When does something become classed as retro?

There is no precise answer. Its not just about how old it is but long long ago it stopped being in fashion. Two items can be 15 years old and one retro and one not retro. Once its reminiscent of the past and no longer in fashion its retro. A lot of it comes down to point of view for example for me I see a Wii and WiiU used every week by lots of different people so its a long way from being retro in my mind. While someone else who hasn't seen one 15+ years might consider it retro. For me Jaguar/Dreamcast and older consoles are what I consider retro. PS1 and Xbox 1 is not retro but getting close. PS3/Xbox 360 are a long way from retro.

The other problem is location. What is retro is one area is not retro in other places.
 
I think it's down to when major shifts in gaming happen. The old stuff needs to feel different.

I'm not sure we've moved on enough from GTA3 to have left anything since then in the 'retro' category. And that's a seriously long time ago!

It was different in the early 2000s. It was less than a decade since consoles were almost entirely 2d (nod to Starfox etc), so the 16bit consoles felt a world away despite the relative short span of time.

I do think PS1 era stuff is retro now though. Character 3d platformers, tank-controlled adventure and horror games etc.
 
Thesnipergecko said:
How many years in your opinion would you say have to pass for something to be classed as retro?
Click to expand...
Zero.

Retro just means something is made or done to imitate, or be reminiscent of, a style from an earlier time.
Vintage means something that actually is from that earlier time.

So my mate who is playing on his original Commodore 64 is using a vintage machine... whereas the Windows 10 PC that I installed an emulator on and did up in a freshly 3D-Printed case to look like my mate's original one would be classed as retro.
 
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