There is a way bigger difference between the nes and n64 than between the ps3 and ps5, hell even between the ps2 and ps5. Things moved really fast in the 90s as far as games and the technology behind them goes. A console generation is longer and also less of a defining era of gaming than it used to be because at this point putting more power into a system is yielding dismissing returns, you can only make a polygon so small until it doesn’t matter anymore or takes way more time and money than it’s worth. Gameplay has gotten stagnant as hell for AAA games over the last 15 years or so as well and at the moment, indie games are starting to fall down that trend hole too. The world can only take so many survival crafting games, rougelites and metroidvanias
That’s all true but I still think the N64 is firmly “vintage” for many, many years now. Eras in home gaming certainly last longer, but we’re pretty clearly in the era started by the 360/PS3/Wii era. Older than the PS2/Xbox/GC era I’d be comfortable calling vintage/retro. Even those are starting to become “retro”
N64 can count as retro, it does need to stretch with time to some extent. None of these terms are thar meaningful, I’ll usually go with Odyssey era, Atari era, whatever bit era until 3D. The n64 was a bit of a late comer that way but Early 3d is good enough for a term. The ps2/xbox/gc times is where it gets weird, I’d say that’s separate from early 3d and maybe bleeds into half way through the next console generation. The ps3/360 are for sure the first modern consoles but it took a bit for software to modernize, throw the wii being in there is a moderate technical improvement to the previous Gen but by far the biggest seller, I’d say around 2010 ish could be called the modern era, which I’d say is still going.
There is a way bigger difference between the nes and n64 than between the ps3 and ps5, hell even between the ps2 and ps5. Things moved really fast in the 90s as far as games and the technology behind them goes. A console generation is longer and also less of a defining era of gaming than it used to be because at this point putting more power into a system is yielding dismissing returns, you can only make a polygon so small until it doesn’t matter anymore or takes way more time and money than it’s worth. Gameplay has gotten stagnant as hell for AAA games over the last 15 years or so as well and at the moment, indie games are starting to fall down that trend hole too. The world can only take so many survival crafting games, rougelites and metroidvanias
That’s all true but I still think the N64 is firmly “vintage” for many, many years now. Eras in home gaming certainly last longer, but we’re pretty clearly in the era started by the 360/PS3/Wii era. Older than the PS2/Xbox/GC era I’d be comfortable calling vintage/retro. Even those are starting to become “retro”
N64 can count as retro, it does need to stretch with time to some extent. None of these terms are thar meaningful, I’ll usually go with Odyssey era, Atari era, whatever bit era until 3D. The n64 was a bit of a late comer that way but Early 3d is good enough for a term. The ps2/xbox/gc times is where it gets weird, I’d say that’s separate from early 3d and maybe bleeds into half way through the next console generation. The ps3/360 are for sure the first modern consoles but it took a bit for software to modernize, throw the wii being in there is a moderate technical improvement to the previous Gen but by far the biggest seller, I’d say around 2010 ish could be called the modern era, which I’d say is still going.