When will retro gear stop being retro?

[SpiritDave]

So I'm looking at a pile of crap in my living room. Well, crap to some people, treasures to me ...

Sega, Nintendo, Commodore etc from the 80's and early 90's ... and it's regarded as retro. Bare in mind, that was a time when gaming was far more niche than now. Now everyone plays games on consoles and phones and computers. I can't think of anyone I know that doesn't own a system that games are very much a big deal on.

But there's so much stuff now ... when will the gear that's coming out not ever be regarded as retro? The concept is obvious ... old stuff that keeps rockin' ... but will an iPad ever be retro? Will a PS3 ? I don't know ... will anyone care? Do people think of these things as disposable these days? I know when I was a kid, the SNES was NOT disposable. It was a games machine that helped shape who I am (and my career, since I spent 11 years in the games industry as an artist/animator, and now am a designer in London making apps on mobile devices). But kids now... they get a PS3, and when the PS4 comes out, they drop the PS3 like a stone and forget it existed ...

Just find the whole retro thing funny ... I equate it to a smell ... the PS3 is too shiney and modern to ever get that old car boot sale smell that the old consoles got surely?

 

[-Acid-]

No system released after the DC will ever be classed as retro in my opinion for the simple fact nothing has changed since the PS2 / Xbox and NGC. Only the graphics have got better and the resolutions higher and all of the games are the same fps or sports titles (at least in the mainstream). On the other hand, give it 10 years and the 360 will be quite rare and collectable due to the fact they will all have failed by then

 

[LonesomeAmiga]

I suspect there won't be much in the way of "new" retro. A lot of what happens with old hardware now can't happen with the new - it's locked away, linked to accounts or servers that can be switched off, sealed in ways that make repair difficult.

All those things are simply not true for earlier retro gear.

Shame in one way, but then quite a large proportion of the population growing up with new hardware are being conditioned to expect to throw it out after a year or two (working or not) because there's a slightly newer one, or upgraded software and applications won't run on the slightly-less-new ones they have :-(

Have to agree with you both at this point.

 

[AmiNeo]

No system released after the DC will ever be classed as retro in my opinion for the simple fact nothing has changed since the PS2 / Xbox and NGC. Only the graphics have got better and the resolutions higher and all of the games are the same fps or sports titles (at least in the mainstream). On the other hand, give it 10 years and the 360 will be quite rare and collectable due to the fact they will all have failed by then

I think once we get far enough that something else like holodecks or augmented reality of some other kind become mainstream, PS2 and 360 gen will belong in the same relative class as our beloved 8 and 16bit hardware. It's mostly relative.

 

[ColourWheel64]

I feel for you Dave, but calling it crap is only going to cheapen it in your own mind. Even if you're joking about. I'm not having a go or anything, its just some advice.

Don't let other people call it crap either. Its treasure, liked you said a bit later.

Yarr! + Shiver me timbers!

when will the gear that's coming out not ever be regarded as retro?

I'd imagine that new stuff will always be regarded as retro after ten years or so, but what I think you're getting at is how people think back fondly.

Well, its an age old thing. In 20, 50 or 100 years, a sega megadrive might be classed as an antique. It might sound ridiculous, but especially as people keep on buying them and eventually break them, there will be a limited number of them about.

Sure, there are emulators, but nostalgia is a funny goose. Not literally, but in the way that it works. It doesn't come down to the quality of the product by today's standards, but how it fared back in the day and how it contributed to what we use today.

Nostalgia isn't so very reasonable either, because if someone won the lottery and it enabled them to buy their dream megadrive, but over the years they sold it and the megadrive was the last time they were truly excited about anything, then to that person the last megadrive on earth is going to be very valuable.

By unreasonable, I mean with other people. I'm never unreasonable. Collecting all the Saturn games is as perfectly natural a part of growing up as losing your hair.

Come back hair!

 

[AmiNeo]

By unreasonable, I mean with other people. I'm never unreasonable. Collecting all the Saturn games is as perfectly natural a part of growing up as losing your hair.

Come back hair!

I too feel nostalgia for hair


lol.

