How Old Is Retro Really?
There was a time when you only had one goal during your free time, play your favorite video games. While you pursued that goal, many things happened in life that pinned those games and moments to your heart. Maybe you played with an old friend or relative that you do not see as much any more, maybe it was how you met all of your friends or your significant other. Either way, every time you turn on that game, or those games, a flood of memories race through your brain and instantly carry you on a path down memory lane.
This is the power of Retro gaming. However, the interesting thing to remember is that Retro is not a fixed moment in time. One day even our newest trends will be considered outdated. Even our newest songs will be classical and our newest games retro. All of this seems inevitable, but there is a lot to gain from the study of this transition.
A Retrospective Perspective
A relevant question at this point would be, why is it important to give retro games any attention at all? Another question would be, why do the even exist? The purpose of retro a game in the onset is just to be a game. There’s no such thing as a new retro game. Games can be done in a retro style or seem dated, but in reality retro games are just games that were once brand new. Now those continued to be celebrated. Some because they are considered to be an exceptional title, others because they has some significance to the audience of that time period.
There are some landmark titles that changed the approach to game design or had such a lasting affect on videogame culture that it can only be properly described as ” you had to be there”. The best retro games can convey that feeling without the ethereal sense of gatekeeping that can sometimes lurk in those kinds of expressions.
However The mechanics of those great games can have such a profound impact on the video game landscape that they get copied and feel over done . These doppelganger games formed in the wake of a meteoric title’s success will most likely be forgotten. Their importance however is found in the time frame they create. An era of a certain mechanic or influence.
Something that comes to mind immediately is the bullet time era of the Max Payne games or the collect-a-thon era of the assassin’s Creed games. It was so amazing at first, but then slowly turned into a gripe that the audience seemed to think lacked originality. When revisited, those games, if played in succession ,will bring a feeling that will make the player feel like they were actually there in that time period. The same way fighting 100 monsters to gain 1 level seemed exciting to us back then and is now tedious to many modern gamers.
Playing these games is all for the sake of entertainment and nostalgia of course, but something equally important arises from all of this. we are able to take a peak into the past and see what it was like at the time. Not just Reading about history but experiencing it first hand. It can really make you appreciate how far we have come and the artistry of the time. Making spectacular titles with only Kilobytes and megabytes to work with can be considered nothing less than art.
Guardians Of The Past
A Video game can be thought of as a collaboration of people, ideas and technology that was available at the time. When viewed from that perspective, you can see how each game is a small time capsule. Every time we boot up and load a game , we are actually traveling into that era and only allowed to use the resources of that time.
For some, retro is more indicative of the number of years passed since a games creation. Ive done extensive research on the topic ( I asked some of my friends off and online) and have narrowed it down to about 20 years as the generally accepted amount of time to consider a game as being retro. I understand this form of classification and reasoning behind it. After all what better way to organize things for historical purposes than time? But i feel that some of the nuance is lost by using this rigid structure.
The doppelganger games mentioned earlier can have an interesting affect on what we consider retro. They can even have a diluting effect the source material. Breath of the Wild, an iconic game from 2017is a good example of this occurrence. While there were games of similar concept before, it’s hard to argue against the notion that Breath Of The Wild has had a profound impact on the way games are being made to this day. Many games can now be seen as having bits and pieces, if not entire chunks BOTW in their DNA.
While games like Shadows of Mordor had similar mechanics in terms of open world traversal and completing quests, BOTW really set itself apart with its intuitive puzzle design and vibrant open world. The game was a massive success. It’s now at the point where any game that allows, exploration, climbing and has a similar art style will be accused of being a BOTW clone.
It seems that for the for foreseeable future, we will have games that mirror the BOTW style. In 20 years we will look back at these games with fondness, and by the chronological definition they will be retro. They will also serve to clutter the space around the original title. Ten games from the same time period with similar mechanics will confuse future generations about who is the innovator and who is the imposter.
If the original games are not readily available to play through physical or digital means, The essence of innovation can be lost in translation. Just by enjoying their hobby and communicating with eachother, the retro community will naturally elevate certain titles and make “Retro” a title of distinction rather than an inevitable destination. This is why i feel this term needs further discussion and leads me to my next question.
Does Retro Just mean Old?
In the year 2000 all the way to 2010, we could just say yes, this game is old so its retro. That is because we made such huge leaps in hardware capability that it lead to all the “what ifs” of that time coming to fruition. “What if Mario and Zelda were in 3D?” “What if an action RPG could look as good as an anime?
When these questions were answered a lot of wondrous ideas that seemed to pour into games began to evaporate. The technology that became available created a definite line between past and present. Proof of this can be seen in the way we used to classify games in multiples of 8. we had 8-bit ,but the next generation was twice as good so it was 16bit. then we went to 32 and then 64 and so on until 128. After which the differences in games became more subtle.
While games of the last 20 years definitely offer historical importance, when revisited they may not even seem to be from a different generation and there by not elicit the same feelings of nostalgia of that time period. PC games from decades ago Can be even more difficult to identify as retro since they have the added benefit of improved technology. They may look particularly stunning when played today and may not offer much else in the way of feeling like a retro game.
There currently is not any intuitive way to track the generations of consoles. there is nothing that the average consumer could point to and decide where we are in terms of graphical capabilities. Well, here nothing makes that sense in a meaningful way. Can you really tell me what a teraflop is? This is the really struggle in the definition and celebration of retro. The lack of major graphical improvements have blurred the lines between yesteryear and today.
Now we are in a very strange situation. We have watched a sub genre grow from its original inception and now we have to prospect it’s path in order to give it a proper definition. How do we know what to call old or outdated when we are not far enough removed from the style of games that we call classics? We are in a sense too close to the painting to admire the artistry and the contrast of the frame.
Not A Conclusion, A Solution
We need to actually move onto the next style of play before we can really call games of the last 20 years retro. In the past 2 decades there hasn’t been much that has caused such shock waves in the gaming world that a clearly defined boarder can be seen as “then and now”. We need this clarification to show a clear path and legacy of retro games.
The energy and path to retro games should definitely be welcoming and lead to growth. The importance of playing and collecting retro games goes beyond nostalgia and a good time. We are honestly preserving history. The same way we record in text books about major occurrences of the past and visit famous places, we have to do the same for video games.
A clear cut path will allow our favorite and monumental games to inspire us and generations to come in a way that will lead to unbelievable new IP and technology. Where we went left with choices in games, the next generation of players and developers may go right and create something truly spectacular.
We need to provide a line that leads from present day to the origin of games so that anyone can jump in and be up to date. A line that leads from the origin of games to the growth of video games as a whole. So keep on collecting and cleaning, displaying and protecting your retro favorites games past and present so they can continue inspire and enjoy for console generations to come.
Do you have a favorite series of games that you make an effort to collect? Do you put your retro games on display? what is your favorite?