How do we define what is "Retro"?

I know that for the most part, Blu Rays aren't near their ceiling in terms of games (likely due to the 360 using DVDs, meaning multiplats were often DVD size), but can they keep adding layers upon layers to the disc, or do they need to make a better disc?

I think the simplistic nature is what makes pre-3D games so enjoyable today. I don't need to see a 30 minute long video to know the backstory behind Mario. I don't need to know 50 different combinations to play NHL 95, and I don't need to know everything about Link's motivation to enjoy the old Legend of Zelda games. That said, since I didn't grow up with the 2600, it's hard to play a lot of its games (confession, I usually use a Genesis controller with it).

 

It's possible a blu ray can hold up to a Terabyte of data.

 

"How do we define what is Retro?" Nintendo systems & Handhelds while everything else "didn't" count! I swear these YouTubers piss me the FUCK off when it comes to SNES vs Sega Genesis battles, Especially NES vs SMS too though it's irrelevant to most hipsters. Also it's funny how these stupid idiots think their Super NES is the most powerful thing in the entire universe! They even have the nerve to say that PCs were weaker than it! so, tell me this, can it run Blood, Doom (Without using those enhancement "cheat device" chips?), can it run those polygonal 3D games like Stunts and Nascar Challenge, etc.. on that SNES of yours?!! dumbass i swear, i think they getting a kick out of this by trolling us! and it's damn sure working.

 

How so?

 

multiple layers.

 

Surely there's a limit to the layers due to density though? Can you really just stack 25GB on top of one another up to a TB?

 

They're working on the tech to add more layers to a Blu Ray disc. It may require a new laser in future players though.

 

I get what you mean.

 

Why is this even a issue?, it's like the "hardcore" or "casual" debate.....gaming is gaming whether it's retro, classic, vintage or fucking stoneage (yabba dabba doo) labels cause more name calling and bad blood it's like a religious war!

Ranting man is Ranting? Lol. ...but seriously don't ever use vintage unless your a hipster douchebag

 

It's a Uk thing isn't it? ONLY people that say Vintage is a douchebag hipster term are from the UK.

 

It's a US thing too.

Especially Portland
Fucking Portland.

 

you guys are seriously biased against a word that literally means "OLD"? I've seen "vintage gaming" since pre 2000 on eBay.

 

"Retro" is generally associated with nostalgia for what that particular gamer grew up with.

Example, I am in my mid twenties. My first console was a Super Nintendo, I generally consider anything below PS2 to be retro. However, I got my SNES in 1994 when I was 5ish. 2 years later most of the kids in my class had N64/PS1. Therefore, if you tracked them down and somehow got them to tell you their opinion on what Retro gaming is, they would probably say PS1/N64 because that's where they started.

Now to blow your mind. My brother is in his late teens now, in 2005 his peers were 8-10 years old, meaning if they got a first console it would be either a cheap PS2 or an Xbox 360, or perhaps wait a year for a PS3/Wii. Unless they developed an interest or had an older sibling they would be completely ignorant of anything before gen-7. So now that they are in their late teens, they naturally would consider early Xbox 360 and PS2 retro, they would think anything older is an unplayable antique (kind of like we have trouble watching grainy black and white, mono, movies on SDTVs).

These young people do not know what a CRT is, they don't know what its like to go someplace to rent a movie/game, develop film, they don't remember dial up, they don't know what a VHS tape or a cassette tape is, the concept of a game 'cartridge' is alien to them. Wires are the weird spaghetti things that old people get tangled in. A land line is quaint. They cannot use a computer for anything other than entertainment or school work, forget about CLI. Most cannot write in cursive nor read it, and struggle to tell time on an analogue clock. The fact that we did not publicly share every goddam thought, picture, movie, and comment instantly with the whole world is inconceivable to them.

Some of you want to 'enlighten them', you can try, but they will be sassy and role their eyes at you. Why, because you became your lame/uncool uncle/father/grandpa who tried to show you how cool records, model trains, (insert old fad here) were. If you were polite you tried to humor them...but most likely you said something to the degree of 'I'm not interested, let me get back to Mario'.

