In ten years....

[joeshmoe713]

I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I think it will be interesting.

In ten years from now, will this generation's systems be considered retro? It is very hard to imagine that I will want to start collectiong for GC, PS2 or XBOX.

Also, if they do become niche systems (sorta..... maybe like the SNES or Genesis are now) will you start collectiong for them? Personally, I feel I enjoy playing older games more than the ones on the new systems. But, maybe that will change in time.

[Nez]

Dpo you consider Playstation or Sega Saturn retro? Personally I feel that at least 2 console generations sepparate recent for retro systems. But that doesnt mean you souldn't collect for them. :)

[Nature Boy]

In ten years from now, will this generation's systems be considered retro? It is very hard to imagine that I will want to start collectiong for GC, PS2 or XBOX.

Depends on your definition of retro. I consider the original PlayStation to be retro right now (even though I can still pick up new stuff for it). A hard core retro gamer today would probably have different ideas.


Also, if they do become niche systems (sorta..... maybe like the SNES or Genesis are now) will you start collectiong for them? Personally, I feel I enjoy playing older games more than the ones on the new systems. But, maybe that will change in time.

I'm collecting for them now so that I don't have to collect for them later. I'm pretty sure that once they've run their course and I've moved onto the next console I won't be buying any more PS2/Xbox/GC games.

[Mr-E_MaN]

In ten years from now, will this generation's systems be considered retro? It is very hard to imagine that I will want to start collectiong for GC, PS2 or XBOX.

People are collected Sega Dreamcast games, and it's only been five years (as of today, Happy Birthday Dreamcast :D ) since it's release. I don't think it would be that weird.... in ten years there will probably be a whole different way of playing video games.

[MegaDrive20XX]

In ten years, I'll be the crazy ol gamer at age 33...screaming random crap like...

"When I was your age, we only had 50 cents a week boy! We went to the arcade and could play anything on a thimble full of corn over Katy Hawk we did! We had Black Tiger, Mercs, TMNT, Nintendo Player's Choice Machines with TMNT, Super Mario Bros., Dr. Mario, etc....then Rampage, Gauntlet, Simpsons The Arcade Game, Bad Dudes, Football Frenzy, Ghouls N' Ghosts, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Street Fighter 2: Champion Editon and World Warriors, Raiden, Fatal Fury 2, Samurai Shodown, Ghost Pilots All over the place!! AND with that 50 cents we were given, we could play them alll I tells ya!!! *shakes my cane*!! AND THAT'S THE WAY WE LIKED IT!!!! *passes out* -_-


But, Saturn and Playstation I would already consider retro, especially the current prices for such PS1 and Saturn titles like Dragon Force, PD Saga, House of the Dead...sure US releases...but they really fetch amazing amounts. While for PS1, we already have are good share of rare titles, especially original release copies of many RPG's..

Xbox, PS2, and Cube being retro in ten years? Yeah I can see that happening

[slip81]

They'll definately be considered retro. And I'm sure in 10 years you'll have people who were young when the systems were popular and and will be collecting what they consider "old" games. Given enough time everything becomes retro, I mean think of it this way, in 1985 the NES and SMS was the height of home console technology.

[SegaAges]

eventually, some of these games we own will be collector's items (think about the demand for zelda collector's edition and megaman anniversary and sonic mega collection, these things will be going for crazy amounts down the road, and if not, oh well).

[racecar]

LONG LIVED SIDE SCROLL !!!!!!! NEW CONTRA ?? I DON'T KNOW , I PREFERED THE OLD NES ONES, EASIER ON THE EYES AND BRAINS .
RACECAR

[hydr0x]

i'm already near a complete DC collection and also collecting Gamecube, enough said 8-)

[Sylentwulf]

To me, I don't think anything newer than the SNES will ever be "retro" or "classic" (Personally hate the word retro, classic is fine.)

[PhoeniX]

In 10 years the Xavix will still have been a dumb idea...

