this post was submitted on 11 Mar 2025
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RetroGaming

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I went to a Gamestop the other day, and they had a little section for pre-owned games for older systems (think Xbox360, PS2, DS, etc). I was perusing and grabbed some games, but I noticed something, the cases that have the XBOX360 games have a giant "RETRO GAMING" on it in the centre. So I am like wtf, I grew up with the XBOX360, what the hell do they mean "retro".

So I went and asked like friends and other people if the XBOX360 is retro now, and basically everyone was like "yeah". I was talking to my EX about it and she was like "the xbox came out in 2005/6. There is more time between us and the xbox360 than there was between the xbox and the SNES when the xbox came out. Was the SNES "retro" when the xbox360 came out?"

I am like not ready, not willing to accept the XBOX360 as retro. Because that is saying my thing that I grew up with is "retro" or "old" now and im not ready to accept that because im not ready to be old.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I am also often upset, confused and scared by the passage of time

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Downvote for making me think about it

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It is not retro. It is "Modern," like how art from the 50s and 60s is called "Modern Art."

Here is an easy chart:

1st Console Gen (Magnavox Odyssey) : Historic

2nd Console Gen (ColecoVision) : Antique

3rd Console Gen (NES) : Vintage

4th Console Gen (SNES) : Retro

5th Console Gen (N64) : Classic

6th Console Gen (XBOX) : Renaissance

7th Console Gen (X360) : Modern

8th Console Gen (XBOX ONE) : Post-Modern

9th Console Gen (XBOX SERIES) : Contemporary

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Gamestop needs to go back to when their cases looked like this

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I miss those styles, so much stuff has a corporate sanitized look and feel these days

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

We are not old, we are retro

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

I'm downright vintage.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago

Here here! stomps cane

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I feel like the “retroness” comes down to more the gameplay than the passage of time. Despite coming out 20 years ago, 360 games have a lot of similarities to modern games. Contrast that to the SNES, which had a much different limitations and approach to game design.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Yes and no. I only play the 360 (because of money, not choice) and the very specific brand of action games they had are not a thing today. The mechanics and presentation are "retro" in the sense that they are from a different era.

There are many that share similarities but the more you play from this era today the more you notice how much things have changed.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Yeah, maybe we need a different word to describe the games and systems that we think of when we say "retro". Because when I think of 'retro' games, I'm thinking of Super Mario Bros and the OG Doom and shit like that, not Halo or whatever. I'm thinking of the time before consoles were mostly just pre-built PCs in a fancy looking box.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This shit hurts me every time. I remember playing xbox360 in high school with my friends. I’m getting old.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Welcome to the party, pal

We were playing the Nintendo 64 and original Xbox when I was in high school.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

On that note, I told a younger colleague yesterday that I rewatched Stargate (the 1994 movie, which is six years younger than Die Hard) recently, and her reply was "Oh, I thought that was a programme, not a movie".

FML, makes me feel old.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just you wait until you reach a point where you think "I used to feel old when I was in my 20'ties. Now I'm really old."

t. Am 41 years old.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Imagine what 60 must feel like.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

More like the same thing.

At 80's however will be like "Damn, I used to talk with randoms about my age and making such a big deal in my 20'ties. And now I'm in my 80'ties and I could die in any moment."

At 100'ties will be like "Ah, fu-"

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This was how I felt when the post about the PS2 turning 25 came by a few days ago. What the fuck happened.

Why is everything worse now lol

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

Capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Abe Simpson was younger as a character at Xbox 360 release (first appearance 1988) than the Xbox 360 is today.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I would say "no" because the 360 did have the capability of 720p and 1080p. There isn't much you have to do to get it working with a modern television.

That's not the case with a TRULY retro console, either in terms of resolution or connectivity.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's not how "retro" works. If a song came out today, as opposed to any number of Green Day songs, which came out in the 90s, and 2000s, are considered retro.

You don't have to do anything different with todays songs vs Green Day songs. You can play them just the same way.

Yet one is clearly retro.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Music and games aren't quite the same deal. If you need specialized equipment to play a game, it's retro.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (6 children)
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (3 children)

That's just the cord that came with the system, nothing very special about it. And it's still perfectly compatible with modern TVs

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[–] And009 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Disagree, but that standard every proprietary console except xbox and ps are retro.

It's simply few generations older. If teenagers today weren't born, It's retro.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I never realized it's legit a mini transmitter to your TV's Antennae @.@.

Like wireless HDMI.

But now we stuck with DRM for failed ATSC 3.0 release :/

Imagine what could have been.

[–] afansfw 3 points 1 month ago

The original 360 didn’t even come with an hdmi port, I remember playing Armored Core 4 on a crt. For me anything that was meant to be played on a crt is definitely retro.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

i agree with this. i think a lot of people disagree because it feels like arbitrary criteria at first, but even as someone who grew up in the 360 generation, you could feel that the leap to HDMI signaled something more than just crisper graphics. the 360 and PS3 were both chasing the PC gaming experience, whereas the Wii was the last "bring the arcade home" box. while things like the introduction of polygonal graphics, twin sticks, VR, and internet connectivity feel like bigger shifts on the surface, i think this was the most signifigant and the best place to slice gaming into two ages despite them overlapping for a generation

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

It was the Gamecube for me. I was like, "How the hell can a recent game like Metroid Prime be 'retro'?" and then I realized if the game was a person It'd be old enough to drink... and then it got a remaster right after that realization.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Some other games now old enough to drink:

  • Metal Gear Solid 3
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  • The original Far Cry
  • Burnout 3
  • Doom 3
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

I just bought one last year.

It's not retro. It's in that sweet spot where it's irrelevant enough to be dirt cheap.

We'll need to wait another 10-20 years before the kids who grew up with the xbox360 have enough time and disposable income to buy and play all the games they loved in their youth.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago

About as old as NES on the Wii

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago

The people born when this machine was released have finished school, learned to drive and potentially even started their own families.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I’m with you, retro is when they were still counting bits

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

360 is AAA slop, I refuse to recognize that thing as retro.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

In my opinion, retro games/consoles are a lot like vintage cars. It doesn't matter how much time has passed because it's not about their age, it's about the era they came from.

In the case of vintage cars, it's any car manufactured prior to 1930. In the case of retro game consoles I'd say it's anything prior to 1994.

Edit: typo. 1995 should have been 1994. The launch year of the PS1 and the founding year of the ESRB.

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