r/RetroGaming is very strict about retro. They say the Nintendo 64 is retro while the PlayStation 2 is modern. This despite the fact the PlayStation 2 is now 25 years old.
So I got to wonder about this community deems as “retro”.
Or a better question: what’s considered retro and not retro? What’s the fine line between retro and modern?
Nah. Maybe? Even I call them retro games sometimes. My favorite gaming hardware YouTube channel is called “Retro Game Corps”. It what gamers call them. Depending on who I’m addressing, I use either.
Like I said in my original comment, I was mostly being pedantic. Then again, if the entire gaming world shifted to calling them “vintage games”, I’d be thrilled. Someone recently started a thread here titled “What’s your favorite vintage game?” And I did a “Not bad Obama” face and nod.
Well, yeah! I expect everything be upsidedown and backwards there! 😜
Now I’m curious how the Macquarie Dictionary defines the word. I can’t search it myself because it requires a login.
I don’t wanna make an account for that either lol and I don’t have a physical copy of Macquarie either. The newest Macquarie dictionary I could find on the internet archive that actually had the word Retro in it was the 1989 pocket dictionary. According to that edition, Retro is “a prefix meaning ‘backwards’ in space or time, as retrogression, restrospect.”, but of course that definition is probably outdated.
There’s a 1995 school version, but it doesn’t have the word in it. I looked on the website for my local regions network of libraries, and there’s a 2008 one in my local library two minutes walk away and a 2013 one in a library 20 mins drive away. So you know what, I might just walk down to the library tomorrow and see what it says and let you know haha (nobody here spoil it in the meantime 😄)
Update: It’s the next day and the library is closed. So I’ll have to try again tomorrow.