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When does a system become "Retro"?


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I had always thought in the past a first step is when gamestop stops carrying it lol

That is usually when a system bottoms out and then at somepoint after that it starts regaining popularity and starts being desired as a collectable.

I believe it was around 2000 that they liquidated their nes stuff and i bought most of my collection of it for next to nothing then. Now nes stuff is priced crazy 20 years later....even 5 years ago it wasnt so crazy and 10 years ago it certainly wasnt.

So seems like about 10-15 years or so stuff bottoms out and then climbs back up over the next 5-15 or so years.....in general.

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10 hours ago, stupus said:

I had always thought in the past a first step is when gamestop stops carrying it lol

That is usually when a system bottoms out and then at somepoint after that it starts regaining popularity and starts being desired as a collectable.

I believe it was around 2000 that they liquidated their nes stuff and i bought most of my collection of it for next to nothing then. Now nes stuff is priced crazy 20 years later....even 5 years ago it wasnt so crazy and 10 years ago it certainly wasnt.

So seems like about 10-15 years or so stuff bottoms out and then climbs back up over the next 5-15 or so years.....in general.

It would have been 2003 or later, becuase I bought my first collector-era NES when that blowout happened & I was dating my fiance (he took me to the store). It was doubly nice for me- when I asked for the console, the clerks decided it would also be a great time to clear the NES games out of the employee hold drawer, so I got some nicer titles like Kid Icarus too.

 

I don't think we can count on Gamestop for a measure anymore... assuming they stay in business long enough to fully roll another generation, what's stopping them from just moving old stock to their new 'retro' category?

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For me, retro or classic gaming has always been more about the style of the games than the age of the console. Classic games are for the most part 2D, sprite/tile-based and (for consoles) single load. There are exceptions here and there (multiload Supercharger games for the 2600, scattered early 3D games on consoles and computers), but if the majority of the games for a platform meet those criteria (basically anything from the SNES/Genesis era or before), I consider it classic. Any new games that emulate the look and feel of classic games are retro.

 

The PS2 is old, but like a 2000 Toyota Camry, it isn't classic and never will be.

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8 minutes ago, Keatah said:

If I had it has a kid.

 

Other stuff like PS2 and PS3 are just market fodder. Not expressions of a new artform.

 

 

^This!!!!

 

I don't even feel like thinking about any other responses.

 

 

Though I will say (Here, just here) I don't remember GameStop ever having NES stuff.  Around here there was Kaybee Toys that disappeared,...The space in the mall becoming E.B. then Babbages in there somewhere, eventually landing on "Hey, Now we're Game Stop" (By far the most annoying of any of them)...Anyhow NES was almost disappearing when SNES became the big thing ...  Then again around here only small or local (mom & pop, if you will) stores ever carried "Used" stuff...until GameStop with their PlayStation Trade Ins..."What'd ya pay for that?  $30?  Wouldn't you rather have $2 off a New game?"...

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1 hour ago, GoldLeader said:

 

^This!!!!

 

I don't even feel like thinking about any other responses.

 

 

Though I will say (Here, just here) I don't remember GameStop ever having NES stuff.  Around here there was Kaybee Toys that disappeared,...The space in the mall becoming E.B. then Babbages in there somewhere, eventually landing on "Hey, Now we're Game Stop" (By far the most annoying of any of them)...Anyhow NES was almost disappearing when SNES became the big thing ...  Then again around here only small or local (mom & pop, if you will) stores ever carried "Used" stuff...until GameStop with their PlayStation Trade Ins..."What'd ya pay for that?  $30?  Wouldn't you rather have $2 off a New game?"...

I bought NES games at GameStop but this was around 2006...

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I know all the gamestops here had dropped nes games by at least 2003...i thought it was closer to 2000 though. I dont think any existed when nes was sold new though...they were all funcolands then in this area. I want to say late 90s them switched to gamestop?

And yes i think the whole phisical media thing will be gone soon....so that whole concept will be classic i suppose eventually.

Not sure why gamestop keeps going...i think they lost like 2 billion last year?

The 1 by us is in the process of closing as well as some others, but i guess not all of them yet.

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In case it didn't come across, my point about Katamari is that they are re-releasing PS2 games for modern systems with a graphics update. They are the same genres, played with the same controller often made by the same publishers offering similar multi-player modes.  PS2 games are just like PS4 games except older and with fewer polygons.  It will take a few more industry changes for me to consider the PS2 anything but just an older version of the games everyone is playing right now.

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9 minutes ago, wongojack said:

PS2 games are just like PS4 games except older and with fewer polygons.  It will take a few more industry changes for me to consider the PS2 anything but just an older version of the games everyone is playing right now.

I feel the same way ... more polygons and resolution on top definitely feels like more of the same.

 

They also have added seamless online, trophies, better AI, voice chat, background updates and downloading, recording and streaming, social integrations, cross play/save, more AI ... and probably other things that are icing on the "core gaming experience" cake but would be missed by people if they had to go backwards to prior hardware. 

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Okay you go on believing a console that can only output in standard definition modern...

 

Quote

PS2 had a 294 MHz processor (which increased to 299 MHz on later models), 32 MB RAM, a GPU clocked at 147 MHz, 4MB video RAM, and a DVD-ROM drive.

