History Main / RetroUniverse

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'' is largely set in an advanced spacefaring society, but the tech and environments frequently have a boxy, UsedFuture aesthetic and the general visual style was designed to evoke pulp ScienceFantasy comics like the works of Creator/JackKirby. Star-Lord is also [[DiscoDan totally trapped in the '80s]], using an old Walkman and playing classic rock/funk music from the '60s and '70s. In his case it's a plot point, as he was taken from Earth when he was ten back in the early '80s, and as far as he knows Earth is still like it was back then. The TwoDecadesBehind aesthetics get amusingly lampshaded at the end of the second film; Kraglin gives Peter a new music playing device, claiming it's the hot new thing back on Earth. [[spoiler: It's a laughably outdated Zune that looks like it was bought cheap at a yard sale, and the pair of them are flabbergasted at the [[SarcasmMode gargantuan]] 300 songs that can be stored on it.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series is a classic example. Despite being set long after a nuclear war that is still decades into our future, everything has old school art deco stylings, every computer has a [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture monochromatic green screen]], and the music consists of golden oldies from the early-mid 20th century. Note that all of this exists alongside {{Energy Weapon}}s, PoweredArmor, and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids indistinguishable from humans]]. ''Fallout'' America is an amalgam of all the decades of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the science fiction produced during those decades. The40s give the setting its wartime propaganda, urging you to buy Victory Bonds. The50s give it their Pre-War fashions, car designs, and [[RedScare hysterical anti-communist propaganda]]; Fifties sci-fi gives it ''nuclear cars'' and the styling of its robots. The60s give it the use of the word "hippies" (in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'') and anti-war graffiti (all over Hidden Valley in ''New Vegas''). The70s give it [[TheApunkalypse the punk fashion of the Raiders]] and [[PostPeakOil the pre-war oil crisis]]. The80s give it computers that look like Platform/{{Commodore 64}}s. The post-war civilizations also show elements of TheGreatDepression and TheWildWest, showing how society reverted to [[AfterTheEnd a less technologically advanced time after the war disrupted human society]].

* ''Film/ItFollows'' takes place in a time period that is left vague and undefined. Yara has an e-reader, and modern cars are seen, but nobody has a CellPhone (other than the one used in the opening sequence by the girl on the beach to call home), the televisions are all tube screens and not flat screens, the main characters drive cars from the '70s and '80s, and an old-fashioned cinema with an organist is seen playing ''Film/{{Charade}}'', a golden oldie of a film. This also extends to its '80s-inspired UsefulNotes/{{synthwave}} soundtrack by Disasterpeace.

* Camden in ''Series/MyNameIsEarl'' falls into this category. Although the series is set at the TurnOfTheMillennium, the clothing and technology is that of the late '80s or early '90s. May be somewhat justified, as Camden is implied to be largely [[WrongSideOfTheTracks an impoverished hick-town]]. And there are mentions (mostly in the cities surrounding Camden, like Nathanville) of technology more appropriate to the time period. For example, Earl is in a bookstore and is amazed that not only are there books on tape, but books available as [=CDs=] and [=MP3s=]...and he doesn't know what either of those things are. A later episode subverts the trope; most of Camden suddenly has computers and the Internet out of nowhere, and they're all on a Website/{{Facebook}} {{Expy}} called [[BlandNameProduct "BuddyBook."]] Darnell stays up all night creating fake "friends" for Joy, so she can feel validated.

* ''Webcomic/TisTree:'' takes place at the North Pole, in Christmas Villiage, and modern culture and technology seems not to have really made it there yet. Everything is stuck in the '90s, to the extent that the characters are all represented as Website/GeoCities gifs, and they've even got brick and mortar stores that are run by {{Website/Yahoo}} Yet, they also have podcasts and twitter.

