retro

Many people use the terms "vintage" and "retro" interchangeably, but they have distinct meanings whose sense is usefully retained if they are used thoughtfully.

Something that is "retro" describes a nostalgic looking back to an earlier time period and the way things were then, without necessarily being constrained by actual period limitations. It taps the look and feel of how you remember things used to be, but often glosses over limitations or "boring" elements of the past, like waiting ten minutes for a game to load from tape of C64 floppy, having to enter copy protection checks in order to play games, needing to sit through hours of busy signals to connect to a BBS, etc. Retro art will often have inauthentic aspect ratios and colour palettes, or play audio with more channels than were actually historically available... that sort of thing. Retro is inspired by vintage period practice, without being necessarily subject to period limitations.