Specs worse than a late 90s gaming PC... how is that modern? 

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Quote

PS2 had a 294 MHz processor (which increased to 299 MHz on later models), 32 MB RAM, a GPU clocked at 147 MHz, 4MB video RAM, and a DVD-ROM drive.

 

Dreamcast specs for comparison: 
 

Quote

 

CPU: 128-bit Hitachi SH-4 RISC processor (200MHz 360 MIPS)

Graphics: NEC CLX2 processor.

RAM: 16MB, 8MB Video RAM, 2MB Sound RAM.

Colors: 16.7 million.

Polygons: 3 million per second.

Game Media: 1.2GB GD-ROM, 12x access speed.

Resolution: 640x480 pixels.

Sound: Yamaha 64 channel.

 

To me it seems the PS2 is not really that much more powerful than the Dreamcast and that system is considered retro... the Dreamcast even had twice the video RAM than the PS2 though it had less system RAM..

 

38MB total RAM for PS2 and 26 for Dreamcast...

 

To also put things into perspective my DOS PC's specs are 200Mhz CPU, 32MB system RAM and 4MB video RAM... I feel for a system to be considered modern it needs at least 512MB (total RAM not just system) of system RAM at least be able to display 720p...

 

 

Edited by DragonGrafx-16
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36 minutes ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

 

Dreamcast specs for comparison: 
 

To me it seems the PS2 is not really that much more powerful than the Dreamcast and that system is considered retro... the Dreamcast even had twice the video RAM than the PS2 though it had less system RAM..

 

38MB total RAM for PS2 and 26 for Dreamcast...

 

To also put things into perspective my DOS PC's specs are 200Mhz CPU, 32MB system RAM and 4MB video RAM... I feel for a system to be considered modern it needs at least 512MB (total RAM not just system) of system RAM at least be able to display 720p...

 

 

I would say the main reason the Dreamcast is considered retro is because Sega got out of the console race. It was their last console, was released in the 90s, and a lot of people have fond memories of Sega’s final attempt at a console. Don’t really think that one has anything to do with specs.

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Yep, the DC being "retro/classic" was a thing even as early as 2008 as far as I remember. From the same kind of people that consider that past SNES consoles (with the exception of the Saturn and Dreamcast) are "not classic/retro".

Which is funny because the DC had few original titles that wouldn't make it to the other 128 bits eventually, either game ports or concepts.

Doesn't make it a bad console, but make the inclusion of the DC very irrational. At least I suppose people that say "Because it's 3D" are more consistent.

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16 hours ago, DragonGrafx-16 said:

 

Dreamcast specs for comparison: 
 

To me it seems the PS2 is not really that much more powerful than the Dreamcast and that system is considered retro... the Dreamcast even had twice the video RAM than the PS2 though it had less system RAM..

 

38MB total RAM for PS2 and 26 for Dreamcast...

 

To also put things into perspective my DOS PC's specs are 200Mhz CPU, 32MB system RAM and 4MB video RAM... I feel for a system to be considered modern it needs at least 512MB (total RAM not just system) of RAM at least be able to display 720p...

 

 

Fixed that...

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I know people like to attach tangible elements to deciding this type of discussion, but I think derFunkenstein called it. It's a feeling and not something you can arrive at a conclusion by examining some facts like how many generations removed it is from today's current platforms. 

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On 1/3/2020 at 1:42 PM, GoldLeader said:

Though I will say (Here, just here) I don't remember GameStop ever having NES stuff.  Around here there was Kaybee Toys that disappeared,...The space in the mall becoming E.B. then Babbages in there somewhere, eventually landing on "Hey, Now we're Game Stop" (By far the most annoying of any of them)...Anyhow NES was almost disappearing when SNES became the big thing ...  Then again around here only small or local (mom & pop, if you will) stores ever carried "Used" stuff...until GameStop with their PlayStation Trade Ins..."What'd ya pay for that?  $30?  Wouldn't you rather have $2 off a New game?"...

Closest GameStop ever having NES carts was when they bought out FuncoLand...

 

I got a response for this thread but it'll wait till I'm done with dinner.

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On 1/3/2020 at 11:42 AM, GoldLeader said:

 

^This!!!!

 

I don't even feel like thinking about any other responses.

 

 

Though I will say (Here, just here) I don't remember GameStop ever having NES stuff.  Around here there was Kaybee Toys that disappeared,...The space in the mall becoming E.B. then Babbages in there somewhere, eventually landing on "Hey, Now we're Game Stop" (By far the most annoying of any of them)...Anyhow NES was almost disappearing when SNES became the big thing ...  Then again around here only small or local (mom & pop, if you will) stores ever carried "Used" stuff...until GameStop with their PlayStation Trade Ins..."What'd ya pay for that?  $30?  Wouldn't you rather have $2 off a New game?"...

 

I probably should have explained this better. But Hindsight is 20/20 ...and it's 2020 haaaa!  OK  Where was I?...Oh Right...I meant here in my hometown of Cheyenne, WY, not here in this post or here in this thread or whatever.  GameStop for us came way too late to ever have anything retro Ever...They now act like they've always been on the Retro Train to Big CollectionLand (mostly with their online presence, which they even push at the stores), but for me they've Never had anything Retro Here...

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