I went to a Gamestop the other day, and they had a little section for pre-owned games for older systems (think Xbox360, PS2, DS, etc). I was perusing and grabbed some games, but I noticed something, the cases that have the XBOX360 games have a giant “RETRO GAMING” on it in the centre. So I am like wtf, I grew up with the XBOX360, what the hell do they mean “retro”.
So I went and asked like friends and other people if the XBOX360 is retro now, and basically everyone was like “yeah”. I was talking to my EX about it and she was like “the xbox came out in 2005/6. There is more time between us and the xbox360 than there was between the xbox and the SNES when the xbox came out. Was the SNES “retro” when the xbox360 came out?”
I am like not ready, not willing to accept the XBOX360 as retro. Because that is saying my thing that I grew up with is “retro” or “old” now and im not ready to accept that because im not ready to be old.
I would say “no” because the 360 did have the capability of 720p and 1080p. There isn’t much you have to do to get it working with a modern television.
That’s not the case with a TRULY retro console, either in terms of resolution or connectivity.
The original 360 didn’t even come with an hdmi port, I remember playing Armored Core 4 on a crt. For me anything that was meant to be played on a crt is definitely retro.
i agree with this. i think a lot of people disagree because it feels like arbitrary criteria at first, but even as someone who grew up in the 360 generation, you could feel that the leap to HDMI signaled something more than just crisper graphics. the 360 and PS3 were both chasing the PC gaming experience, whereas the Wii was the last “bring the arcade home” box. while things like the introduction of polygonal graphics, twin sticks, VR, and internet connectivity feel like bigger shifts on the surface, i think this was the most signifigant and the best place to slice gaming into two ages despite them overlapping for a generation
That’s not how “retro” works. If a song came out today, as opposed to any number of Green Day songs, which came out in the 90s, and 2000s, are considered retro.
You don’t have to do anything different with todays songs vs Green Day songs. You can play them just the same way.
Yet one is clearly retro.
Music and games aren’t quite the same deal. If you need specialized equipment to play a game, it’s retro.
What about handhelds?
Handhelds are really their own deal. I’d argue vintage is anything up through the OG Gameboy.
Retro would be anything other than that, with the possible excrptions of the Nokia NGage and Neo Geo Pocket (B&W) which would also be vintage.
I’m not sure I’m following this definition, everything after the game boy is retro? Or is it only the game boy and older?
Vintage is everything up to the Gameboy, retro would be the stuff in color.
Prior to Gameboy you had LED and LCD stuff like this:
The problem is that definition of retro has no end point, by that definition the switch lite is retro.
Switch lite is still on sale new so it’s not retro. :)
That’s just the cord that came with the system, nothing very special about it. And it’s still perfectly compatible with modern TVs
Modern TVs in the US don’t have the coaxial RF jack…
I bought a brand new TV around Christmas and it came with one.
An adaptor costs like 10-15 bucks anyway
I never realized it’s legit a mini transmitter to your TV’s Antennae @.@.
Like wireless HDMI.
But now we stuck with DRM for failed ATSC 3.0 release :/
Imagine what could have been.
Disagree, but that standard every proprietary console except xbox and ps are retro.
It’s simply few generations older. If teenagers today weren’t born, It’s retro.
Naturally I’m biased because the stuff I grew up on is officially “Vintage” at this point. ;)
Yea it doesn’t feel right, I’m sure we’ll soon have classic and modern retro categories
Another way to differentiate would be things like rendering technology. While raytracing is starting to be partially utilized a little bit, I’d hardly say it’s taken over yet, so there’s not much technological difference between a 360 and a PS5. Mostly boils down to more cores and faster with some minor extra features. Far more difference between even the SNES and the N64 than between the PS1 and the PS5 imo.
You could also use Internet access as a determinant, but then even snes and Sega Genesis wouldn’t be retro (at least in Japan).
Could just define retros as anything that fits at least one or 2 of those 4 characteristics of retro video game consoles, but the xbox360 is pretty much modern by all of them.