* ''Series/IAmNotOkayWithThis'' isn't explicitly set in The80s like its Creator/{{Netflix}} stablemate ''Series/StrangerThings''; modern cars are sprinkled amidst older ones, the characters use smartphones, [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HDTVs]], and modern computers with flash drives, and The90s are referred to as being in the past. However, the setting and aesthetic of the show are still heavily evocative of the time period, from the color palette to the music to the downplaying of modern technology to Creator/SophiaLillis playing the protagonist. Justified by it being set in a [[FlyoverCountry small, rural, working-class town]] that is [[TwoDecadesBehind behind the times]], while Stanley's collections of UsefulNotes/{{V|CR}}HS tapes and vinyl records are due to him being a retro enthusiast.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In the episode "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueS1E18And19Legends Legends]]", half the team gets blown into an alternate 50s-style universe that invokes UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, and team up (after the obligatory LetsYouAndHimFight, of course) with the Justice Guild of America, a team full of [[CaptainErsatz Captains Ersatz]] for the Justice Society of America. And oddly enough, all those characters are characters from comic books from Green Lantern's youth. Hawkgirl gets pissed at the gender standards, Green Lantern is happy to meet his idols (casually letting a YouAreACreditToYourRace comment slide), Flash is ''already'' so corny that he fits right in, and ComicBook/MartianManhunter receives intense mental images of nuclear holocaust. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Wait, what?]] [[spoiler:Turns out in this universe the UsefulNotes/ColdWar led to mutually assured destruction, but the Justice Guild sacrificed themselves to save as many as they could. A kid [[RadiationInducedSuperpowers gained mental powers from the fallout]], and basically became a purple, warty RealityWarper, recreating the Justice Guild and placing himself as their kid sidekick, and forcing the townspeople to live out their roles as extras (one man was trapped in an ice cream truck for ''forty'' years)]]. Basically, it was a weird episode, and the phrase "Nuns and Dynamite" was important in TheReveal.

* The Brooklyn seen in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' is a mishmash of New Twenties (when the film was released) and [=1980s=] (when the ''Mario'' series debuted) culture. While the Punch-Out Pizzeria has a widescreen TV on the wall and the Mario Bros. use modern-day flat-screen cell phones, most of the architecture is rooted in 1980s America -- particularly the apartment Mario and Luigi visit on their first job with its boxy white minimalism -- and Mario owns an old-fashioned cathode-ray TV and a Platform/NintendoEntertainmentSystem.

* The 1997 movie version of ''Film/{{The Borrowers|1997}}'' is set in an era in which ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld, streets full of 1950s-styled cars, and cell phones all exist alongside each other.

* Director Creator/WesAnderson likes to use this. In particular, ''Film/TheRoyalTenenbaums'' has such a distinctly 1970s style that the "2001" date on [[spoiler:Royal's tombstone]] was quite jarring. ''Film/{{Rushmore}}'', which has 1997 inscribed on the Swiss Army knife Dirk gives Max but includes manual typewriters, tape machines, and a general aesthetic (clothes, buildings) skewed towards a late 60s/70s feel.

* ''Film/DarkCity'': Looks like a mixture of everything between 1920 and the present day (1998). Justified in that [[spoiler:the human inhabitants were abducted throughout the 20th century, and that the city was constructed from the recombining of their memories of different eras..]].

* ''Film/PulpFiction'' contains quite a few callbacks to previous time periods. Jules wears a Jheri curl hairstyle, popular in the 70s and 80s. The soundtrack is filled with a lot of surf rock from the 60s. ''WesternAnimation/ClutchCargo'' plays on television in Butch's childhood flashback. A 50s theme diner plays a big part in the plot. The film takes its name from "pulp fiction," a style of fiction popular in the first half of the 20th century. The film poster apes the style of a pulp fiction magazine cover from around the 40s and 50s.

An AlternateUniverse where retro, vintage or antiquated technology, styles and aesthetics are still used, but which otherwise is or at least resembles ThePresentDay. Often cultural styles from different time periods are mixed and matched, usually with those that date no later than TheSixties or so.

* ''Film/MarsAttacks'' (made in 1996) combined '50s/'60s military technology (including Jeeps and M14 rifles), a Creator/RatPack-era portrayal of UsefulNotes/LasVegas, cars and clothes from the '70s and '80s, giant "brick" cell phones, and contemporary video games. And that was just the humans. The Martians were given deliberately anachronistic RaygunGothic technology. Justified, given that the movie is a parody of classic AlienInvasion movies from TheFifties through TheEighties. Of course, cell phones were just going mainstream when the movie was made, so the brick phones seen could have just been an example of TwoDecadesBehind.

