Retraux: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:MegaMan9BoxArt350px_4368MegaMan9BoxArt350px 4368.jpg|link=Mega Man 9|frame|Now playing on a [[Wii]], [[PlayStation 3]] or [[Xbox 360]] near you.]]
 
Sometimes media are produced in an intentionally old-fashioned style, designed with the intentional appearance of being decades older than is actually the case.
 
Whereas [[Steampunk]] involves a ''setting'' that is faux-retro, this trope is entirely one of [[Painting the Fourth Wall|how the fourth wall is painted]] -- entirely—entirely stylistic, in other words. Sound is intentionally scratchy, marks of damaged reel, and faded appearance are common in Film or television. Some films go out of their ways to open with studio [[Vanity Plate|vanity plates]] pulled directly from the era that they depict (See [[Logo Joke]] for that).
 
'''Retraux''' may involve [[Deliberately Monochrome]], [[Antiquated Linguistics]], or [[Silence Is Golden]]. If it's a supposedly past speculation about [[The Future]] or [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] (i.e., the present), will inevitably invoke [[Zeerust]] or [[Raygun Gothic]]. If it's a [[Show Within a Show]], it may include [[Stylistic Suck]].
 
In video games, retraux frequently arises (incidentally or deliberately) in freeware games and other small-scale productions for practical reasons -- pixelatedreasons—pixelated sprites and backgrounds and [[Chiptune]] music tend not to be as prohibitively time-consuming and difficult to make as quality 3D assets and orchestral performances on quality acoustic instruments. Indie Gaming and [[Retro Gaming]] go hand in hand. Low-resolution sprites are also common starting from mid 2000s even in flash games due to low memory consumption and being easier to make accurate hitboxes.
 
Compare [[George Lucas Throwback]], where a production is made evoking old-style works but with modern production values (in contrast, something that's Retraux can be mistaken for an ''actual'' old-style production). Can overlap with [[Newer Than They Think]] when done especially well.
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* ''[[GaoGaiGar]]'' has an art style rather reminiscent of giant robot anime from the 1970s.
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei]]'', especially the opening. [[Lampshaded]] in the episode about Detuning (doing less than your best): Among the examples for detuning is "Deliberately adding imperfections to give the impression of an old film." followed by a cue card saying "This show does it too".
* The [[ADV Films]] trailer for ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' has narration mimicking the style of voice-over used on old-fashioned newsreels. (However, the anime itself doesn't use many [[Retraux]] effects outside of a few scenes in the opening and the grainy episode title cards and eyecatches.)
* ''[[Airmaster]]'' - The anime version ran from 2003-2004 but wouldn't look out of place in early 90s. It's probably an [[Affectionate Parody]].
* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' intentionally uses a drawing style and character design reminiscent of anime from the 1970s, despite being made in 1998. The latest DVD release for the show also has the DVDs looking like LPs.
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* [[Alan Moore]]'s ''[[Nineteen Sixty Three|1963]]'' looks and reads like a classic Marvel comic (complete with Moore spouting fake [[Stan Lee]] style hyperbole and including fake '60s-style ads).
* The [[Milestone Celebration|25th anniversary]] (1983) ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' story had multiple segments that took place in pastiches of different parts of the Legion's history, using the original logos, original artists, and plot elements based on stories of the time. A weaker version of this was done for the 30th anniversary in 1988.
* The humorous one-shot ''[[Superman]]/[[Batman]]: World's Funnest'' featured the two [[Great Gazoo|magical imps]] Mr. Mxyzptlk and Bat-Mite accidentally destroying countless alternate universes, most of them drawn in the style of a certain artist--Curtartist—Curt Swan, Sheldon Mayer, C. C. Beck, [[Jack Kirby]], Alex Ross, [[DCAU|Bruce Timm]] and so on.
* The Orson Randall one shot issues of ''[[Immortal Iron Fist]]'' are often drawn in the style of pulp era artists.