The videogame industry is on the brink of change. Console games are increasingly cross-platform, console uniqueness (non-1st party) seems to be fading. The success of cell phone gaming and future console proposals call into question the long-term existence of physical game media; how will we collect when games are downloaded--or even accesed real-time on demand from the internet?

[petewhitley]

If we don't have virtual sex in ten years technology will have failed us.

[Pantechnicon]

What makes something retro?

I've been chewing on this for an hour now and I've got it narrowed down to the following criteria (this applies to more than just games):

1) Minimum of 20 years in age (or since its peak of acceptance)
2) Widespread acceptance of the thing in its own time.
3) Affected, at least in the short term, a cultural change.

Feel free to disagree.

Given this, the only consoles I would consider retro currently are most pre-84 crash ones (I'm reluctant to include the Atari 5200 and before you light me up I love the 5200).

In ten years time (less, actually), NES will easily be on this list. Pre-`84 game systems changed the way we looked at our TV's by letting us play games on them. NES changed the way we looked at those games. Ditto for Gameboy I.

PS1 may be on that list in ten or eleven years too. It depends on how profound an impact the widespread inception of 3D has on gaming. To truly understand this we'll have to see what comes after 3D first.

As for the rest of it (SNES, Genesis...up to the present), I don't see where these systems so much changed the culture as they did just gave us more of the same in bigger and better formats.

Whatever you play, enjoy it now, and don't worry so much about whether or not you can groove on it in ten or twenty years. If you like it now, odds are good you'll like it then, too (much to the bafflement of your kids LOL )

[Anexanhume]

I think a more interesting question is how much longer we can expect enjoy certain systems? What will we do when the functioning units of a certain console are dwindling fast? Either we all become repair technicians, or we don't play as much. Another thing, for how long can we count on coax and composite inputs to stay around? Rest assured, they both seem to have a firm footing for quite sometime, but S-Video and Component will become more prevelant with the FCC mandating that all TV's have HDTV capabilities by 2006.

[thehistorian]

I don't know..

It will continue to get harder and harder to define Classic.

Age of Discovery: Here we find Pong and it's many counter parts.
We discovered that we could actually put something on screen and make it react to our input.

Age of Exploration: The Atari 2600, Intellevision, ColecoVision, etc..
Now we focused on exporing the possibilities. We added color, developed multiscreen games, added storylines and of course developed cart based gaming.

Age of Reflection: The NES to PlayStation(?).
A look to the past shows us that gameplay and graphics are important. Just producing a game is not enough, it needs to be enjoyable. Some start to question the theoretical effects of games on children. The world takes a good hard look at gaming realizes it is here to stay.

Beyond this it is still open.

For me, "Classic" ends when the NES begins. After that it seems that we all turned a page and moved to a new book.

[Ed Oscuro]

Hmm...I tend to see the word "retro" being used in reference to a generalized school of design/style, somewhere from the 1950s to maybe the 1970s, but I'd be most likely to look at the wood grain electronics era (possibly the late '60s, through the 1970s, to the early 80s) as "retro." I don't feel comfortable calling a machine newer than the early 80s "retro." I think the DP word "classic" works best; the early 1990s gain my personal vote for "Golden Age" of gaming. Just a little note on my word usage, which nobody will find interesting, but I felt compelled to map it out anyway.

Now I'd say early/mid 1990s systems have period appeal, that's for sure. I'm not sure of a name for it; maybe "Generation X style" works. Sometimes I simply say things have "camp value" (not the British or Counter-Strike kinds, either). Eventually stuff like the Virtual Boy will be recognized as being of great significance to the scholar in deciding what the high fashion of the mid-90s was (I think it's already catching on, actually).

Now what of these systems, you ask? What's our marker here? I think we can look at the "realistic" designs of Final Fantasy and take one hint from that. Certainly current advertising doesn't have the same (rebellious) "attitude" of the 1990s ads; Sonic and the scrawled text of a Virtual Boy ad (maybe found in your copy of Boy's Life) certainly aren't very forgettable.