* ''Film/{{Found}}'' is similar to ''It Follows'' in this regard, albeit drawing more from TheNineties. Marty watches old {{slasher movie}}s from the '70s and '80s on VHS with his friends, and the comic book that he and Steve draw is an exaggerated NinetiesAntiHero archetype. While it's set in the present day, the internet and cell phones never come into play.

* ''Film/ParadiseHills'' is set at least a few decades into the future, in a world where holograms and flying cars are a fact of life. The flying cars, however, look like they came out of TheForties save for having hoverpads instead of wheels, and the rich hold parties that look like early 20th century debutante's balls, the overall effect being an aesthetic that wouldn't feel out of place in ''VideoGame/BioShock''.

* The ''Literature/{{Franklin}}'' stories (and the [[AnimatedAdaptation animated TV shows]]) take place in a universe where certain old-fashioned things co-exist alongside modern ones. The kids attend an old-style one-room school house that they get to and from on a contemporary-looking school bus, the adults drive cars and trucks straight out of TheForties, rotary phones are used alongside contemporary desktop computers, and more.

** Despite being set in the 1990s, the wizarding world in the series never seems to advance beyond the 1930s in style. The [[Film/HarryPotter third film adaptation]] goes so far as to feature a good deal of big band music, although the fourth movie portrays the Weird Sisters as a decently contemporary rock band. This is probably in keeping with [[ANaziByAnyOtherName the Death Eaters]] and such - the whole series' story is very similar to the muggle world's [[TheThirties 1930s]] ([[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo and what happened from 1939 to 1945]], except [[RecycledInSpace with magic]].)

* ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'' is a FilmNoir deconstructive parody that reads like it takes place in TheForties and has several references to '40s pop culture, however it takes place in TheEighties. Its film adaptation, ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', on the other hand ''[[SettingUpdate does]]'' actually take place in the '40s (1947 to be more precise).

* The Creator/{{ABC}} {{Dramedy}} ''Series/PushingDaisies'' seems to take place in a lavish [[TheFifties 1950s]] universe where people have modern-day sensibilities and things like the Internet exist. The female characters wear fashions that have a '50s look and the show regularly includes street scenes with both '50s and present-day cars, although the '50s cars always seem to have dominance. In one episode, it is stated that the year is 2007 (the same year it aired). Exactly the same 1950s aesthetic also dominates the intro sequences, which take place when Ned was a child roughly two decades earlier (the late '80s, but who's counting), suggesting either that design sensibilities have been completely stagnant since the 1950s [[WatsonianVersusDoylist or]] that Creator/BryanFuller was just really committed to maintaining the show's signature look.

* ''Series/{{Caprica}}'' is set sixty years before ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' and the level of technology is much higher (with total-immersion virtual reality and robot butlers), but the producers remind viewers that this is "the past" by adding certain cultural touches which are reminiscent of TheFifties: smoking is prevalent and allowed everywhere, professional men wear fedoras to work, then-futuristically-styled British and European vehicles from the fifties and sixties are on the roads, and there are shades of [[FantasticRacism Fantastic McCarthyism]].

* This is how ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' adapts the [[ComicBookTime perpetual '50s-seeming setting]] of the Creator/ArchieComics characters it's based on. While the characters have smartphones and social media, they also hang out at a MaltShop and a DriveInTheater (though the latter closes down after a few episodes) and drive cars that come from various time periods stretching from TheFifties through TheNewTens. As for the characters, Archie and Betty look like they stepped out of TheFifties, the former being the archetypal [[LovableJock cool athlete]] like in the comics and the latter reimagined as a SeeminglyWholesomeFiftiesGirl, but Jughead dresses like and is characterized as an EmoTeen out of the 2000s, while Veronica and Cheryl would feel right at home on a 2010s TeenDrama like ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars''. The South Side Serpents, given a DarkerAndEdgier makeover compared to their harmless comic book iteration, dress like a mix of GreaserDelinquents and a more modern biker gang (only minus the bikes).
** Its spinoff ''Series/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina'' does something similar, albeit more overtly. While [[ComicBook/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina the comic it's based on]] is explicitly set in TheSixties, the TV adaptation keeps the time period vague, featuring classic cars, fashions, and movies but having characters who use computers and have more modern sensibilities. The show starts with the characters watching ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' and discussing it as an "older" film, especially with [[OurZombiesAreDifferent its depiction of slow zombies]] versus the faster-moving incarnations of modern zombie films. Laptop and smartphones are also present, but are relatively rare, with corded, landline, telephones also seeing regular use, (though that one could be the Spellman Sisters taking their sweet time to modernize).
* ''Series/IAmNotOkayWithThis'' isn't explicitly set in TheEighties like its Creator/{{Netflix}} stablemate ''Series/StrangerThings''; modern cars are sprinkled amidst older ones, the characters use smartphones, [[UsefulNotes/HighDefinition HDTVs]], and modern computers with flash drives, and TheNineties are referred to as being in the past. However, the setting and aesthetic of the show are still heavily evocative of the time period, from the color palette to the music to the downplaying of modern technology to Creator/SophiaLillis playing the protagonist. Justified by it being set in a [[FlyoverCountry small, rural, working-class town]] that is [[TwoDecadesBehind behind the times]], while Stanley's collections of UsefulNotes/{{V|CR}}HS tapes and vinyl records are due to him being a retro enthusiast.