It's about relativism.

 

I have a confession to make, based on that last post.

Until I was about 7 or 8, I didn't know what an NES or Master System was. I didn't see a SMS in person until I bought one a few years ago.

 

My first console was a Master System. I threw it out before the big classics boom and I regret it. Yet I'm in no rush to replace it.

 

it has to deal with the individuals age. personally, i grew up in the 70s / 80s, i was like 7 or 8 when we got a pong console in like 75 or 76 all while playing it on our 19" black and white floor console tv. we finally got our first color tv in 76 and an atari 2600 when it launched, then we got the atari 5200 when it launched and i got a colecovison about a year after launch when i finally saved up enough money myself to get one.

at my age, i don't even consider the nes retro just yet, i guess if the console is about 30 yrs. old since launch, thats retro to me. it depends on a persons age i guess. if i was in my 20s, then yeah the late 80s or 90s would have seemed long ago. but being almost 46 years old and been around for every console generation launch, my views will be different than most.

 

I only got internet access when I was about 10 or so, the only way to "know" about a game was to hope somebody had a "shrine" to it, a "web-ring" devoted to the subject, I was lucky I liked Mario, because it was easy to find sites devoted to Mario. There was no youtube or wikipedia, honest reviews by gamers for gamers, and stuff wasn't that comprehensive. I couldn't know about things the same way I now do. Library? Yeah, there's some video game history books now, but back then video games were not respectable, there was no source to learn about them other than magazines (which, let's face it are biased and mostly just adverts), I had to rely on the goddam buy/trade-in price guide they used to hand out for free at Funco-Land to even know a game existed.

Funny you mention Master system. I knew what an NES was because a lot of my friends at the time had older siblings who had one, I only know about the Master System now because of the internet. I only saw one physically in front of me briefly. Because I was so into Nintendo and advertising was limited back then (and I was only allowed to subscribe to one magazine, which was Nintendo Power) I didn't even know the Playstation existed until one friend got it.

Also, keep in mind in the US, the Mega Drive was called Genesis,which literally means "Beginning", and with such an aggressive marketing campaign, they obviously never mentioned the Master System.

The only reason any of us probably know so much about what would otherwise be obscure curiosities is because of the internet and the world wide web.

 

I know, when I saw Master System ads in, of all things, old Blue Beetle comics my grandma got me (probably from like 1986, and this was in 1998 or so), I was like "Sega made something before the Genesis? That's silly".

I only knew of the NES because a kid up the street had one when we moved over (in the minuscule hamlet we lived in then, I had the most advanced video game system, with...16 MEGA POWER).

Kids these days don't know how the internet used to be. What with their wikipedias, and their facebooks. Back in my day, most everything was a porn site (remember when whitehouse.com was a porn site?). Damn I feel old.

 

I think it's more the fact that most people who use "vintage" in relation to games are not even old enough to remember true vintage games and lived through the era they are from, plus it's always people in late teens/early twenties with fake glasses on with a Starbucks in one hand and a iPhone in the other...fucking douchebags xD

 

As this thread proves, "Reto" (when applied to gaming) is one of those words that can mean different things to different people. Partly it's because there's no official definition, but that's not the whole story, as even if some the industry leaders (Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, etc) got together and agreed on a definition, there'd no doubt be lots of gamers who'd disagree (and maybe rightly so, especially since Nintendo/Microsoft/Sony/etc would decide their definition based on marketing and how it could aid their profits, rather than any way most gamers would define the term).

To some people, retro is any system that no longer has commercial games coming out for it. Others say it's any machine before the last generation (i.e. now it's the original XBox, PS2, and Gamecube), and personally I'd probably go along with that definition myself. Others say it's anything with only 8 bits, or sixteen or less bits, or any machine that hasn't been manufactured in ten years (or twenty years, or whatever) from the present date. Other people might have different definitions.

To me, though, it's not something to worry about. I play what I play, and I read/discuss the machines I like, from the ZX Spectrum (1982) to the PS3 and XBox 360, and when the current gen machines get games I want, then I'll buy a PS4 or XBox One, and will become interested in that machine(s) too.