Feature
So When Exactly Is a Video Game 'Classic' or 'Retro' Anyway?
Some players call the GameCube retro. Others insist nothing from this century qualifies. The industry itself has been handing out the label for decades, and its own history suggests a surprisingly short fuse.
Spend long enough with games and you can tell a younger player that you were playing before gamertags, before trailer reveals, before “multiplayer” was simply called “doubles”. The hot releases of one decade become the “classics” or “retro games” of the next. Exactly when that happens is one of the more enjoyable arguments in gaming.
Two camps, no agreement
Some players already call the GameCube and PlayStation 2 retro. Others insist nothing made in the 21st century can qualify. Some treat every game past a certain age as a classic; others keep the label for major hits, past an age line they also cannot agree on.
One thing is certain: the line moves. Games are here to stay, like music, film, television and books. Formats and technology change, but the medium will outlast everyone arguing about it, so any cut-off has to move forward over time.
A cut-off of 1988 made sense around the turn of the millennium, when Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat and NFL Blitz were still in every arcade. Applied today, it would be absurd. Those games are obviously classics, and denying it would deny their influence on the industry and on gaming culture.
How the industry used the labels
Personal taste will never settle this. History might. “Retro gaming” is the dominant term now; big retailers such as Target and Staples have used it for sections selling new products based on Atari and Data East games. Before that, “classic” was the usual word, so its early uses give an industry-made line in the sand.
The 1980s are probably the only era everyone accepts as classic, and the label was already in use then. In 1983 the TV game show Starcade called Space Invaders “the granddaddy” of the video game craze, only five years after its release.
Nintendo went faster. When the NES launched in North America in 1985, it included an Arcade Classics Series with Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Junior and Popeye, games only three or four years old. In 1986 it gave the label to Mario Bros., three years after its arcade debut. Nintendo Power in early 1989 still called Pac-Man, Q*bert and Xevious classics, though they were relatively recent.
So in the industry’s own usage, around five years was the norm. That sounds ridiculous now.
Adjusting for age
One option is to scale the line to the age of the industry: work out what share of the industry’s lifetime had passed when Nintendo used the label, then apply the same share today. Another is to keep the same short window. By that measure, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 from 2009 is a classic, and the nostalgia around it is real enough to support the claim. Is it still modern gaming?
Perhaps “retro” describes a style of play rather than an age. Or perhaps “classic” and “retro” were always two separate lines. Almost nobody would deny that Frogger, Pitfall and Super Mario Bros. are both. Nintendo 64 and GameCube games are harder. Should the line be a year? The point at which GameStop takes a console’s games off the main wall? The date a console is discontinued?
A collector’s rule of thumb
Collectors often use a practical test instead of a date: a game becomes retro once the console it runs on is no longer sold new. By that measure the PlayStation 2 turned retro when Sony ended production at the turn of 2013, while games for a system still on store shelves stay current, whatever their age.
Still unsettled
Consumers have had video games for about 45 years, and there is still no agreement on whether Pikmin or Halo is old enough to be called classic or retro. There is no standard.
The Associated Press managed to rule on how to spell “esports” before anyone settled this. Next to frame-rate arguments, though, it is a far friendlier fight, and anyone who has watched their favourite game move from the new-release wall to the retro shelf already has an opinion.
Questions readers ask
How old does a video game have to be to be retro?
There is no fixed rule. In the 1980s the industry called games "classics" after only three to five years. Today many players draw the line at a console generation or two, and the line keeps moving forward as the medium ages.
Is there a difference between classic and retro games?
"Classic" usually implies a game that mattered: a hit or an influential design. "Retro" is often used for age or for an older style of play. Many games, such as Frogger, Pitfall and Super Mario Bros., are clearly both.
Are GameCube and PS2 games retro?
Many collectors and stores now treat them that way, though some players reserve "retro" for the cartridge era. By the industry’s own historical standards, they passed the threshold long ago.