* The ''[[Transformers]]'' April Fool's comic ''[[Transformers: Shattered Glass|Shattered Expectations]]'' was done in the style of the Generation 2 comics - drawn similar to Derek Yaniger and full of [[Signature Style|Furmanisms]].
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** Also, one of the DVD bonus features is an "authorized adaptation" of a Mr. Incredible adventure, in the form of a cheaply-animated and simple-minded old kiddie cartoon with considerable "aged recording" noise. (The cartoon can also be viewed with Mr. Incredible and Frozone chiming in their comments, [[Mystery Science Theater 3000|MST3K-style]].)
* The clips of ''Woody's Roundup'' in ''[[Toy Story]] 2''.
** To promote ''Toy Story 3'', two commercials made to look like they were from [[The Eighties]] were commissioned, featuring the [[Defictionalization|defictionalized]] Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear doll -- onedoll—one [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6dZtNYGlLM English], one [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5ZwkcHCVkE Japanese].
* The 1930s style song "The Spirit of Adventure" over ''[[Up (animation)|Up]]'''s closing credits is in lo-fi monophonic sound.
* The ending credits of ''[[Winnie the Pooh|The Tigger Movie]]'' run against sepia still images of scenes from the film redrawn in the style of E.H. Shepherd's line drawings from the books. Tigger in particular looks ''completely'' different from the Disney version.
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* 2011 French romantic comedy ''[[The Artist]]'' is 1) shot in the old 1.33:1 [[Aspect Ratio]], 2) [[Deliberately Monochrome]], and 3) a [[Silence Is Golden|silent film]].
* ''[[Hobo with a Shotgun]]'' is made to look like it was made in the early '80s, complete with Technicolor, music, and film grain.
* Most films by [[Quentin Tarantino]] are full of this, being [[George Lucas Throwback|George Lucas Throwbacks]]s.
* ''[[Grindhouse]]'', a '70s [[B-Movie]] pastiche which was presented in its theatrical cut as a double feature with scratched-up film, missing reels, [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie|trailers for ficitional films]] and an ad for a Tex-Mex restaurant adjoining the theatre.
** It gets [[Mind Screw|really weird]] when you notice that while it goes as far as to have fake ads and trailers that look like something right out of the seventies, the actual ''settings'' of the films are modern.
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* The Turkish movie ''GORA'' has a brief flashback scene to the early 1900s, shot in the scratchy, silent, black-and-white footage of the first 'moving pictures'.
* ''The Mexican'' (2001) had the flashbacks filmed in a hand-cranked camera to evoke this trope.
* ''[[Down With Love]]'' is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of a certain subgenre of early-1960s romantic comedies, filmed with more than a few [[Retraux]] touches. It's particularly noticeable in the set design and background music.
* The [[Mel Brooks]] film ''[[Silent Movie (film)|Silent Movie]]'' is filmed in color and includes a music track that's part of the film (rather than separate -- butseparate—but this was common in the last years of the silent era). Nonetheless, it was done in the style of...a silent movie, with actors "speaking" their lines, followed by a dialogue card: something that's partially parodied throughout the movie.
* The [[Mel Brooks]] remake of ''[[To Be or Not to Be]]'' features a montage of [[World War II]] footage of Poland being attacked, in the style of the newsreels of the time. The montage ends with main characters appearing in the same gritty black and white style.
* For ''[[Back to The Future/Ride|Back to The Future]]: The Ride'', the short "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Gs-tEqDqQ#t=6m28s Doc on the March]" was done in the style of an old newsreel, with Doc inserted into various footage ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' style. See him get an autograph from Thomas Edison! Watch him get a photo of [[The Beatles]]! Witness him resisting the urge to bump off Richard Nixon!
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** Special mention must be given to the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Trials and Tribble-ations", which features time travel back to the era of ''TOS''. In addition to inserting ''Deep Space Nine'' actors into existing footage, new scenes aboard the old ''Enterprise'' and the space station were filmed using 1960s-style lighting - they even used 1960s ''film stock'' because the colour saturation properties were different.
