What is the cut off from retro to modern?

[flamepanther]

I think there's a difference between obsolete and retro. It's definitely weird to think of a console as "retro" while stores are still clearing the games off the shelves. "Retro" sort of implies to me that it's dropped off the public radar long enough to change from "old and therefore boring" to "old and therefore interesting."

Good rule of thumb: If GameStop still sells it, it probably isn't "retro" yet.

[TornadoCreator]

When I hear retro I assume 16-bit and earlier.

I tended to seperate the way I game into Retro, Last Gen and Current Gen which gave me some good ways to categorise everything.

Retro = NES, SNES, Master System, Mega Drive, Pretty much all Atari Consoles, 80's to Early 90's Arcade Machines, Commodore 64 and early PC games ie. Pre-1995. It makes me think of cartridges, 2D platformers, beat em ups, arcade classics and controllers before analogue.

Last Gen = Playstation, Saturn, 3DO, Dreamcast, Gamecube, Xbox and PS2 as well as PC games from 1995-2005. It's a solid 10 year block to me. It make me think of CD-based gaming, 3D graphics, analogue sticks, hack n' slash brawlers, RPGs and memory cards.

Current Gen = PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and current high end PC gaming. It makes me think of HD Graphics, Bloody waggle physics, First Person Shooters and Online Gaming.

Generally, I find Current Gen unimpressive. I don't like FPS games, I'm not a fan of multiplayer and I can't stand waggle physics. Generations 5 and 6 for me as a gamer felt like they bled into eachother, probably because of the Dreamcast and N64 didn't quite fit their generations. N64 was two years after PSOne, Saturn and 3DO and the Dreamcast was two years later, but also two years before PS2, Xbox and Gamecube... Ironically, even though the N64 helps form that bridge my brain tends to ignore it when I think "last gen". I think it's because it didn't use CD's, didn't have RPGs or for that matter any hack n slash brawlers I can think of either... nor did it use memory cards. Basically all the things that I associated with that era didn't fit. It was a lot like the Jaguar, which I tend to lump in with Retro because it's a cartridge console with mainly 2D games, but N64 was too late my brain to shuffle it into Retro... so N64 is kinda floating in limbo.

So yeah, that's how I see gaming at the moment. I find it easy to divide along those lines but honestly the word "Retro" is so up for interpretation that it can mean almost anything. I've heard people call the PS2 Retro and they still release games for that, I've also heard people say only pre-NES is truly retro... which seems like a dated view today.

[VGMStudios]

N64 and older is retro for me.
Can't really add anything else cause i believe its all been said.

[Damm64]

Let's do it simple:

HD games: Current Era (DVD, BluRay, DLC, VC, Xbox Live, PSN etc)

3D games: Modern Era (CD)

2D games: Retro (Cartridges)

If the console was made before PSX it's retro to me (but i still considered the PSX, N64, and Saturn retro for the years that had on them).

[alienjesus]

I work on the principle that if the console is both 10 years old and unplayable (in its hard copy format) on the most modern comparable system by the same company, it's retro now. Thus, by my definition, the GBA just became retro, but the GC, XBox and PS2 haven't. The dreamcast would be retro too.

[AppleQueso]

I work on the principle that if the console is both 10 years old and unplayable (in its hard copy format) on the most modern comparable system by the same company, it's retro now. Thus, by my definition, the GBA just became retro, but the GC, XBox and PS2 haven't. The dreamcast would be retro too.

...so the ps1 isn't retro?

[alienjesus]

I work on the principle that if the console is both 10 years old and unplayable (in its hard copy format) on the most modern comparable system by the same company, it's retro now. Thus, by my definition, the GBA just became retro, but the GC, XBox and PS2 haven't. The dreamcast would be retro too.

...so the ps1 isn't retro?

There are some flaws with the system

But at the same time, just saying anything from 2 generations ago or more doesn't work either, because I consider the Dreamcast retro, but not it's comparable 6th gen systems.

Perhaps it should be - anything 10 years or older not playable on modern systems AND anything 2 generations or more back.

[flamepanther]

I still think the GameStop yardstick is the simplest and somehow the most accurate. Sure, it seems like an arbitrary idea to fix the definition on the sales decisions of one chain of stores... but that's not actually what's happening. Here's why it works:

GameStop chooses what to phase out based on what is no longer relevant to the current gaming ecosystem. They keep a very sensitive finger on that pulse, and once something is no longer close enough to current trends to drive the sales they want to see, out it goes! In practice, it turns out very similar to the "two generations" rule, but it is a better indicator of what's still in the public mindset as "current" rather than "retro." This also helps account for generations that were staggered, or for consoles that were either ahead of their time, or that remain unusually influential on the current generation. It's the zeitgeist of the games market itself that's dictating what GameStop sells, while GameStop is in this case merely a thermometer or a litmus test we can use to more easily observe the trends.

[alienjesus]

I still think the GameStop yardstick is the simplest and somehow the most accurate. Sure, it seems like an arbitrary idea to fix the definition on the sales decisions of one chain of stores... but that's not actually what's happening. Here's why it works:

GameStop chooses what to phase out based on what is no longer relevant to the current gaming ecosystem. They keep a very sensitive finger on that pulse, and once something is no longer close enough to current trends to drive the sales they want to see, out it goes! In practice, it turns out very similar to the "two generations" rule, but it is a better indicator of what's still in the public mindset as "current" rather than "retro."

The gamestop yardstick doesn't work so great when the nearest gamestop is several hundred miles away
Of course, I could use a comparable store from the UK, but there's no guarantee they'll still be selling the same consoles.

[flamepanther]

The gamestop yardstick doesn't work so great when the nearest gamestop is several hundred miles away
Of course, I could use a comparable store from the UK, but there's no guarantee they'll still be selling the same consoles.

They have a website.

Or, you could find whatever UK store keeps the sharpest eye on what's still current on your side of the pond. It doesn't matter if they sell exactly the same consoles. "Retro" describes the perceived obsolescence (and often subsequent revival) of a trend, and trends differ regionally. For comparison, cars that are "retro" in the U.S. where I live are oftentimes still current in Mexico.