 

[Nick1977]

Bare in mind, that was a time when gaming was far more niche than now. Now everyone plays games on consoles and phones and computers.

I agree on that. PS or XBOX will never be retro as they exist everywhere, and almost everyone knows what they are and what they do.

THe turning point for me to consider a machine as retro is to exist and/or rule the gaming world before the 3D era. 2D graphics cannot evolve greatly any more, at least compared to the Amiga era, so apart from the memories, the oldies remain beautiful to my eyes
I cannot regard PS1 as retro as it has lame 3D graphics, and i cannot play any of its games (i often think of how i liked it so much then and it makes me wonder).

 

[AmiNeo]

Bare in mind, that was a time when gaming was far more niche than now. Now everyone plays games on consoles and phones and computers.

I agree on that. PS or XBOX will never be retro as they exist everywhere, and almost everyone knows what they are and what they do.

THe turning point for me to consider a machine as retro is to exist and/or rule the gaming world before the 3D era. 2D graphics cannot evolve greatly any more, at least compared to the Amiga era, so apart from the memories, the oldies remain beautiful to my eyes
I cannot regard PS1 as retro as it has lame 3D graphics, and i cannot play any of its games (i often think of how i liked it so much then and it makes me wonder).

I personally feel 3D was a new 'fad' brought in as tech progressed. We then got the 'HD' fad, which also sold consoles, and the motion controls 'fad' but gaming is maturing now, its coming to a head. Sure we can get higher def, sure we can get better textures and new ways of drawing the graphics, more powerful hardware etc, but until the day it comes out of the display (and I'm not talking about 3DTV here) it cant really change that much from this point. Though there could possibly be a thoughts controller in the future...

2D can't evolve much and now neither can 3D. Hardware now has a limit in fad directions, much like it did in the 16bit days, when creativity mattered. Hopefully the same creativity will come back to the mainstream, because they will need to pull that back out of the hat to sell games. These days I only see it in the odd indy game and a few AAA titles taking a risk.

 

[direktorn]

It's all about the age, in more ways..

We grew up with this ****. I'm 36 and got my first C64 when I was about 13, thats 23 years ago. By then we where in the beginning of a software and hardware revolution, we could play games at home that previous generations had to go to arcade halls to do.

For the generation that grew up with the PS1 I'm sure they feel the same as we did with the Nintendo 8-bit. I honestly belive that PS1 and Xbox(1) will be retro in 10 years and they will feel as strong as we do about our gear.

PS1 has sold in 100M units. That's almost 10 times the numbers of C64 ever sold. Not even nintendo 8-bit is close to that number (60M).

But... The generation(s) today are not growing up with the same values as we do (I think) so the retro base will be smaller as laying your hands on a PS1 was not a "big deal" for them, everyone had one and it was not as passionate for them as for us.

When I went to school the number of C64 or A500 friends where limited, I had to get friends in other cities/demo parties to "trade"

I still remember when I got my C64, when I played Nintento 8-bit for the first time or when the A500 confused me

---------- Post added at 18:59 ---------- Previous post was at 18:56 ----------

B
I cannot regard PS1 as retro as it has lame 3D graphics, and i cannot play any of its games (i often think of how i liked it so much then and it makes me wonder).

I do not fully agree. I played Quake 3D on my Amiga 4000 with a PPC card alost 15 years ago and it had the same graphics as my PS1. The playstation will soon be retro to me and I'm thinking about getting one again just to play Vipeout on my projector as I did 15 years ago.

 

[roy_bates]

give it a few years and even the consoles of the third generation like the ps3 will be retro.

you know the old saying,time is relative

 

[Bryce]

I think once we get far enough that something else like holodecks or augmented reality of some other kind become mainstream, PS2 and 360 gen will belong in the same relative class as our beloved 8 and 16bit hardware. It's mostly relative.

Will these Holodecks be kitted out with a virtual Retro Computer Emulator?

Bryce.

 

[Paul_s]

You could class our 'Retro' as the Golden era of computing.

Everything was different back then, compared to how it is now. Not just with the machines themselves but as society functioned. People actually 'loved' the quirks of the machines back then. It was fun!

