@CrayonRosary@lemmy.world Hey, I completely forgot about checking that dictionary out at the library, and not long ago I just happened to be in that town 20 minutes from home, walking past the library and It reminded me. So I just went in and found the Macquarie Dictionary 6th Edition (2013) and looked up the word. Here’s the definition - There seems to be 2 definitions here:

Uhh huh.

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prefix meaning ‘backwards’ in space or time, as retrogression, restrospect.”, but of course that definition is probably outdated.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.

You’re right. I looked into it some more and you seem to be right that Retro is indeed referring to the style, not the age. Forgive me for the long comment, my intention was only to express my subjective opinion about whether something is retro or retro-styled. I feel very weird calling old games that I thought of as retro “vintage” now, but I guess I have to; I’m going to have a lot of people thinking I’m calling it the wrong thing now. I guess this subreddit should more accurately be called Vintage Gaming, but I have no idea how it would be possible to shift the entire “retro” gaming community’s perspective on what makes a game retro or not.

And by wrong I mean unlike everybody else in the world.

Well, in Victoria, Australia, I think my incorrect understanding is very common, because age being the determining factor of what makes something retro is basically what I’ve been taught from childhood. Everyone I’ve ever met who I’ve had conversations about anything retro with, appear to think very similarly to me.

When people are calling modern things they know are modern “retro”, I think it’s just a simpler form of saying “retro-style”. I mean, when I’m talking about modern retro styled things that aren’t videogames, I personally say “retro-styled” myself; and I consider that to be what people also mean when they call modern things “retro”.

For games, I have to disagree that Retro can also mean games that look old. Again, I consider these to be “retro-styled” as well, not “Retro”, which to me indicates its actual age. VVVVVV isn’t retro, it’s retro-styled. Alwa’s Awakening is an NES style metroidvania game released in 2017, designed to feel exactly like something that could run on real NES hardware. Then in 2022, they actually did just that; they ported the game to real NES hardware and released it as the “8-Bit Edition”. To play it, you either need to flash it on a cart and play it on a real NES, or simply emulate it on modern hardware. In my opinion, this game isn’t retro at all; it’s “retro-styled”, even if you consider the fact it released on an actual retro console.

I consider GameCube/PS2/XBOX to be undoubtedly retro. So anything Gen 6 and earlier. To me 16-bit era and earlier is just “more retro”. Gen 7 I think is arguably technically retro, but it just doesn’t feel retro to me.

I mean, 360 & PS3 games still feel like they’re just modern games with less detailed graphics, and the Wii feels kind of like part of the Wii U era to me; and that association with the Wii U makes it very much not feel retro. But any games released before Gen 7 feels unique compared to modern games, therefore giving that feeling of being retro.

In regards to what feels retro to me, I personally consider Gen 6 GameCube/PS2/XBOX and everything older to be undoubtedly retro.

I think that the Gen 7 Wii, PS3 & Xbox 360 should technically be considered retro now due to their age, but personally generation 6 and earlier is what feels retro to me.

Maybe they’ll come out with some official mousepad. I can’t wait to see if they do Mario Paint and a new Mario Maker with this too, though.

Another day, another crappy Nintendo action.

I bought it when it came out even though I couldn’t reasonably afford it, because at the time my stupid teen-aged self wanted to collect every Nintendo published game on the Switch, and thought the game was going to be sold out if I didn’t get it. I was well aware it was scummy of Nintendo at the time, but I bought it because I was sure they wouldn’t do it again. I even got the limited time Fire Emblem English translation and still haven’t touched it yet.

Now they’re gonna release it on the eShop right!?.. Right?

Oof. Unless that’s the only Switch game you play, you are going to have a hard time realising that Switch emulation isn’t far developed enough yet for you to play a lot of your games without issues and just throw away your real Switch. Plus, Nintendo’s takedowns of Yuzu and Ryujinx last year massively slowed down development.