I like to think of the "retro cutoff" this way:
U/One/4 and Wii/3/360 Era: Old ("The Recent Memory Zone")
SNES/Mega Drive through GameCube/Xbox/2/Dreamcast Era: Retro ("The Nostalgia Zone")
NES/Master System and earlier: Vintage ("The Fading Zone")
I feel the Wii/3/360 era is one of the edge of entering retro and the SNES/SMD era is on the edge of entering fading.
When I say "fading" I don't mean that younger gamers can't, don't, or shouldn't take interest in or seek out vintages titles, moreso that the people who grew up on them initially are losing interest in gaming and there's no more need to cater to their nostalgia unfortunately, which will only make these games harder to access (or at least discover) both legally and illegally unless it's a "your kids are gonna love it" situatuon like EarthBound.
U/One/4 and Wii/3/360 Era: Old ("The Recent Memory Zone")
SNES/Mega Drive through GameCube/Xbox/2/Dreamcast Era: Retro ("The Nostalgia Zone")
NES/Master System and earlier: Vintage ("The Fading Zone")
I feel the Wii/3/360 era is one of the edge of entering retro and the SNES/SMD era is on the edge of entering fading.
When I say "fading" I don't mean that younger gamers can't, don't, or shouldn't take interest in or seek out vintages titles, moreso that the people who grew up on them initially are losing interest in gaming and there's no more need to cater to their nostalgia unfortunately, which will only make these games harder to access (or at least discover) both legally and illegally unless it's a "your kids are gonna love it" situatuon like EarthBound.