Retro (adjective): imitative of a style or fashion from the recent past.

How easy is it to apply Google’s definition of the term to consoles? According to Wikipedia, ‘retrogaming’ (also known as ‘classic’ and ‘old school gaming’) is the playing or collecting of personal computer, console and arcade video games in contemporary times; a further description which doesn’t make the task any simpler. So how do we know when a console reaches retro status?

This is a subject related to a question posed by Brandon from That Green Dude in a post early last month, and one he threw out to the WordPress community for answers: do you consider the seventh generation of consoles to be retro now? He doesn’t agree himself but he also doesn’t think it will be long until they are. To tackle this conundrum, let’s first clarify what ‘seventh generation’ means and compare it…