* 2007's Get Up! By Global Deejays and Technotronic is an example of a song from the [[TurnOfTheMillennium 2000s]] that draws heavily from [[TheEighties 1980s]] and [[TheNineties 1990s]] electronica, both in its sound and in the fashion and imagery in its [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4JNpmLPvcY video.]]

* The ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series is a classic example. Despite being set long after a nuclear war that is still decades into our future, everything has old school art deco stylings, every computer has a [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture monochromatic green screen]], and the music consists of golden oldies from the early-mid 20th century. Note that all of this exists alongside {{Energy Weapon}}s, PoweredArmor, and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids indistinguishable from humans]]. ''Fallout'' America is an amalgam of all the decades of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the science fiction produced during those decades. TheForties give the setting its wartime propaganda, urging you to buy Victory Bonds. TheFifties give it their Pre-War fashions, car designs, and [[RedScare hysterical anti-communist propaganda]]; Fifties sci-fi gives it ''nuclear cars'' and the styling of its robots. TheSixties give it the use of the word "hippies" (in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'') and anti-war graffiti (all over Hidden Valley in ''New Vegas''). TheSeventies give it [[TheApunkalypse the punk fashion of the Raiders]] and [[PostPeakOil the pre-war oil crisis]]. TheEighties give it computers that look like Platform/{{Commodore 64}}s. The post-war civilizations also show elements of TheGreatDepression and TheWildWest, showing how society reverted to [[AfterTheEnd a less technologically advanced time after the war disrupted human society]].

* ''VideoGame/GrimFandango'' is ostensibly set sometime around TheNineties (the game was released in 1998), as there are office computers in the Land of the Dead. However, the style of architecture and clothing is firmly based in the [[FilmNoir '30s, '40s, and '50s]], and even said computers consist of low-res, monochrome displays that resemble large, circular versions of 1950s TV sets attached to what look like typewriters. Justified, considering much of the population was probably alive during those decades, and would likely want to replicate them.

* The fashion, technology, and general styling of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'' makes it seem like it's set in TheSixties or TheSeventies, however there's an official site similar to Friendster, setting it in the early to mid 2000s (the website dates it as 2003 but the game wasn't released until 2005).

* According to WordOfGod, ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' was intended as an homage to teen movies past and present, which led them to throw in a lot of SchizoTech and anachronistic fashion, especially from TheEighties, to create the game world. It's firmly set in the mid '00s time period in which it was developed -- mention is made of [=MP3=] players being banned at Bullworth Academy, for instance, while the old-looking computers could be handwaved as the school being too cheap to buy new ones (especially since the Nerds seem to have a more modern computer with a flat-panel screen at their hideout). On the other hand, the vehicle designs are pulled from the '50s through the early '90s, the Preppies look, dress, and speak like the villains of an '80s teen comedy, the Nerds' geeky fixation is an {{expy}} of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' rather than something more modern, and the {{Greaser|Delinquents}}s seem like they stepped out of the '50s.

* FutureImperfect caused this in ''VideoGame/JobSimulator''. The office job recreation looks like something out of TheEighties. It's supposed to be in ''TheNewTens''.

