Retro is 8 bit, 16 bit.  It has a style that represents the origins of gaming.  I don't really care one way or another. I was just using your post to highlight the difficulties that users will have with defining this forum.  Trust me, I'm not the only one who would take exception to you referring to a 128 bit system (and the most technologically advanced graphics-wise of its generation) as a "retro" console.  Obviously as time marches on a new nomenclature is needed to define eras of gaming. But hey, I suppose if everyone thinks that the DC, PlayStation, and Gamecube classify as retro gaming that that's what that word means now. We'll just have to figure out an industry standard word that refers to the original nes/snes/genesis/master system, among others, because they certainly don't fall into the same category.  

When I first thought of the idea of a retro forum, the dilemma of classification occurred to me as well. I mean, at first impulse, the word 'retro' conjures up memories of anything from Pong to Genesis etc. But then, when I thought about it again, I realized that for me what makes something feel retro isn't the 'bits' but rather the way the game plays. When we think about Atari 2600, aside from the bits or graphics, what do we think? I think simplicity. It's plug and play at its finest. The ability to buy one piece of hardware that is going to be stagnant for its life cycle, buying 100% complete games at retail, no DLC, no patches because they're fully tested before shipping... to ME, that's retro gaming. It's plug and play. And anything that's going to fit into that mold, fits into retro for me. 

So, having said that, I see no issue with going all the way up to the DC/PS2 era. But I could also see it being pushed back to PS1/Saturn/N64 as well because that really is the last time we had consoles (for the most part) that were isolated from the internet. 

Either way, it would be nice to have a dedicated forum to the plug and play era of gaming.

So many modern games, particularly on the Nintendo front, are plug/play.  In some ways, the Switch is even easier than the NES to hook up and play.  I get where you're coming from, but I don't think that distinction is distinctive enough.  I suppose you could use what the automobile industry does and go by a particular number of years.  So any games over 20 years old could be considered retro. At any rate, best of luck with making this happen. Lately the entire site seems like it needs some action.  Maybe just a proactive approach on your part at creating official Retro threads might be a good place to start.

Let's see what's involved to buy a Switch, a copy of Zelda BOTW and then actually start playing it. First, you gotta hook it up, then you have to download a system update, then you have to download the game update... that's not plug and play. 

Plug and play refers to the time when you bought a console, plugged it up, popped a game in and BAM... you were playing it. Hence why it's called the plug and play era. No installing the game. No downloading half the game to a hard drive. No forced system or game updates etc. These days, if you want to buy a game as a gift for your kid, you have to open it and install the thing before he's awake or else you're basically committing child abuse lol.

Meh...if that's your distinction then I'm sure it will suffice.  I'll personally always have a hard time referring to anything post 16-bit era as retro, unless ironically.  But opening up the retro moniker certainly expands your topic list so it's probably best for your intention of establishing its own forum.  Hopefully it encourages quality discussion of the good 'ol days when times were simple.   I'm a huge fan of that crazy retro game Soul Reaver, so maybe it'll get a thread devoted to it.

Personally, I think of retro as Genesis and back as well but, that's just MY definition because of my age. I was a kid in the 80's and like, twelve to fifteen during the Genesis and SNES battle. So that's MY retro. But, unless we're going to have two forums, we'd need to expand upon that since it's pretty narrow. And there are a lot of early twenty somethings right now that think of the Dremacast as retro so, yeah. There's that problem. 

I'm with you though... Dreamcast? That just happened not too long ago lol.