* ''Jimmy McDonald's Canada'' was a parody of current events shows from [[The Sixties]], filmed in black and white, and occasionally stopping to advertise cigarettes. Richard Waugh, who played Jimmy, somehow managed to convey "[[The Sixties]]" in his very speaking voice.
* ''[[Mad Men]]'' on AMC is supposed to be set in the early 60s, and is filmed with a dark, slightly fuzzy/grainy look to it. This is in keeping with the show's obssessive focus on setting -- thesetting—the furniture is all vintage, along with the clothing. Even to the point of making the actors wear authentic undergarments that are never seen.
* ''[[Firefly]]'' was deliberately filmed with old camera lenses to give it that authentic [[The Seventies|70s]] [[Western]] feel.
* The DVD menus of ''[[The IT Crowd]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoOkoP5GGQI The first series] is a pastiche of vintage computers, complete with tape loader and extremely elaborate (for a DVD '''menu''') parodies of ''[[Head Over Heels]]'' and ''[[Jet Set Willy]]''. And [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAY52wyb6tM the second series] does to 16-bit games what the first did to 8-bit.
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** Larry's talk show is, itself, rather Retraux. Like [[The Tonight Show|Johnny Carson]], Larry does a lot of big, broad sketches where Larry and Hank wear elaborate and silly costumes. This style of comedy sketch became more or less extinct in late night after Carson's retirement, however. Characters occasionally remark [[In-Universe]] that none of the other talk shows do this sort of thing anymore.
* For the entirety of ''Late Night with [[Jimmy Fallon]]'''s Video Game Week in June 2011, the opening credits were turned into an animated sequence with the look of 8-bit Nintendo games of [[The Eighties]] (including direct visual references to ''Mega Man 2'' and ''Ninja Gaiden''), with digitized music to match.
* ''[[Top Gear]]'' did a 1970s style intro for a fake detective series, ''The Interceptors'', complete with era-appropriate [[Porn Stache|Porn Staches]]s.
* ''[[Danger 5]]'' deliberately looks like a low-budget 60s action flick. An action comedy about a team, Danger 5, fighting [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler]] in a 60s [[Alternate History]], it also includes [[Retraux]] [[Toku]] action, in which Hitler gains command of mechanically enhanced Japanese supersoldiers.
* ''[[Glee]]'s'' [[Show Within a Show]] during the third season's [[Christmas Episode]] was deliberately filmed in black and white, and invoked the feel of holiday variety shows from the 50s to the 70s, albeit with a little tongue-in-cheek humor about the whole thing.
* A ''[[Spitting Image]]'' sketch claimed to be celebrating the show's 100th aniversary, and showed a clip from the supposed first show in the 1880s. This was a black and white scene of two [[Punch and Judy]] style puppets, and silent movie captions reading "I say, [[William Gladstone|Mr Gladstone]]! You're not very good!"
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* ''Blue Country Heart'', a collection of '30s country and blues covers by former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, features songs recorded in a single take on period instruments.
* [[Monster Magnet]]'s early material (the two EPs, ''Spine of God'' and ''Superjudge'') is this kind of throwback to 1970s acid rock.
* [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]] have them all beat--theybeat—they recorded their song "I Can Hear You" on a wax cylinder, without using any electricity for the instruments or recording device. Appropriately, the lyrics are about places where poor sound quality is encountered.
** They also recorded a version of their song "The Edison Museum," fittingly, as they recorded it '''at''' the Edison Labratories.
* Australian artist C.W. Stoneking sounds and acts like a 1930s blues singer.
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== [[Music Videos]] ==
* Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ouI5KcyHfE "100 Days, 100 Nights"] was literally filmed using equipment that's straight from the 1960s. (The director bought two vintage TV cameras on eBay in working condition -- forcondition—for about $100 total.)
** The packaging for the album from which the song comes (same title) is also deliberately retro. If you have the vinyl pressing, you might well pass it off to your friends as a soul album from 1967 or so.