* The ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' universe doesn't start in one, but it becomes it as the series goes on. By ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSecurityBreach'', the series appears to be a world where the styles of TheEighties and TheNineties never went out of fashion, holding onto bright neon, shopping malls, arcade games, laser tag, and other trappings of the era into (roughly) the 2030s - these still being popular and treated as modern are what suggests it's not a deliberate retro choice on the part of the management. It's possible that the unbridled capitalistic spirit of the times being alive is the only thing allowing the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive cartoonishly greedy]] and [[IncompetenceInc lethally incompetent]] Fazbear Entertainment to survive.

* Justified in ''Literature/NineteenEightyThreeDoomsday.'' By that timeline's present, the most developed and powerful countries have only just recovered to [[TheEighties 1980s]] or [[TheNineties early '90s]] standards of living and technology; even those places that escaped WorldWarIII largely unscathed still had to weather a second Great Depression due to the collapse in trade. Meanwhile, the less fortunate parts of the world run the gamut from ''Film/MadMax''-style wastelands to SchizoTech survivor-nations ranging in tech level from early 20th century to pre-industrial, where swords coexist with helicopters and old-school radios.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': Most of the appliances have a very '70s/'80s/'90s aesthetic (and have a lot of inventions from that time, like VHS tapes and video rental stores), but there are a lot of late 20th/early 21st century inventions, like DVD players, social media websites (Elmore Plus, which is a mix between Google Plus and Facebook), a Website/YouTube equivalent website (Stream It), and some episode date the year as 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

** The most jarring, yet awesome, part is the rare glimpses of Dick and Babs as civilians at Gotham University. They couldn't be dressed more for TheFifties if they tried. Case in point, [[LimitedWardrobe Dick's red sweater vest ensemble.]]

* ''[[WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids Fat Albert]]'' is supposed to be based on Creator/BillCosby's childhood and thus should be set around the early to mid [[TheFifties 1950s]]. This is reinforced by one of the Junkyard gang actually being the young Bill himself. However, the show has aspects of TheSeventies and TheEighties (color television, video games) and also occasionally handles issues that weren't around, or prominent during Cosby's youth.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' is set in the 2010s, but everything has a retro aesthetic. It's common in modern day ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' series for the Mystery Inc gang to be the only characters dressed in 60s fashion, but everyone here dresses as if TheSixties never ended. This even extends to their technology. Computers and the internet exist, but they use older style monitors and the cellphones are 'brick' looking.

* ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob:'' although apparently set in the present day, Generictown has a lot of elements of this, probably to make it seem more "quaint." Old-style TV aerials are visible on many houses, the town has a malt shop, some of the neighbors wear fedoras. This is lampshaded with a few characters to show how out-of-touch they are: the Dean having a UsefulNotes/TRS80, Biff the art teacher being an aging hippy, about half of everything Mr. Bystander ever says -- and most noticeably with Bob himself, who wears bellbottoms, drives a sedan that's got to be at least 30 years old, owns a rotary phone, a working UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}}, and a basement full of videotapes. The videotape collection is important because much of Molly's speech patterns derive from it, so she peppers her speech with references that date back to well before she was born.

* The Brooklyn seen in ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'' is a mishmash of New Twenties (when the film was released) and [=1980s=] (when the ''Mario'' series debuted) culture. While the Punch-Out Pizzeria has a widescreen TV on the wall and the Mario Bros. use modern-day flat-screen cell phones, most of the architecture is rooted in 1980s America -- particularly the apartment Mario and Luigi visit on their first job with its boxy white minimalism -- and Mario owns an old-fashioned cathode-ray TV and a UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem.

* The ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series is a classic example. Despite being set long after a nuclear war that is still decades into our future, everything has old school art deco stylings, every computer has a [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture monochromatic green screen]], and the music consists of golden oldies from the early-mid 20th century. Note that all of this exists alongside {{Energy Weapon}}s, PoweredArmor, and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids indistinguishable from humans]]. ''Fallout'' America is an amalgam of all the decades of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the science fiction produced during those decades. TheForties give the setting its wartime propaganda, urging you to buy Victory Bonds. TheFifties give it their Pre-War fashions, car designs, and [[RedScare hysterical anti-communist propaganda]]; Fifties sci-fi gives it ''nuclear cars'' and the styling of its robots. TheSixties give it the use of the word "hippies" (in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'') and anti-war graffiti (all over Hidden Valley in ''New Vegas''). TheSeventies give it [[TheApunkalypse the punk fashion of the Raiders]] and [[PostPeakOil the pre-war oil crisis]]. TheEighties give it computers that look like UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}s. The post-war civilizations also show elements of TheGreatDepression and TheWildWest, showing how society reverted to [[AfterTheEnd a less technologically advanced time after the war disrupted human society]].

