I feel very weird calling old games that I thought of as retro “vintage” now, but I guess I have to.

Nah. Maybe? Even I call them retro games sometimes. My favorite gaming hardware YouTube channel is called “Retro Game Corps”. It what gamers call them. Depending on who I’m addressing, I use either.

Like I said in my original comment, I was mostly being pedantic. Then again, if the entire gaming world shifted to calling them “vintage games”, I’d be thrilled. Someone recently started a thread here titled “What’s your favorite vintage game?” And I did a “Not bad Obama” face and nod.

in Victoria, Australia…

Well, yeah! I expect everything be upsidedown and backwards there! 😜

Now I’m curious how the Macquarie Dictionary defines the word. I can’t search it myself because it requires a login.

When people are calling modern things they know are modern “retro”, I think it’s just a simpler form of saying “retro-style”.

“People” in general? No. Only certain gamers.

It seems like you missed the entire point of my comment, and you’re the exact kind of person I’m talking about. A person who has no idea what retro means. You are using it wrong. And by wrong I mean unlike everybody else in the world.

This is what people mean when they say retro, (except you and some other gamers):

relating to, reviving, or being the styles and especially the fashions of the past : fashionably nostalgic or old-fashioned

a retro look

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/retro

Saying retro style is redundant. Retro is already referring to style.

“Retro”, which to me indicates its actual age.

The word you’re looking for is “vintage”. Retro means in the style of the past.

Retro means new things that look like they’re old. As in “looking backwards” for inspiration. Like pixel art. Prime example: VVVVVV.

I’m mostly being pedantic, but it’s a pet peeve of mine that gamers (and only gamers) use “retro” wrong. Every other type of collector correctly uses the word “vintage” instead: Vintage clothing, furniture, coins, wine, etc. And they use “retro” to mean new things that look old, like retro clothing. Only gamers call vintage things “retro”.

In my experience when I point this out, gamers just get mad. I don’t understand that. But I’m kind of a language nerd who watches linguistics videos for fun. And yes, I know language changes and evolves, and words mean how people use them, and dictionaries are not prescriptive, etc., etc. It’s still wrong, damnit! It’s a niche use by specific group of people that confuses everyone else with its wrongness.