange]

Personally, I consider anything pre-7th gen to be "retro" and a lot of that has to do with the general shift to AAA open world games as the standard going forwards

 

[karai]

For me anything before uncharted 2 can be considered retro.
for me it was the game that ended to establish the modern sony prestige AAA game.

 

[GrazieSez]

20 years seems to be the given. PS3 will be acceptable by many soon.

Big agree. I think it's a matter of perception of how far removed we are from the time of that system, and PS3/Xbox/Wii just doesn't feel retro yet. It probably will be in the next few years, though.

 

[LightningmanEXE]

I measure this by degrees of inovation. Retro is N64 and Psx. I say this because once we got into the ps2 era, for the most part, gaming was a well understood and established art. You can do a straight upscale most Ps2 games and they work as titles released today. I can't say the same for most N64 and PSX titles.

sure there were improvements from PS2 to PS3, but for most games, they were graphical, feature based. We didn't get vast leaps in user experiences or games that established new genres after that really. the N64 and Psx feel like the last consoles to be "experiments" for the industry.

I don't think the passage of time would change this, new consoles are barely even distinguishable anymore.

also, I think pre-nes games should have there own name, even if they are under the "retro" umbrella.

 

[Luxfin]

I think to me, when something is retro, the system has certain period of time away from the initial release of said system.
Although it honestly weird for me because I was born really late in 2003 so what is considered retro to me is different from my friends who born earlier or later than me.
PS3/360/Wii is not retro for me yet at least for the next few years.
The PS2, XBOX, and Gamecube is complicated for me because I was born in middle of those systems lifespan, so it's half and half.
Dreamcast downward are kinda of retro due to how much there are so much growing pains that need to be made due to the technology changes especially for the PS1 and N64.

 

[Ikagura]

You can do a straight upscale most Ps2 games and they work as titles released today. I can't say the same for most N64 and PSX titles.

You should check indie games and how many are made to be like PSX/N64 games.

 

[RetroCasual]

Just as said before, there's another thread about the same theme where I exposed my opinion, which remains more or less the same.
I still think that due to nostalgic factors this a very subjective opinion, but focusing on the visuals above all:

For PC Gaming: This is easy to misunderstand because superior GFX cards can easily re-scale older games to higher resolutions, so I'd say that any game with a native resolution under 720p could be considered retro.

For home consoles: Any game that can't be natively played from the console via HDMI can be considered retro (PS2, XBOX, Gamecube and below).

For portable consoles: PSP generation and below are retro, due to their older screens that don't really stand at today's standards. 2DS and 3DS got IPS panels, the PS Vita even got an OLED screen model, so I still consider them modern handhelds.

 

[LightningmanEXE]

You should check indie games and how many are made to be like PSX/N64 games.

Okay, but those are MEANT to look "retro"

When's the last time you heard someone say "this looks like a ps2 game" as a compliment for an intentional art direction?
This is my point exactly, making it "low poly" is making it "retro"
but no one really goes for a "ps2" style because that's just... dated graphics on a modern game, not a "retro" vibe.

 

[shannon weed]

I usually categorize games as "retro" if the hardware they were released on have 20 years or more

Sure, when people think of "retro games" those FPS with the muted brown colour palette of the 2000's don't enter

But, the fact is things like the first FEAR have 20 years old by now, it's a tricky subject

 

[Clawsofdrakonian]

In terms of home/ handheld consoles, I personally would call it retro if it can't be serviced officially anymore. I try to get a firm definition, but it's so tricky that I just stick to my own definition.