* The ''VideoGame/TexMurphy'' games are set in post-apocalyptic 2040s, but are full to the brim with 1940s {{noir}} tropes and aesthetic touches, with the addition of flying cars and holograms, and the disenfranchised are nuclear mutants rather than ethnic and religious minorities.

* The ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'' series is a classic example. Despite being set long after a nuclear war that is still decades into our future, everything has old school art deco stylings, every computer has a [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture monochromatic green screen]], and the music consists of golden oldies from the early-mid 20th century. Note that all of this exists alongside {{Energy Weapon}}s, PoweredArmor, and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids indistinguishable from humans]]. ''Fallout'' America is an amalgam of all the decades of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the SciFi Produced during those decades. TheForties give the setting its wartime propaganda, urging you to buy Victory Bonds. TheFifties give it their Pre-War fashions, car designs, and [[RedScare hysterical anti-communist propaganda]]; Fifties SciFi gives it ''nuclear cars'' and the styling of its robots. TheSixties give it the use of the word "hippies" (in ''VideoGame/Fallout3'') and anti-war graffiti (all over Hidden Valley in ''New Vegas''). TheSeventies give it [[TheApunkalypse the punk fashion of the Raiders]] and [[PostPeakOil the pre-war oil crisis]]. TheEighties give it computers that look like UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}s. The post-war civilizations also show elements of TheGreatDepression and TheWildWest, showing how society reverted to [[AfterTheEnd a less technologically advanced time after the war disrupted human society]].

* An odd example in ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3''. While the other two games are pretty much straight examples of a SciFi setting, the third takes place on, or in orbit of, a planet filled with ruins left behind by the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces ([[BalkanizeMe a political entity that apparently no longer exists as of the time of]] ''Dead Space 3'') 200 years earlier. The Sovereign Colonies technology and designs seem rather more primitive than the more "modern" examples seen in the earlier games. [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture Their computer technology seems to be rather dated]], many of their doors need to be opened manually, [[NoPaperFuture they use a lot more paper than is common in later time periods]], they have black and white photographs on the walls (possibly due to aging, or the low light levels), the advertisements for the fictional drink called "Peng" which appear in Dead Space and Dead Space 2 are done in a cyber punk style, showing an attractive woman dressed in futuristic clothes, where as the advertisements for Peng from the Sovereign Colonies era however show women in a more 1950s pin-up style, similar to old school Coke ads.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series is a classic example. Despite being set long after a nuclear war that is still decades into our future, everything has old school art deco stylings, every computer has a [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture monochromatic green screen]], and the music consists of golden oldies from the early-mid 20th century. Note that all of this exists alongside EnergyWeapons, PoweredArmor, and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids indistinguishable from humans]]. Fallout America is an amalgam of all the decades of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the SciFi Produced during those decades. TheForties give the setting its wartime propaganda, urging you to buy Victory Bonds. TheFifties give it their Pre-War fashions, car designs, and [[RedScare hysterical anti-communist propaganda]]; Fifties SciFi gives it ''nuclear cars'' and the styling of its robots. TheSixties give it the use of the word "hippies" (in ''Fallout 3'') and anti-war graffiti (all over Hidden Valley in ''New Vegas''). TheSeventies give it [[TheApunkalypse the punk fashion of the Raiders]] and [[PostPeakOil the pre-war oil crisis]]. TheEighties give it computers that look like UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}s. The post-war civilizations also show elements of TheGreatDepression and TheWildWest, showing how society reverted to [[AfterTheEnd a less technologically advanced time after the war disrupted human society]].

