A question for Classic and Retro gaming as a whole.

[Niku-Sama]

I was thinking the other day, while I was going through my old stuff, and something came up in my mind that I have never seen asked or mentioned before any where.
So I will ask it now and let it ride.

At what point and/or age does Classic and Retro gaming become Antique gaming?

[celerystalker]

I don't know that it does. Interacting with media of any kind doesn't usually get discussed in those terms in my experience, so I don't know that it will ever be considered as such. It is kind of interesting, though, as some other electronics do get labeled as antiques, like radios, telephones, etc. I could see the formatted media such as cartridges and the consoles on which they're played might be called antiques, whereas the game code, like a song or movie, will be spoken of more timelessly.

[Steve W]

I would think that an era of gaming would be labeled as antique once that generation's owners pass away. Once all the Pong generation grow old and die, then it might be thought of as such. A bit morbid, I know.

[bb_hood]

The word usually refers to something that is about 100 years or older.
Antiques are items from a previous era. Of course, people use the word to describe anything that looks kinda old

[Steve W]

The word "antique" is thrown around pretty liberally. A lot of antique places tend to just have massive amounts of old junk peppered with some genuine items that would qualify as antique. It's kind of a flexible, umbrella term - at least around where I am.

[Nebagram]

personally I'd consider a Magnavox Odyssey to be on the border of antique and original Pong and Computer Space cabinets to already be there. Then again, I was born in 1983 so don't have any contemporary experience of these things. Guess this is something that's hard to define objectively.

[Tanooki]

The whole classic and retro thing is just key words these days, pure bs. Games are kind of fluid like comic books. I think in time they should probably to be fair take up their mantra of golden age, silver, etc with defined periods. Because like comics games have stuff that still comes around over the decades, styles change, but the periods stuff was made in have not. They're still shoveling out Batman and Captain America, and games still shoveling up that Mario and Final Fantasy stuff too decade after decade.

[eskobar]

When coaxial ports disappear you could possibly label "antique gaming" to most classic systems. In the moment that you need to mod an electronic device to work in actual installations that's an antique.

I know coaxial ports only support VHF and not UHF but the port still exists :p

[XYXZYZ]

I think we'd have to agree on a definition of "antique" and "classic" before we figure which one to apply.

To me, "antiques" are old metal things from the 1940s and earlier.

[Ze_ro]

"Antique" seems to me like more of a qualifier for items rather than media... I think any speculation on the historicity of video games would be better compared to music and film, both of which enjoy a much longer history for comparison. I like to think of early stuff like Pong and the Odyssey as akin to silent movies, Atari 2600 to the first "talkies", and NES as comparable to the introduction of colour. Everyone likes movies, but some people can't appreciate things past a certain age, and I think it's a similar case with video games.

--Zero

[Niku-Sama]

ok so since I let this run a little bit I've read that the following ages things are considered "antiques"

200 years, Buildings (houses ect)
100 years, Furniture
60 years, Daily Appliances and/or Fixtures
30 years, Vehicles (cars carriages ect)
15 years, Computers

computers are closer to consoles in form but are still vastly different.
Atari XL computers I would have no second guessing calling them antique computers.

consoles have a bit more in longevity, they are relevant longer per system per generation than a computer so the question still remains

[Tanooki]

Well find whatever the year is considered an antique for a TOY, then divide it down the middle. If a toy let's say has to be 40 years and a console is 15 just add 50% (12.5 yrs) so 17-18 years, maybe 20 to be fair as that's old enough for a kid to go adult.

[Niku-Sama]

ah forgot about toys.
toys before World War 2 are considered antiques, after are considered modern.
so to add to the list toys have to be considered 80 years old to be considered antiques (77 in actuality WW2 started 1939 rounded for ease)
of course this information is coming from a 17 year old antiques road show book on google books. there'll have to be an end point to the rolling year considered antiques and I imagine that would be about 80 years any way

so is as follows:
200 years, Buildings (houses ect)
100 years, Furniture
80 years, Toys
60 years, Daily Appliances and/or Fixtures
30 years, Vehicles (cars carriages ect)
15 years, Computers

[Tanooki]

Well if you just wiggle for a whole number by the 10s, that would put 'antique' status around that 30 year mark for a console/handheld device. It kind of makes sense. Look at the NES and the derivative handheld Gameboy vs the SNES for example. HUGE difference. The SNES stuff even with the faux 'retro' wave of recent years still looks/feels fresh against that stuff, while the NES is showing its age in various aspects ever a bit more as the years go by because of the much more limited ability to fire off sprites, colors, visual tricks, audio and so on. Go beyond that further back into the 80s and 70s, gets even more obvious. By the extending years of the NES life you saw a pretty nice shift with the quality of added MMCs yet even as slick as Kirby and Castlevania 3 come off, they're limited even if they kind of pull off a launch era looking Genesis title in ways.

Eh no one is ever going to agree unless the antiques business sets some cement down or the gaming industry on the whole wants to coin something as it. I still think 'ages' would be more appropriate as games are more like comics in how they're fluid and the themes and characters rage on for years with improvements in quality. Take Action Comics #1 with Superman, now look at the modern one. Talk, use of color, detail levels, scripting, etc...widely different, but still Superman. Now take the Mario Bros/DK/SMB1 Mario, throw that towards the SNES release in 91, then (ignoring 3D here) the New SMB game on WiiU we last got -- big difference (very much larger with the 3D aspect too) but still it's Mario.

Superman or Mario they had their golden age for a certain span of time, then you get into the silver era stuff (say like SNES/N64) and then you're into the bronze, etc ages since however you want to lay it down and grow it with various metals over periods of time. I think it would fit best but I can't make that decision.