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Retro Gamer 216 (PlayStation poo)

Ninja Doctor

By Ninja Doctor,
in Retro & Arcade Gaming

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Dig Dug

Dig Dug

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My stance is that age isn’t the barometer we should measure by. There is very little in terms of media created since the turn of the millennium that can be classified as retro. Many films made in the 90s and 00s were shot using many of the same standards we use today.

 

The difference between games and other mediums comes down to development, video games are still a relatively young medium and we are now beginning to see them slow down with each new generation. We will never see jumps like PS1>PS2 or PS2>PS3 ever again.

 

I consider the line between retro and modern game design to be something that the Dreamcast is sitting on. The Dreamcast had the hardware to take the 90s 3D game design as far as it could go and even nailed the blueprint for genres like driving games down to a tee. The PS2 on the other hand gave us the technology to build the foundations for how most studio games are today.

 

I do wonder if in 50 years we will have a term exclusively for games from the 20th century much like how we now have a golden age, silver age etc in other mediums.

 

The PS2 era was by all means a very, very short lived transitional period. Now the Xbox 360, despite being released in 2005 almost nothing about that system screams old to me and there will be many arguments when that does eventually finds its way onto the cover of RG.

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Dudley

Dudley

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2 hours ago, ianinthefuture said:

Psh, PS2 isn't retro, it's only...

 

...

 

... oh god it's 21 years old in less than two months

 

2 hours ago, deKay said:

It doesn’t put me off buying the magazine, but the PS2 isn’t retro.

 

43 minutes ago, deKay said:


21 years old isn’t retro! It’s barely just past yesterday!

 

Fun fact.

 

The PS2 is as old now as the Spectrum 48k was when issue 1 of RG came out...

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strider

strider

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23 minutes ago, Dig Dug said:

I consider the line between retro and modern game  Now the Xbox 360, despite being released in 2005 almost nothing about that system screams old to me and there will be many arguments when that does eventually finds its way onto the cover of RG.

Better not buy next issue then ;)

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Grey Fox

Grey Fox

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Again it is interesting to try to break down and obviously we tend to think I “Generations” e.g. the 4th Gen, the 7th Gen etc  or in Era’s e.g. 8 bit era, 16 bit era etc but it always gets murky.

 

If you go by dates then you get weird anomalies like the Wii being released two years after the 360 but having more in common with the previous generation of machines (in terms of hardware specs than the other machines released in its “generation”

 

So I guess it does come down more to a combination of game design / hardware and media perhaps.

 

I remember when the Dreamcast was first out that so broadly thought of:

 

Vintage - 2600 era

Classic - roughly 8 bit era

Neo Classic - roughly 16 bit era

Current - 32bit and 64bit era

Next-Gen - Dreamcast onwards (even though it was out)

 

Obviously this doesn’t work now.

 

I guess you could break into broad sections based on

 

Cartridge Era

Disk Era

Digital Era (or Digital Plus era to account for disks still being a thing)

 

Could then have Digital only or Streaming era

 

Of course it all breaks down as N64 is cartridge based. Some cartridge systems had CD add-one etc

 

Let alone home computers 

 

Or you could break into rough decades:

 

Up to 85 - Vintage/Classic

85 to 94/95 - Retro

95 to 2005 - Neo Retro

2005 to now - Digital Plus

 

So effectively not breaking stuff into categories is the way forward and just call it all Gaming I guess.

 

 

 

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Alexlotl

Alexlotl

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24 minutes ago, Dudley said:

 

 

 

Fun fact.

 

The PS2 is as old now as the Spectrum 48k was when issue 1 of RG came out...


Wow. Good stat, makes the point very nicely.

 

PS2 is easily retro for me, it hasn’t reached the can’t-really-tell-the-difference threshold, which for me is PS3 generation onwards.

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Kevvy Metal

Kevvy Metal

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As most TV’s are now going HDMI in only, the PlayStation 2 is now so retro that you won’t even be able to plug it into a modern TV.

 

That’s about as Retro-tech as you get! 

 

Spoiler

Obviously you can get a Retrotink or OSSC to fix this issue, but that’s totally in the enthusiast realm, or buy one of those adaptors that adds 150ms of lag and ruins the experience. 

 

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Dudley

Dudley

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And if you go by what's emulatable on a modern PC, 360 and PS2 are basically there.  PS3 is very close.

 

11 hours ago, jdanddiet said:

My kids think the xbox 360 is retro! 

 

I mean your kids aren't wrong, further to the PS2 thing above.

 

I got my first gaming machine aged 6, a Spectrum +2.  When I graduated uni the Spectrum was retro, unquestionably.

 

If you got a launch Xbox 360 aged 5 or 6, you graduate uni this year.

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deKay

deKay

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7 minutes ago, Dudley said:

I got my first gaming machine aged 6, a Spectrum +2.  When I graduated uni the Spectrum was retro, unquestionably.


I got my first Spectrum, a +, when I was 6. When I graduated uni I still used it.

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Dudley

Dudley

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4 minutes ago, deKay said:


Switch is retro then?

 

Internally? Pretty much. The only difference is they sell it.

 

That's going to get very wooly very quickly because if THAT'S the determiner, any game on the Evercade is no longer retro :)

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deKay

deKay

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1 hour ago, Dudley said:

 

Internally? Pretty much. The only difference is they sell it.

 

That's going to get very wooly very quickly because if THAT'S the determiner, any game on the Evercade is no longer retro :)


Quite a few Evercade games are from the last 4-5 years anyway.

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Marlowe

Marlowe

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Any chance @strider of more buyers guide articles like the N64 one from the previous issue covering exclusives? Found that very useful, especially the breakdown of expected prices by region. The occasional similar feature for other consoles (and yes PS2 included!) would be brilliant. 

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strider

strider

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30 minutes ago, Marlowe said:

Any chance @strider of more buyers guide articles like the N64 one from the previous issue covering exclusives? Found that very useful, especially the breakdown of expected prices by region. The occasional similar feature for other consoles (and yes PS2 included!) would be brilliant. 

We’re trying to get one in every issue when we can.

master system next issue and mega drive rpgs the issue after.

normally I avoid features with no dev content but these do seem popular.

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