First post, by Tetrium
- Rank
- l33t++
I branched this off of this thread
It's a direct copy+paste, so any references in there are made towards the older thread:
What is the difference between a retro computer and a vintage computer anyway?
And since when is a computer that obviously wasn't considered to be a vintage computer, considered to be a vintage computer?
The thing is (and the point h-a-l 9000 was trying to make) that computer history is relatively young and still subject to many changes as computers continue to evolve at a speed that is relatively faster then, say, cars, fashion, sculptures, architecture, you name it!
A painting that's made now won't be considered vintage in 20 years time. But when do we define a computer that's made now consider as vintage?
Was a computer made 20 years ago considered to be vintage 10 years ago, when it was just 10 years old? Or were back then the only vintage computers the so-called mainframes of the 70's?
By this definition, wouldn't a modern day quad core be considered vintage in 30 years? Or only after 50 years?
Does this mean that a computer that is now 10 years old, is considered to be vintage when it's hardware becomes 25 years old?
Who decides? The people? The writers of the wiki articles?
As computer history is still so young, logic would dictate that more and more computers will inevitably become retro and/or vintage with passing time. Not doing so would imply there should be a reason for doing so, just like there was apparently a reason to put the "vintage" stamp on a Commodore64 at some point in history.
Was the Commodore64 a vintage computer 5 years ago? If a Commodore64 made in 1982 is vintage today, this would indicate a 486DX33 should be vintage in 10 years, right?
Or is vintage simply when a computer reaches 25 years of age?
Retro otoh has a different meaning. An important value of retro is the feeling of nostalgia, doing something using something obsolete today, today with the main intend to relive the past.
Obviously using a 5 year old computer to play 5 year old games "may" be considered as retrogaming in a technical sense, but obviously most people wouldn't consider a 5 year old computer a retro computer.
Otoh, when someone scrapes together 10 year old hardware with the intend to use his or her leet Voodoo 2 SLI's to play Unreal, then the sole purpose of this computers existence becomes it's use with the intend to relive a game the way it was lived back then, 10 years ago.
Since such a computer basically has no right of existence except for being build to satisfy a thirst for gaming nostalgia, this is to be considered a retro gaming computer.
Discuss! 😁