* ''VideoGame/StubbsTheZombie'' takes place in the '50s, but the technology is much more advanced, similar to the ''Fallout'' series

* ''Videogame/TheOuterWorlds'', as a SpiritualSuccessor to the Creator/BlackIsle and Creator/{{Obsidian}} Fallout games, has this aesthetic, particularly on the billboard ads, the magazines, and the large city of Byzantium, which didn't look out of place on ''Videogame/BioShock.''

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frankenweenie}}'' seems to take place in the '50s but has references like Pluto not being a planet anymore. WordOfGod is it's not as retro as it seems but not exactly current day either.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The World Next Door", Barney Schlessinger's [[AlternateSelf counterpart]] is from an AlternateUniverse which has an early 20th Century level of technology. For instance, automobiles exist but horse-drawn carriages are still the primary method of transportation for most people. The alternate Barney's "wonder substances" such as Trimbeline 3 have allowed this universe to make significant technological progress in recent years.

* ''Series/{{Westworld}}''

* ''Dialed In'' has an art style, fashion, and architectural/urban planning feel to the city reminiscent of the 1980s or early 1990s but is full of smartphones. However, the technology for these smartphones are derived from the breed of WeirdScience popular in fiction from the '80s, while the company that develops that science is apparently atomic- or nuclear-powered, a concept popular in the '40s and '50s. This is best exemplified with the artwork on the side of the machine, which depicts a young man with a jacket-Tshirt-jeans combo not unlike [[Film/BacktoTheFuture Marty McFly]], with a hand-drawn style using airbrushed shading typical of video game box art in the '80s, holding up a smartphone that's getting struck by [[LightningCanDoAnything lightning giving it strange powers]].

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': In the episode "Legends", half the team gets blown into an alternate 50s-style universe that invokes UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks, and team up (after the obligatory LetsYouAndHimFight, of course) with the Justice Guild of America, a team full of [[CaptainErsatz Captains Ersatz]] for the Justice Society of America. And oddly enough, all those characters are characters from comic books from Green Lantern's youth. Hawkgirl gets pissed at the gender standards, Green Lantern is happy to meet his idols (casually letting a YouAreACreditToYourRace comment slide), Flash is ''already'' so corny that he fits right in, and ComicBook/MartianManhunter receives intense mental images of nuclear holocaust. [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Wait, what?]] [[spoiler:Turns out in this universe the UsefulNotes/ColdWar led to mutually assured destruction, but the Justice Guild sacrificed themselves to save as many as they could. A kid [[RadiationInducedSuperpowers gained mental powers from the fallout]], and basically became a purple, warty RealityWarper, recreating the Justice Guild and placing himself as their kid sidekick, and forcing the townspeople to live out their roles as extras (one man was trapped in an ice cream truck for ''forty'' years)]]. Basically, it was a weird episode, and the phrase "Nuns and Dynamite" was important in TheReveal.

* ''VideoGame/XCOMApocalypse'' reeks of this - it's a mid-high sci-fi setting with handheld energy weapons, personal anti-gravity jet packs, hovr cars in every driveway, you name it. What's the catch? The city council has ordered that ''everything'' from handguns to heat-seeking missiles, '''no exceptions''' (well, okay, maybe a few), must maintain a very 50s-style aesthetic. Cars look straight out of the 50s and 60s, televisions (and television-analogues) have the classic slightly-rounded, slightly-bulging screen, and so on.

** The Doctor's early years with Amy and Rory also frame Amy's childhood from the perspective of an imaginative child living in a rural house, a house which might be out of the 1950s, 1980s or 2000s, for all the viewer knows. "Starship UK" explored early on by the eleventh Doctor, is a pastiche of old-timey and stereotypically British things, just aboard a huge generation ship with a dark secret. The series' overall retro sensibilities, even in the mundane world, are meant to underline the eleventh Doctor's era as more child-like, more imagination-prone (and coming across as more old-fashioned on the side), and the retro elements in the twelfth Doctor's era (even the cinematography of episodes) are an intentional homage to 1970s episodes with Pertwee's and Baker's Doctor.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has always had some retro sensibilities in the Doctor's own fashion sense, combining what felt like outdated fashion (already in the 1960s !) with things that felt futuristic in a particular decade. Rather than remain relegated to {{Zeerust}}, even the modern series, particularly during Steven Moffat's showrunning era in the 2010s, displays a lot of retro universe sensibilities, even in the mundane world, despite everyone also having contemporary tech and social attitudes. The eleventh and twelfth Doctor inhabit a very retro esthetic TARDIS - despite the TARDIS being far more advanced than anything available to 21st cetury humanity - and wear clothing that's always at least a few decades out of step with the 2010s, with few people commenting on this. The Doctor's early years with Amy and Rory also frame Amy's childhood from the perspective of an imaginative child living in a rural house, a house which might be out of the 1950s, 1980s or 2000s, for all the viewer knows. "Starship UK" explored early on by the eleventh Doctor, is a pastiche of old-timey and stereotypically British things, just aboard a huge generation ship with a dark secret. The series' overall retro sensibilities, even in the mundane world, are meant to underline the eleventh Doctor's era as more child-like, more imagination-prone (and coming across as more old-fashioned on the side), and the retro elements in the twelfth Doctor's era (even the cinematography of episodes) are an intentional homage to 1970s with Pertwee's and Baker's Doctor.