Sad to say The Matrix will be remembered more or less fondly and such "influence" will be projected heavily onto gaming in general - certainly it's had lots of influence on PC games (Max Payne was in development a long, long time ago, but the feedback works both ways) and a number of console titles, but I feel that there's more to the styles found on console games. Ultra-stylish Castlevania games don't seem to be selling in Japan, but Metal Gear and other Giant Robot Meets Realism style games are making a very big impact as well (Steel Battallion, for instance, seems to be the current end product of the sort of Japanese artistry I've found at some cutting-edge sites).

However, one thing that's been true more now than ever is that the state of the art in consoles - combined with an ever present need to reach new customers with products they relate to - is bringing more from old styles into the present market than ever before. Look at movies - how many matinee feature titles can you see that LOOK and ACT like classic movies? Nobody in movies is catering to the '50s film buff crowd with South Pacific/Ben Hur style grainy Technocolor prints or hand-colored stock...yet in games we regularly see homages and even direct rereleases of games that are pretty damn near half as old as South Pacific and Ben Hur. Who's to say - barring some sort of genetic changes to human makeup obliterating our desire for games (and presumably entertainment in general) - that people another 25 years from now won't enjoy recreations of Space Invaders? How about Galaxian 3? I could really see a project like that gaining a following in the future.

Right now, we play games on the current gen consoles to have fun. In years, though, our own disbelief at what our culture will have become will cause us chance to feel nostalgic. Or perhaps I'm wrong, and culture will just continue to be fragmented, with people clinging onto various shreds of culture exemplified and perfected by various groups and artists...it's all quite hard to say. Whatever the case, there's no doubt people will find certain current games to be timeless, and then they'll see some of the current uninspired games (we've been getting more of them as of late, since Japan has been less strict about keeping good stuff - and dreck too - off our shelves and shores) as no more embarrassing to current technology and style than their counterpart retro or early '90s games were to theirs. We have lost only one major thing - minimalism - in the quest for current technology, but I think it's possible to enjoy almost any game of our time in the far future looking through it as an example of the best money could buy - at the time.

[NintendoMan]

I would consider the Sega Saturn sort of retro and the PS1 is definatley getting there, but not yet?
I would consider anything that is not sold in stores retro. ACTUALLY, I wouldn't use the word retro though for all things, just cause they aren't in stores.

[Nature Boy]

It will continue to get harder and harder to define Classic.

I disagree. A classic game can be one released tomorrow, today, or 20 years ago. But it will always be a game that defines a genre in some way (it might not be the first of it's kind, it just has to be, well, classic).

IMO defining a classic game gets easier over time. If I still think of Halo as a great game 10 years from now then it's easier to call it a classic in 2014 than it is in 2004.

[Nubiandaze]

Hey All,
I'm with the guy who calls anything older than 20 years 'retro'or 'classic'. I consider my Nintendo Game & Watch collection retro and also my Vectrex stuff. It is my belief that the older consoles such as the Vectrex were sold in fewer numbers so these can be called 'retro' or 'classic' as they have become collectors items. Just look at ebay to do with Nintendo game & watch, these things are selling for up to US$1200.00 each and the common ones even US$450. I may be confusing the word 'retro' with 'collectors item' but in some respects these go hand in hand.

As for the gane & watch Micro vs Machine, you can still pick these up for $50.00 (NEW).So it must be the fewer systems made the more retro appeal they have. Although some might argue, theres no way I would call the PS1 retro, it's still in it's commercial stage for god's sake.

When I say any system 20+ years old is truly 'classic' however I do consider one system to be aging quite well and it's only just 10 years old. That is the Atari Lynx. But if I want to talk truly 'retro' or 'classic' I'd call upon my Vec or bring out my Haminex PONG. Anyhow I love just about all good games retro or not.
Regards,

Nubian.[/quote][/url]