As far as I've seen things become retro in my own life as well as what was considered retro when I was born/a kid, I would say anything that is 20 to 30 years old is retro. Once it's older than that, it becomes vintage or antique.
AskBeehaw
An open-ended community for asking and answering various questions! Permissive of asks, AMAs, and OOTLs (out-of-the-loop) alike.
In the absence of flairs, questions requesting more thought-out answers can be marked by putting [SERIOUS] in the title.
Subcommunity of Chat
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
I know the value of a collectable would accumulate over time but the thought of a 30 year comic book doubling in value in a year when it turns 31 is kind of funny to think about.
Retro is I find something you are just too young to have have experienced directly. It is your older brother's cool. Yours is nostalgic; your parent's, vintage.
I think it's several different things
- a visual design aesthetic
- specific gameplay mechanics
- "legacy" systems and software
I think each of them can differ in whether they're fixed or not. Generally I think that in game design, retro is fairly anchored when it comes to visual aesthetics and gameplay design. "Boomer shooter" mechanics and visuals, pixel art games, etc. I suspect we'll still see those 'retro' games in 20 years, and probably not see e.g. Ubisoft-style open world control-point-capture games being called retro.
Consoles though, I do think shift into retro status very consistently. I think there are people who would even consider DS or certainly GBA games as retro already.
Gaming wise I'd say anything 6th gen or older. As for tech I'd say anything that is end of life. Obsolete and at least 15 years old
I think it moves. "Retro" for me is the fifties/sixties.