Commander Shepard Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 Defining what is retro and classic to gamers is gradually becoming a difficult issue to agree on, with the current generation of gamers and the coming future generations of gamers. Many will agree that the stuff like the NES will forever be retro, but what about "fairly" recent consoles, handhelds, and such like the Playstation, Nintendo 64, or, as much as I read in other gaming forums, the original Xbox? This thread is to voice your opinion on what you think should be classified as retro or classic and why! Let us define what is retro or what should be retro! I will watch this thread so we can construct a consensus on what TAY posters think is retro, so let your voices be heard (but if you do just name a system with no explanation as to why you think it should be retro, it will be removed) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander Shepard Posted December 29, 2010 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 **Space Reserved for Retro Platform list** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akuam4n Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 Retro for me are the NES, SNES, Gameboy, etc. Stuff that was either only in black and white (Gameboyyyyy, first one anyway) or could only be 8-bit or akin to it. Classic for me, is something that I think I will always love, no matter how old it gets. Halo is a classic for me, as well as Sly Cooper, Morrowind, COD4, The Windwaker, RE4, etc, etc (I started gaming on the Gamecube for consoles, and Gameboy for handhelds, so I totally skipped the N64, Dreamcast, PS2... a lot of my "classics" are not that old). So I guess for the purpose of the thread, I think the SNES, NES, and Gameboy are retro. I don't think any console is a classic, only the games on it that you will always play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 In another couple of generations, PS2 and Xbox will be retro. After that, 360 and PS3. We'll all say "Look how primitive that 360 was. You couldn't even connect it to your sex robot." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudkip3DS Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 (edited) "Retro" for me means that a generation of consoles automatically gets added to the nostalgia pile once they are two generations behind. And Jack, you're wrong. PS2 and Xbox will be retro by JUST the next generation after our current one, and in the generation after that, PS3 and X360 and Wii will be retro, while stupid hippie kids everywhere start wearing retro Kratos and Master Chief shirts and (thinking that) making references to the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube games will put them in the in crowd. Keep in mind that this is 3 generations after PS2 and Xbox. Meanwhile, the 8-bit and 16-bit era shall be seen as only a curiosity once again, and simply being too old to be cool… that is, until 70 years later, when futuristic hipsters living in New York City shall don the Triforce and Mario mushrooms on their holographic T-shirts, and thus the cycle shall begin anew again. Can I just say, "Fuck you," to all of the people today that are going into nostalgia mode over fucking cassette tapes? I mean dear god. Edited December 29, 2010 by Mudkip Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bouchart Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 If the difficulty makes me want to pull out my hair, chances are that it's retro. I Wanna Be The Guy is retro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 This is retro. ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Showmeyomoves! Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 "Retro" to me implies 2D. I'm not sure how long it will take for me to consider a 3D game "retro". Unless it's one of those games that only experimented with 3D, like Doom or Wolfenstein. Those games use sprites, so I'd consider them retro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 To me retro starts at the 16-bit generation but I'm willing to extend it to the PSX-N64 generation these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diedan Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 For me, it's really just anything that I played as a child. So, for me, personally, I see the Odyssey2, Atari 2600, NES, SNES, and Gameboy all as retro consoles. For some reason I also have this sensibility that something that few people experienced, a console that appeared and burnt out, while I was in my younger years also qualifies. So things like the Phillip's CDi, Sega CD, Jaguar, Neo Geo, Lynx, 3D0, etc., are all retro as well. They remind me of a time when there so many companies were trying to get a foothold on the industry and had wonderfully asinine ad campaigns. (Jaguar 64, DO THE MATH!) I guess by that definition, retro=nostalgia. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slithy toves Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 retro is an easily changeable term. classic is not. so anything that you played over a decade ago could probably be considered retro to someone, just like styles of clothes or stupid haircuts. classic is generally held to a higher standard, as something that was played back then but still has relevance today. so like pac man, mario bros. type stuff. we'll only know what retro things become classics as they change the game or keep their relevance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yantelope Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 I was listening to the radio at lunch and they kicked off the retro hour. I was all pumped for some new order or some Cure but the first song was Pearl Jam. That was a truly sad day in my life. Moral of the story is retro changes and surprise! You're old. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 I think you win the thread, sir. The only thing missing from that commercial is the pricetag. It was probably like $500 or something in 70's dollars. No, but I win now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5nJTz9m5I Anyone recognize that kid at the beginning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slithy toves Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 No, but I win now http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5nJTz9m5I Anyone recognize that kid at the beginning? perhaps a video that doesn't tell you who the kid is at the beginning? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 *Epic facepalm* I so did not notice that because I have a script that gets rid of all those stupid overlays. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slithy toves Posted December 29, 2010 Report Share Posted December 29, 2010 well, i got a good chuckle out of it if that helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Well I'd say retro is like 1st to 4th generation. Anything Pre-Crash is definitely retro. That was video games "phase 1". Were on Phase 2 at the moment shifting to Phase 3. Phase 1, so 1st-3rd gen (Pre-crash) was consoles finding their feet, trying all kinds of ideas from sticks to numpads n TV overlays n all that whackiness. Phase 2 was the Nintendo Era. Some of it's slipping into retroville, some of it still kinda modern. I'd say thats 4th to 6th gen. Controllers started to become more conformed, gaming got into mainstream n it's where I'd say most of the classics have come from. And we're now in Phase 3. Gaming becomes multi-functional, online n social. Consoles don't just play games anywhere. The internet really has it's teeth in and I think at the moment gaming is in it's coccoon, ready to turn into butterfly or moth. Err went a ramble there. I just guess to explain my "Phase 1" thoughts.. In regards specifically to the retro forum, basically anything that isn't from the current big 4 goes in there. I guess I wouldn't consider Dreamcast "Retro", since I wouldn't call PS2 retro either, but that's sort of where that'd belong since not much else to put it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Halo is what 2002? It's as classic n retro as glasses with 00's for the eyes. Games can have retro-aesthetics or retro-feel. But it takes good old time to make it a retro game. And it takes time, good luck and endearing game play to make it a classic. I'd say from the current stand point this gen has produced very few "Classics". Things that will live on as long as Pac-Mans, Mario, Sonic, Zelda etc and be as well remembered. GTA I'd say is the only current game I'd be confident enough to say we'll look back on in 25 years n call a "Classic". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottZilla Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Retro games to me would be anything from the 16bit generation and back. Though I think PS1, Saturn, and N64 could be considered retro too. Pretty much the cut off though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battra92 Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 What annoys me personally are comments on Kotaku that refer to games like the original Halo as "classic". Maybe I just dislike being reminded of my age, but just because someone was so young when Halo came out that it was their first FPS, doesn't make it "classic". Classic are games that made or helped to define genres. Games that made those genres "popular" to the tweens/teens of today are just "greatest hits". /end elitism Yeah, well I'd say that Halo is just junk but that's just my snobbery speaking. Yeah, the original XBox is not old school. I still play a few original Xbox games on my 360 so I just consider them last gen. Too bad the 360 wasn't 100% backwards compatible. :-( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Showmeyomoves! Posted December 30, 2010 Report Share Posted December 30, 2010 Classic doesn't have to be old, though. Something can be an "instant" classic or a "modern" classic. I'm not sure I would put Halo in either of those categories, though. Then again, I'm a bit of a videogame snob too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peteer01 Posted February 23, 2011 Report Share Posted February 23, 2011 (edited) For me, I immediately think of the stuff I grew up on: ColecoVision, NES, Genesys, Gameboy, LCD Game-N-Watch, that kinda stuff. That stuff's all classic, but to a degree, so is the PS1 stuff. The difference in two terms, "retro" and "classic", in my mind is game mechanics. Retro would be anything from back when developers (pretty much) only thought in 2D falls, or anything that feels like the game mechanics came straight from those games, a good example is a platformer like Scott Pilgrim , people are going to identify that kind of game experience as retro. (Most of Shadow Complex is very retro) For classic, the N64/PS1 stuff is classic 3D gaming, but an HD version of 3D game from that time would only feel retro if you knew it was an HD version of an old game...otherwise you might just think it's a bad game. So a retro game would be something based around old school (pre-PS1/N64) game mechanics, while a classic would be any game that's more than, say, 15 years old... Edited February 23, 2011 by peteer01 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R__ Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Anything before PS2 in my view. To me it's more about the types of games that were released on the consoles that make them retro. I consider Dreamcast retro because it had a lot of retro-style games. Dreamcast was the transition console... it had a lot of the old stuff, and some of the new stuff. PS2 is what I consider to be the first "new generation" console, but it's mostly because of the style of games that came out for it. With PS2, classic games were no longer profitable, and we started to get a lot of easy games with long tutorial levels and 30 minute movie intros before you were allowed to start playing the game. You started being rewarded for time investment rather than skill. I guess to me, if you can pop the games in and start playing within a few seconds it's "retro". And that is what I still prefer to this day... I don't have time to play a lot of these new games; I want to just sit down for a few minutes, play the game, and then turn it off when I get bored (and with games on mobile devices we're returning to this paradigm, but in a very castrated way). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 Hmm. Interesting view point. Fits quite well. I would definitely agree the last decade has seen a huge shift in game design philosophy over ages past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McBeeferton Posted February 27, 2011 Report Share Posted February 27, 2011 A decade old: Retro Two decades old: Classic Three+ decades old: Break out the phonographer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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