* [[Snoop Dogg]] did a music video ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1PVmANeyAg "Sensual Seduction"]) with camera filters and effects right out of a late-1970s/early-1980s MTV track, back when record companies and video directors still shot a lot of music videos on video instead of film.
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== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* The short-lived Wrestling Society X was home to Matt Classic, a wrestler who had been in a coma since the '50s, and wrestled in the same style that won him the World Heavyweight Championship in 1952 -- including1952—including such devastating moves as the head vice, the abdominal stretch, and the airplane spin. Matt Classic was portrayed by Colt Cabana, who was in his mid-20s at the time.
* [[WWE]] decided to do an "old school" night on ''Raw'' in November of 2011. They threw up a classic looking WWF set and ramp, swapped out the barriers with old-fashioned rails, and even used a retro-styled WWE logo (though this has actually appeared on a few John Cena promotional items in the past). They even had [[Michael Cole]] dress up as an od-school [[Vince McMahon]], since Vince was on commentary duty during the era the show was representing.
 
 
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* "[[Mazes and Minotaurs]]" is a [[What If]] on ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' if Gygax and Arneson used Greek mythology instead of medieval fantasy and it's also a playable as well.
* "Labyrinth Lord" is a Retraux as well -- thiswell—this time much closer to the original version of ''Dungeons & Dragons''
** As well as "Swords and Wizardry," which draws on [[Heroic Fantasy|Sword and Sorcery]] as opposed to Labyrinth Lord's [[High Fantasy]] and which also takes out the Thief, leaving us with the Fighting Man, the Magic User and the Cleric of original D&D.
** There are a fair number of other retroclones out there, including OSRIC and Basic Fantasy for 1e. In addition, the makers of "Labyrinth Lord" also made "Mutant Future," which is a close-as-you-can-get-it remake of ''[[Gamma World]]'' using the Labyrinth Lord rules.
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* Goodman Games used the slogan "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel" for their ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' 3E products. They intentionally copied the style of D&D 1E to appeal to fans of that game who never converted to 2E or 3E.
** Necromancer Games has a similar design philosophy. Their best-known [[Sourcebook]], ''Tome of Horrors'', consists largely of 1E monsters that [[Wizards of the Coast]] wasn't using and let them publish. Complete with high-contrast pen-and-ink black and white illustrations.
** Robert Kuntz also used the same trade dress for his retro modules as well -- ofwell—of course, [[Justified Trope|he was one of the old hands at TSR at the time this style was originally being used for Dungeons and Dragons]].
*** In fact, use of the old D&D style seems to be taking off for publishers who want to give their modules an old-school feel.
**** Either that, or [[Up to Eleven|the extreme case]] of [[Follow the Leader]].
* There's ''[http://www.forgottenfutures.com/ Forgotten Futures]'', shareware "Scientific Romance Role Playing Game" by Marcus L. Rowland -- asRowland—as the name says, it's designed for this sort of adventures.
 
 
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* The poster boy for this trope, ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] 9'' is done entirely as an NES-style game. That's right, ''a NES game on high-definition consoles'' (and [[Wii Ware]], where it makes a bit more sense). Up until the game's release, this was busily producing a [[Broken Base]] -- fortunately—fortunately, it turned out to be so good, it consolidated ''Mega Man'' fandom in enjoyment instead. Capcom produced some fake NES carts for the game and commissioned the ridiculous "box art" picture shown at the top of the article (an homage to the famously [[So Bad It's Good]] [[wikipedia:File:Mega Man 1 box artwork.jpg|North American cover]] of ''1'' through ''3'', which had mostly nothing to do with the character). The game even has an option that lets you relive the glory days of NES sprite limitations by enabling sprites flickering when too many are on the screen at one time.
