It's a tough topic to broach with folks these days, especially as Retro Enthusiasts as we are. It's been a while since our last blog post (we've been busy getting an Xbone and Fibre Broadband installed) but today we're looking at what makes retro retro. Today's music is taken from my current, lasting addiction, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. Because you can't beat a good shanty
We've been having a chat with a few folks on our Twitter and Player.me today and as always there are differing opinions on this subject, and those who hold the opinions are just as passionate about it as we are. At what point does Retro become Retro. Some have said they know people who class anything over ten years old as a Retro Game or Console, which gave me pause for a moment because that would mean that this November the Xbox360 would be a Retro Console to some.
Others have mentioned anything two generations old (putting the PS2 / N64 / Xbox era just at the cusp now) which is something we can kind of go along with, as RetroGameGeeks pointed out, we'd class the Gamecube as retro and that's the exact same time-frame. There are a lot of improvements that we saw with this generation, sure, but still it's hardly new and at just over 15 years old it's certainly edging in if not right in the zone already.
The PSX Era for us is firmly within the Retro area and considered by most to be part of the gang from what we can tell. But then this begs the question, if PS1 and PS2 are Retro then where does that leave the lives of Atari and Amstrad who started us off all those years ago (if you want to feel old the first Atari2600 was sold in 1977 and that's 38 years past). Do we need a new classification for those, and if so what on earth are we going to call it?!
I do think there needs to be a little definition at least, out of respect to those that came before, if nothing else, and I think we've worked out a formula for determining which bracket gaming would fall into. With consoles lasting slightly longer now (The 360 being almost a decade old) it would have to be altered and added to in future but I think we have a tier system which might suit all games and enthusiasts.
0 - 15 years old = Contemporary15 - 25 years old = Retro
25 Years + = ÜberRetro / RetroX
Though I do have a feeling that anything created in the late 70s / early 80s should probably be referred to as Our Honorable Elders for the rest of time. It's a little weird for those more experienced gamers among us to think of the consoles we've known and loved for years turning into Retro items... but maybe that's just because it reminds us that we're growing old. On that note, we'll leave you for today with this picture, which springs to my mind whenever surrounded by the younger generation of gamers on Social Media
As ever, let us know what you think in the comments below and don't forget to follow, subscribe and like on all the usual social media outlets to keep up with our new videos, news and (let's face it) hilarious posts in general. All the links are neatly stacked for you below, so no excuses
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