Commodore Remix

My guess is anything bringing back happy memories or which really represented the times. Culturally, Retro is the rose-tinted glasses which puts you right back in your childhood bedroom when a very special track comes on, or game system dug out.



Or it's just one more old jaded thing, replaced by ones much better.




When we moved to my Dad's house a decade back, there was this really fantastic, pristine late-60's kitchen, which they'd obviously looked after really really well. Dad didn't even keep it long enough to let me take pictures. It looked rather like this but much better somehow. Probably because it wasn't a model:



And that's retro.




And gearwise, proper retro bits have to be useful, do something to complete a rig or just damn well look good. My retro computers all help each other, such as old PCs processing floppies or data transfer for the micros. And the micros perform great studio tasks for the tracking PCs, like MIDI processing or intuitive composition.



This Y2K-era runs STEEM and still works an impressive job with the seminal Sound Blaster Live.

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Modern PCs are backwards-compatible but not very retro-friendly.


(Computers were different as well. You had to buy one for a certain job or games, rather than just drift around the Web watching films. They turned from tools to appliances, with people realising they could do the usual stuff in one box. At least.)



And of course, yesterday's future technology like Laserdisc, quality period sounds from old organs, vast archive staples like VHS or LP, plus the magic of rediscovering old sweets in retro shops still let you live the magic of what was once so ubiquitous.




But what do you think? Where do you put the line? And you won't let me be the only one writing this?

I was retro. Now I feel old

More informatively, I think retro is anything for which there isn't a direct replacement. For instance, I don't feel nostalgic for the last LCD TV I had, but a 14" B/W CRT is retro, since it enables you to have an experience that's now not really possible with existing off the shelf technology. And yes, retro requires rose tinted glasses and memories. To people who don't remember it, it's just old.

Brilliant. Though I could go further and say it's only truly Retro when you appreciate it - meaning I could really dig that preserved throwback house, built in the 60's and stuck there, fittings and all, despite being born a decade later. But Dad said he didn't want to live in a museum.

It wasn't retro glamour to him, just old and in the way. (Though myself, I could have gone the other extreme - all but maybe two rooms period style and tech, with anything modern crushed into a couple of bedrooms. 'Til the house wore out. So prob'ly just as well, on balance, Dad was boss.)



But my friend Juliet says:

I loved your definition of retro, and can see why you were so enamoured of the old kitchen in your house. Who wouldn't love such a fabulous room?

I loved the picture you chose to represent it! Awesome.
I would love, absolutely adore such a kitschy room!

She lived through the Sixties too.

Ummm, depends what sort of areas your looking at.In terms of clothing, artwork, design styles, i'd say anything from say 15-20 years ago, could now be classed as 'Retro' as what was once very much the cutting edge of design, style and possible on technology then, whilst now replaced many times over, still holds it's own.

In terms of computer technology, i thought i'd left 'lens flare' behind on the Playstation/Saturn/3DO era, but it's now being showcased as a key selling point on Unreal 4/new Crytek game engines etc.