** And it continues on with ''10'', also in faux 8-bit sprites. Its faux box art has more-or-less the same style of Mega Man as 9's, with now-unlocked-from-the-start Proto Man joining the badly-drawn fun, and boasting "Dual FX Twin Engines" and a "Parallel Hyper-Bit Interface" much like how ''Mega Man 9'' promised an "Ultrasound Graphics Synthesis" and an "8-Bit Fidelity Engine". The [http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-the-mega-man-10/62738 "lost" commercial] for ''10'' comes complete with all the attitude of video game ads in the 80s and poor VCR tracking. (The commercial music, though, is [[Mega Man X|an anachronism of sorts]] for what is supposedly the 80s.)
* [[Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril]] is a Metroidvania released in 2010 and it's completely with 8-bit graphics and music. Which makes sense, considering that it's a real NES game, cartridge and all.
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* ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army]]'' deliberately has no voice acting and uses a 30s style silent film appearance for its dialog windows in order to mimic silents films of the era the game takes place in. Its sequel, ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]'', maintains this technique.
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' has a film grain, though you can disable it if you want. Additionally, the campaign title screens are made to look like movie posters and credits are played at the end of each, essentially making it a 90s [[Zombie Apocalypse]] movie in video game form.
* ''[[Pokémon]] Heart Gold'' and ''Soul Silver'', already [[Video Game Remake|Video Game Remakes]]s themselves, feature the "GB Player", which allows you to replace the game's music with the chiptune music from the original Game Boy Color games. The towns and areas that received new songs have had all new 8-Bit remixes made.
* Freeware flash game ''[http://www.aceteam.cl/retro/ Malstrum's Mansion]'' is an [[Adventure Game]] in the style of ''[[Shadowgate]]'' or ''[[Uninvited]]'', made in the style of an old black-and-white [[Apple Macintosh]] game. You start it up from an old-style desktop, and it even has copy protection!
* ''Contra 4'' is essentially a retraux sequel to the earlier ''[[Contra]]'' games, particularly ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'', with several [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] to the first three console games in the series. Even the game's manual is written in the same tongue-in-cheek tone as Konami's old [[Gag Dub|localized manuals]] during the NES era (and unlike the NES games, this carried over to the game itself).
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* Independent PC game ''8-bit Killer'', is a [[First-Person Shooter]] with NES-style graphics, sound effects and music.
* In ''[[Super Robot Wars Z]]'', the older super robots such as Baldios, [[God Sigma]] and [[Getter Robo]] G get some very awesome retro-looking animations in their finisher attacks, COMPLETE WITH CHOPPY ANIMATION AND TRIPPY RETRO "LASER BACKGROUNDS" AND PASTEL-FRAME EXPLOSIONS! This is a first for the franchise and was the key to [[And the Fandom Rejoiced|exciting many people]] who weren't very excited about the game initially and also demonstrates the degree of love the designers have for the older shows, preserving them in all their glory. Needless to say, many mech-anime fan tears of joy were shed.
* ''[[Nostalgia]]'' provides [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]] as an unabashed love letter to old [[Eastern RPG|Eastern RPGs]]s.
* ''[[Video Games/Darwinia|Darwinia]]'' provides a pseudo-retro style graphics with very little textures and many of the characters are 2D sprites. In addition, game intros provide homage to the older times. One is ZX Spectrum loading screen. Another is a deliberate recreation of Cracktros which tells how it's been cracked by DMA Crew. The Steam release got delayed by an hour because it was thought to be authentic.
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 4]]'' for Xbox Live and PSN is a return to the gameplay from the first three ''Sonic'' games, though the graphics are not retraux 16-bit but rather 2D sprites built out of pre-rendered 3D models (ala ''[[Donkey Kong Country (video game)|Donkey Kong Country]]''). The [[Broken Base]] is still as bad as ever, though.
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* The opening credits of ''[[Guitar Hero]] Encore: Rocks the 80s'' features an Atari-era Activision logo, and a retro Harmonix logo.
* A Chinese developer known as ''Waixing'', who's being known for its' notorious RPG conversions, actually remade the original ''[[Resident Evil]]'' for [[Dendy|famiclones]].
