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What is the most obscure, retro console you own?
michaelbaysuperfan616:
I guess by Mop It Ups post in the other thread, we could all say Wii U is retro, and it is pretty obscure for all intents and purposes.
Ian Sane:
--- Quote from: Spak-Spang on February 01, 2016, 09:38:49 PM ---Retro is like oldies.
You can't just go by decades to determine if something is an oldie, just like you can't go by console generations to determine if something is Retro.
For instance, the NES and Gameboy had a much longer life span than games have now. So when calculating retro status you must include that in the equation. Also, you must include what type of games are being made and the depth.
For me, all the classic 2D consoles are Retro, and only the first generation 3D consoles are Retro now. So that means we are 3 console generations out for 3D systems. Nintendo 64, Playstation, and Saturn are 3D retro systems.
I will add the Gamecube, Playstation 2 and Xbox systems next generation though honestly that seems too early even. So when PS5 and Xbox 4 comes out, I think we can consider looking at the second generation of 3D games are Retro.
Afterall, I would not consider music from the 80s and 90s as classic oldies. Now that I think about it, the thing that really pushes the oldies music and retro gaming status is the shift from 2D games to 3D games and the the changes in Rock and Alternative system of music. Those changes really pushed the recognition of a change in gaming and thus Retro was born.
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I wonder if your definition of oldies is based too much on your personal life. For example I always thought music from the 70s was old, even in like 1988. The reason being that I wasn't born yet so anything before I was born was super old. It was easier for me to accept 80s music as oldies because of the speed of which my life was changing. I remember watching an 80s weekend on Muchmusic in like 1996 and it all seemed so ancient and why wouldn't it? I was a teenager and that was stuff from my childhood. My life was totally different then so this music was from another era. It took longer for me to see 90s music as old because the difference between teen Ian and adult Ian is not as extreme as kid Ian and teen Ian. Now that stuff does seem old but if you play a song from like 2003 I'll say "what's the new ****?" which is pretty idiotic since that's over 10 years ago and it isn't "new" at all. But I've been an adult pretty much this whole century with my life changing very slowly compared to my childhood so it all blurs together.
So a videogame from the N64 era? Yeah that's high school. Totally retro. A Gamecube game? That's adult Ian so is it that different from now? Doesn't really feel like it until I go looking for Gamecube games and realize there aren't any in any store but ones that specialize in retro games. It was as a collector that I realized that generation is now retro because you can't find any trace of it in stores anymore, while my local Wal-Mart still has Wii and DS games.
Mop it up:
--- Quote from: michaelbaysuperfan616 on February 02, 2016, 08:52:36 AM ---I guess by Mop it up's post in the other thread, we could all say Wii U is retro, and it is pretty obscure for all intents and purposes.
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Huh? Which post is that? How do you have the impression I think Wii U could count as retro?
Spak-Spang:
Ian Sane: Great Question.
I used my definition of oldies based on what was playing on oldies stations when I was in high school. So that would be 60s and 70s music. But you mention the 80s and it reminds me that there was a significant music shift in the 80s and later the 90s...basically the 80s and 90s to music is much like the shift from 2D to 3D gaming. I think honestly I could never truly consider 80s and 90s music as oldies. Perhaps that is because I have already defined what oldies are...and perhaps a younger generation could redefine it...but then if they do what does that make the music of the 60s and 70s? Golden Oldies is a term I here now. To me, I just can't get behind a classic retro or golden retro label for gaming yet...but perhaps that is where we are going...or we will become more specific 8-bit classics, 16-bit classics, and then 3D classics. To me this is messy, because I still have a hard time wrapping my brain around any 3D game being considered Retro...or classic. I guess Retro gaming is almost a genre to me.