The 'What's Retro to You?' Contest!

[QualityChimp]

Look at Rallisport Challenge 2 on the Xbox. It just worked. All the content was there on the disc. The online worked. There was no need for patches. They got it right first time. It was worth buying the disc.

SLRallyEvo had a 6GB patch day one. Great game, but it's still broken in several niggly areas. So what's the point in buying the disc? May as well just get it online.

Buying a comparatively incomplete product works for my clothing analogy too.

I bought a 5-pack of XXL pants from Asda for a fraction of the cost of a flimsy g-string thong from Victoria's Secret!












Plus, the pants don't chafe me like the g-string does...

[QualityChimp]

I think @QualityChimp nailed the "not readily available" feel that I have. However, you can't call the OG Xbox retro, I mean, would Halo CE be "retro"? I can see that ray casters like Wolfenstein or Doom would be retro and that stretches as far as Turok and Goldeneye, but Metroid Prime is in no way retro.

Sorry, [MENTION=278]gunrock[/MENTION], but I definitely see Metroid Prime as Retro and it seems to tick the boxes everybody else has listed as requirements to be retro.
Over 10 years old (2002), two platforms old (Wii & WiiU), no updates needed to play it, not available new in the shops and part of a set era - mainstream 3D from all console makers.

I think you need to apply the rule "because it's still a great game to play, doesn't mean it's not retro".
I played Capcom Marvel Super Heroes at the weekend for ages. It's over 20 years old! Still felt fresh though.

[charlesr]

Way to kill the thread dude (the pants post...)

[samanosuke]

Forgot the other half of the question, for me proper retro is PCE, MD, SFC, NEO and what went before.

Throw in arcade games pre-Virtua Racing/Fighter and I am with you on that. It's easily definable then.

I could say it's because there was a quantum (or should I say dimensional?) shift in gaming from the PlayStation/Saturn/post-Virtua Racing/Fighter era, but more likely it's because I am old and that stuff came out when I was all grown up.

I mean, c'mon, PS2 retro? To some of us it only came out yesterday!

[roachie]

Full-motion video in console games is probably the watershed moment for me!

[Asura]

I could say it's because there was a quantum (or should I say dimensional?) shift in gaming from the PlayStation/Saturn/post-Virtua Racing/Fighter era, but more likely it's because I am old and that stuff came out when I was all grown up.

This was true, though. In the Saturn/PS1 era, there was the sense that games were making big visual strides on a monthly basis. It's hard to even compare very early PS1/Saturn games to the likes of Metal Gear Solid or Vagrant Story.

[samanosuke]

This was true, though. In the Saturn/PS1 era, there was the sense that games were making big visual strides on a monthly basis. It's hard to even compare very early PS1/Saturn games to the likes of Metal Gear Solid or Vagrant Story.

That wasn't quite what I meant - I was referring more towards the shift from 2D (yes, I accept that primitive 3D games existed as well back then) to fully 3D games. This for me represents the point where retro meets modern gaming.

Moreover I feel your point regarding devs pushing more out of systems is equally relevant to the 16-bit era, if not more so. Compare Altered Beast to Streets of Rage 2, or Yoshi's Island to... Well, almost anything released before it, and the same logic applies.

[mezzanine]

It's also worth noting that we're all getting older and as good as some 8-bit games are (particularly arcade games, or those with arcade-like gameplay (Uridium, Wizball, Jetpac etc) they simply won't be given time by later generations. I know lots of people who don't give a **** about games like Elite and Mercenary because they look rubbish and play like wank today (their words not mine).

Wireframe graphics are perhaps an abstraction too far for some people, even gaming enthusiasts... * but I guess they wouldn't be interested in Arc Elite either. Going back to a game like Zarch/Virus is legitimately a lot tougher, unlike Elite it isn't easy to learn and doesn't have similar modern descendants.

*whatever that means, not exactly a homogeneous lot

(screenshot below is of Elite: TNK, wireframe without hidden lines)

[Yakumo]

I've been playing games since the early 80s. My first computer was a Commodore Plus 4 followed by a Master System. So I've been gaming for a long time. I have no love for systems such as the Coleco or Intellivision or even the Atari systems but I would consider them to be retro. For me though anything newer than a Dreamcast isn't Retro and even then I like to think of the Dreamcast, Game Cube, PS2 and so on as classic modern systems.

[Leon Retro]

Maybe games like Shovel Knight, which was created to be retro-esque, is an example of what gamers tend to perceive the term "retro" to be defined as: 8 & 16 bit 2D pixel art games. I think the modern phenomenon of retro-inspired games such as Mega Man 9 show that publishers, developers, and maybe gamers have a clear idea of what a "retro game" is

In a way, it is like saying "film noir", which is seen as old 1940s & 1950s B&W films that have a certain look and vibe you don't tend to get in cinema after that period. Of course, people did make film noir after that era, but they would be seen as throwbacks.

So, as much as some people will go back to games for Playstation & Xbox consoles and call them "retro", I think the definition should be used to describe 8 & 16-bit games; games from an era that is distinctly old-fashioned and quaint. Also, despite most modern retro-inspired games being platformers like the aforementioned Shovel Knight, I would inclube all genres of 8 & 16-bit games under the banner "retro games."

Also, remember when some developers made 2D games in the 32-bit era and lots of people criticised them for being "old-fashioned?" That also sort of proves what "retro gaming" is perceived as, even more so now with what retro-inspired/retro-esque games look like.

[DeathAdder]

For me, retro gaming is from the time when I had loads of time to play games but not enough cash. Modern / non-retro gaming is the time of the exact opposite problem.

[Colin]

Most modern pixel art games just look absolutely awful (and there are loads that are identikit garbage) like they just don't get the style, but I can't wait for things like Mother Russia bleeds, that just looks spot on in my book.

I'd love to have every retro system set up and piles of games that I love for each, but it gets harder to justify as you get older and other priorities take over. In a way the super inflation of prices is a good thing, as it should stop me buying in to it again. I sold a game on Friday to someone outside this forum for a ridiculous amount of money, now that it's gone I would never be willing to buy it back at that price or more likely higher. Should the bubble burst though and prices go through the floor, expect a gazillion photos in the post anytime you get anything retro thread as I swoop in buying everything up.

[QualityChimp]

Most modern pixel art games just look absolutely awful (and there are loads that are identikit garbage) like they just don't get the style

Yeah, it's weird, that.

A lot of retro-style games think we want to play games that look like this:


When, in reality, we want to play games that look like this:


(Well, I know I do!)

[nakamura]

Most modern pixel art games suffer badly from a lack of shading. That's what kills them. Everything is presented in flat colour which gives the sprites no depth.
2D back in the day, especially in the 16bit era was surprisingly rounded looking. Didn't look flat in the best cases.

[Team Andromeda]

While my brother had Pong and also a Atari 2600 systems . It wasn't until 1983 when my cousin had a ZX Spectrum for Christmas that I got hooked on gaming and the game that we played to death on Christmas day in 1983 was Jet Pack, Horace Goes Skiing. A year latter I had a Zx Spectrum 128+

So these would be my retro games