And what category does the PS2, Wii, Xbox, Nintendo DS/3DS fit into? They aren’t retro, but they’re not really “modern” either
Edit:sorry about posting 4 times, it kept telling me that it had a correction error
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Anything with a capacitor about to blow. Seriously get rid of your clock capacitor xbox collectors!
Personally I classify everything older than 30 years (in video gaming) to be retro-gaming i my mind! So even the first Pokémon games are retro to me :)
2023 - 30 = 1993. If your year of reference is this, then most SNES games would not be considered “retro”. Pokemon Green was only released in 1996.
GameCube, PS2, and Xbox are now retro since Xbox Series X and PS5 are out.
When PS6 and Xbox 5 comes out, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii will be retro.
I would argue that retro is individual. Depending on when you grew up and which games you played back then.
My own personal line in the sand is what Wikipedia calls “the sixth generation”: Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, Sony PS2, Microsoft Xbox. They’re “retro” to me. Starting from the seventh generation, there was a noticeable bump in the ability for systems to churn out relatively-realistic graphics, with the PS3 and Xbox 360 leading the way, and the Wii embracing its delightfully-modern cartoony style.
I guess it really just depends on you and what you experienced, or were too young to experience.
Im sure younger zoomers see those systems as retro, much in the same way we saw NES as retro in the early 00s.
For me its hard to consider PS2 or Xbox as retro. That era was the first time I had disposable income as a young adult, living at home. And I think experiencing them as an adult, to me, makes it feel like these systems are still very new and cutting edge… even though theyre very much not anymore.
I’m at the age now where I know deep down the Wii is retro, but I don’t want to accept it.
I think of “retro” as pixel-based and early 3D games that were sorta killed during the PS1/Saturn/N64 era.
Once we get into more advanced 3D / Polygonal games (PS2/GameCube/Xbox), it’s a different era; but it’s not due to the visual shift alone, but the design philosophy and craft/code itself. I would consider them “modern” and point to series like Zelda as an example.
Games like WindWaker feel more connected to Breath of the Wild than it does to Link to the Past or even Ocarina of Time. And I think the same goes for series like Mario, Metal Gear, and so on.
It’s a moving target. For me, I would say anything older than about 15-20 years is “retro” and anything older than 30 years is “vintage.”
Retro is everything you were in to when you were 12.
For me I’d say retro is Gen 6 and below, but specifically including the Dreamcast and PS2, but probably excluding the Xbox, and maybe GameCube.
The Xbox was the first console with internal storage built in and both the Xbox and GameCube used shader pipelining aka modern GPU architecture. Basically, I feel if shader compilation is a requirement for emulating it, I don’t consider it retro.
I feel like gc is retro because it had weird conventions. Weird ass controller. Weird controls. Xbox had started to settle in with modern standard schemes. Especially for things like fps and tps.
True, and it’s why I’m on the fence about GameCube. It’s kinda retro but kinda not. The weird controller and small disc sizes make it feel retro, but it has modern-ish dual stage triggers, and a PowerPC architecture with a modern GPU design, double precision floats, OOE compute.
Meanwhile the PS2 was still weird, included the PS1 chip, and mostly just had a massive fill rate to make up for its shortcomings.
I’m not really sure I consider anything retro? Old tech ends up still getting supported, just by indie hobbyists. But outside of that I guess XB360 and below since it’s not being produced anymore.
The way I see it based on what was retro 20 years ago, something becomes retro when it’s 20+ years old. In the 90’s, stuff from the 70’s was retro. In the 2000’s, 80’s stuff was retro. Now in 2023, stuff from the 2000’s is technically retro.
By pure dictionary definition. something new that’s made to look old is retro, not things that are actually old.
relating to, reviving, or being the styles and especially the fashions of the past : fashionably nostalgic or old-fashioned
Imitation is just one kind of retro. Actual old stuff is also retro. It also means to go backwards, or regress.
Don’t just go by the singular definition Google gives in their dumbass blurb. Look in an actual dictionary.
In my view, systems without an HDMI output or which default to a 4:3 aspect ratio are retro. But I don’t expect everyone else to share this opinion, and that’s totally fine. 🙂
That’s actually a great distinction.
That is a very interesting take. 4:3 games do have a certain retro feeling to them!
Thats basically my demarcation point too.
If something can output a format a modern tv can upscale with no issues using a connection type it has then it’s not retro.
Anything that has component or hdmi output and can do 480p/i or better is just old, not retro.
Even simpler, if it was designed to work with a CRT television because that is what the vast majority of people had at the time.
Fun to think that someday if USB C finishes to eradicate HDMI/DP they might become the sign that it is retro… Look at that! They had a dedicated plug for the video signal back then :)
The first version of 360 didn’t have HDMI tho… While some versions of GC had digital video out, and PS2 could do 1080i with some games.
PS2 defaults to 4:3, digital out can be things besides HDMI, and the vast majority of 360 consoles sold had HDMI out. If you want to draw the line elsewhere, no big, do your thing, there’s no one True answer to OP’s question… but your comment feels like whataboutism to me and adds nothing of value.
Adding factual information about (potential) retro consoles in a retro gaming community adds nothing of value? Okay then.
Agreed cause this before ps3 and 360 which is how I see it also
What classifies as Retro… Hmm… The last retro consoles would have to be the original Xbox, PS2, GameCube and Dreamcast.
Xbox360, PS3, Wii would still be in that middle ground of not quite retro but not quite modern either. They won’t exactly be retro, atleast for me, till 2035-36 at the latest.
I don’t know about the 2035 part, but I completely agree that that’s the last retro generation