** And it doesn't just end there! How about [[Chrono Trigger]], [[Final Fantasy IV|Final Fantasy 4,]] [[Final Fantasy V|5,]] [[Final Fantasy VI|and even 7,]] plus [[Samurai Shodown]] RPG, [[Digimon]], [[Heroes of Might and Magic]], [[Warriors Orochi]] and, for a dessert, [[RPG|RPGs]]s based on [[The King of Fighters]] '95 and '96 by the rival company, ''Nanjing''? The list is not ended yet.
* Eggman's Sonic Simulator in the Wii version of ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' uses 8-bit-style "demixes" of the normal stage themes.
* ''[[Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten]]'' allows you to use either detailed high definition sprites or the standard definition sprites utilized by the past three games.
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** Donators can ask for "ASCII Art" that depicts part of a story in Dwarf Fortress style Ascii. Donators who continue to donate get to continue this story.
* The Flash game ''[[Tower of Heaven]]'' has graphics in shades of green that would look at home on the original [[Game Boy]].
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim (video game)|Scott Pilgrim vs. the World]]'' looks, sounds, and feels like a beat-em-up game from the 1990s-- quite1990s—quite fittingly for a game based on a graphic novel that was heavily inspired by video games of the '90s. Indeed, Ubisoft specifically hired rock band [[Anamanaguchi]] and graphic artist Paul Robertson for the game ''because'' of their previous [[Retraux]] work!
* ''[[Soulcaster]]'' and ''Soulcaster II'' have 8-bit-style graphics.
* The [[Nintendo 3DS]] game ''[[Mutant Mudds]]'' is done using NES-style graphics and sound. Taken even further, there are hidden levels that mimic the monochrome color schemes of the [[Game Boy]] ("G-Land") and [[Virtual Boy]] ("V-Land").
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'''Kaiba''': "[[Screw the Rules, I Have Money|My affluence makes a nonsense of the regulations!]]" }}
** Not to mention this is [[Lampshaded]] by Kaiba moments later when he says he doesn't remember growing a moustache.
* The entire oeuvre of Paul Robertson, creator of [http://vimeo.com/5824679 Pirate Baby's Cabana Battle Street Fight 2006] and [http://vimeo.com/2776328 Kings of Power 4 Billion %]-- the—the most awesome old-school video games that never actually existed.
 
 
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** The goal of the Margaret Bridge's recent reconstruction was explicitly to restore the bridge to its 1936 design.
* Reliced musical instruments, Fender is particularly guilty of releasing guitars and basses that are purposely beaten and aged in the factory that look like they have 50 years worth of abuse on them. This is also the entire business model of Nash guitars, which are really beat up Fender copies for about twice the price of new Fenders. Needless to say there is quite a bit of [[Broken Base|contention amongst guitarists]] as to whether this is an affordable alternative to vintage instruments that can run up to $70,000 a piece or if they are bought by posers who want their guitars to look worn without actually putting the work into having a guitar get that beat up through touring and playing constantly.
** There's also another aspect to this. From the 50s to the 70s all instruments used nitrocellulose lacquer, but as it was rather hazardous, polyurethane is the standard finish today. Nitro is very "fragile" and easily comes off and ages very nicely (fading, yellowing and so on). This is why real vintage guitars have a special sort of relic to them. Polyester on the other hand is very hard and thick, has no real aging and hardly ever comes off, which makes getting a played in feeling with many modern guitars is close to impossible. It's thick and goopy and dampens the sound, but protects the instrument and offers a wider selection of colors. Polyurethane is somewhere between nitro and polyester -- onlypolyester—only a little bit thicker than nitro so it doesn't kill your harmonics, but with durability and color choices comparable to polyester. It still doesn't age quite the same, and opinions vary whether that's good or bad. Still, it's generally considered an acceptable compromise.
* Some people have cell phone ringtones that sound exactly like old-fashioned bell telephones.
* Doritos re-released a chip flavour that they discontinued in the mid 70s and put it in bags made to look like the bag design from that era as well
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