Now it's every Tom Dick or Harry who has a computer. Computers don't have their own charm or individuality any longer...

 

[Harrison]

I disagree. The original PS1 and Xbox already are retro, and the PS2 is on the edge of being so. Anything out of production and unavailable to purchase new becomes retro after a few years. And anything over 10 years old definitely is up for retro status, although the ps1 and 2 bucked that trend as they were still being made for 10 years.

I do agree that from the PS3/360 era we will have real trouble preserving the software because it relies so much on being connected and with downloadable updates. However, this is where the piracy scene will actually become invaluable, because the scene releases nearly every game as standalone packages that don't need to be connected, and the updates released as installers, so, as with the ps2 and other recent systems, the scene releases will preserve the games for future generations. Ironic that the very thing the manufacturers and publishers have been fighting to stop are the only thing that will ensure their survival.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD

 

[Buzzfuzz]

You could class our 'Retro' as the Golden era of computing.

Exactly :wink:

Retro is the days of when it all began.
Anything after 1995 to me is certainly not retro!

I've got a few consoles just for the fun of it and testing games, but I don't really use them.

Amiga's will be the main thing for me followed by the C64 & 128 and maybe even my MSX 1.

 

[Nick1977]

You could class our 'Retro' as the Golden era of computing.

Exactly :wink:

Retro is the days of when it all began.
Anything after 1995 to me is certainly not retro!

Both of you have said it perfectly
We can even be more exact and say that the retro era officially ends on the 29th of April, 1994

 

[Merlin]

I look at things this way. It's retro as soon as you open the box, as something shinier, faster and 'better' will have been released, or will be released shortly.

"An AMD Phenom hex core PC? Why, that's sooo 2012, daahling..."

I prefer the term 'vintage' or 'classic' for our machines, as these link into the 'Golden' term used earlier. Our era is where Joe Public started to learn to use home computers and they stopped being purely for universities, colleges and industry. It truly was a 'golden' age; it was a paradigm, a landmark shift in the use of computers and I doubt that we will ever see such a shift ever again.

Smart phones have been a lesser revolution when compared to the dawn of home computing.

 

[AndyLandy]

It'll all become retro one day. If people can be nostalgic about 486 PCs running DOS, then anything can become retro.

The mindset comes from the fond memories a person has of things past, it's actually part of the human condition that we remember the good bits more than the bad ones, so we're always wearing the rose-tinted goggles when we look back.

Give it 10 years or so, and there'll be people who look back with fond memories on the PS3 and how gaming just isn't what it used to be.

 

[80sFREAK]

But there's so much stuff now ... when will the gear that's coming out not ever be regarded as retro? The concept is obvious ... old stuff that keeps rockin' ... but will an iPad ever be retro? Will a PS3 ? I don't know ... will anyone care? Do people think of these things as disposable these days? I know when I was a kid, the SNES was NOT disposable. It was a games machine that helped shape who I am (and my career, since I spent 11 years in the games industry as an artist/animator, and now am a designer in London making apps on mobile devices). But kids now... they get a PS3, and when the PS4 comes out, they drop the PS3 like a stone and forget it existed ...

The answer is... never. This trash designed to work just little bit longer than warranty period. That's it.

 

[edd_jedi]

It's a generation thing. I know people that think the PS1 is retro. To me that is a next gen console. So it depends entirely on age. The people who are 10 playing PS3s now will consider them retro and 're-living their youth' when they buy another when they reach 30

 

[Harrison]

The issue really is what the actual word "retro" means to you, more than if a specific system is considered retro in itself (because that is objective depending on an individual's contact with a specific system, and the experiences they had with it).

The actual definition of the word Retro (short for Retrospective), is anything from the past, and not the present. Therefore in terms of computers and consoles, this refers to anything out of production, and for me I look at it exactly in this way. It is the gaming world's post modernity.

In addition, treating the word "retro" as a prefix, the Latin refers to it as a backwards looking state. Therefore anything where we need to look back into the past... so again the post-modernity of gaming.