** As a television reboot/reimagining of the original films and short-lived TV series, this is done in more subtle ways. While the robot theme parks obviously have period-inspired or historical fiction inspired clothing and anachronisms, the series' real, outside world of the mid-to-late 21st century, also seems to have headed for some retro elements in its fashion, arcitecture, vehicles, especially among the richest people. Older William and his household wouldn't look out of place a century earlier, and Bill also owned a very retro-styled luxury car that looks mid-20th century on the outside. Given what we learn of society in the outside world, there's a hint looking back towards the past, via retro fashions or theme parks evoking older eras is as a sign of ennui among people, especially the idle rich. Then there's the anachronistic music covers in each of the robot theme parks, reframing various modern songs as if they were period music.
** In a certain sense, the series seems to bring together the esthetics of a more contemporary, sleek, post-cyberpunk esthetic with older 1970s ideas of what seems "futuristic" (tellingly, the original ''Westworld'' film series originated in the 1970s). Some of the science fiction and dystopian themes explored in the series also saw their first expressions in 1960s and 1970s SF (including in works like John Brunner's ''Literature/StandOnZanzibar''), while some of the in-uhniverse elements (how the newest [[MeatSackRobot semi-organic "hosts"]] are built) very much call back to the original vision of robots in Karel Čapek's play ''[[Theatre/{{RUR}} Rossum Universal Robots]]'' from the early 1920s (just reimagined with 21st century assembly line tech instead of 1920s labs and assembly lines). The implied-in-series divergences in technology breakthroughs during the early 21st century also place the series' setting firmly in an AlternateTimeline or "alternate future" version of our own world. Seems to be entirely intentional, to create a more timeless cautionary tale that brings together the esthetics of multiple eras.

** In a certain sense, the series seems to bring together the esthetics of a more contemporary, sleek, post-cyberpunk esthetic with older 1970s ideas of what seems "futuristic" (tellingly, the original ''Westworld'' film series originated in the 1970s). Some of the science fiction and dystopian themes explored in the series also saw their first expressions in 1960s and 1970s SF (including in works like John Brunner's ''Literature/StandOnZanzibar''), while some of the in-uhniverse elements (how the newest semi-organic "hosts" are built) very much call back to the original vision of robots in Karel Čapek's play ''Rossum Universal Robots'' from the early 1920s (just reimagined with 21st century assembly line tech instead of 1920s labs and assembly lines). The implied-in-series divergences in technology breakthroughs during the early 21st century also place the series' setting firmly in a cautionary AlternateTimeline or "alternate future" version of our own world.

* ''Series/Westworld''
** As a television reboot/reimagining of the original films and short-lived TV series, this is done in more subtle ways. While the robot theme parks obviously have period-inspired or historical fiction inspired clothing and anachronisms, the series' real, outside world of the mid-to-late 21st century, also seems to have headed for some retro elements in its fashion, arcitecture, vehicles, especially among the richest people. Older William and his household wouldn't look out of place a century earlier, and Bill also owned a very retro-styled luxury car that looks mid-20th century on the outside. Given what we learn of society in the outside world, there's a hint looking back towards the past, via retro fashions or theme parks evoking older eras is as a sign of ennui among people, especially the idle rich.

* ''Series/Danger5'' is a peculiar inversion of this, as the aesthetics are consistently twenty years ''ahead'' of the actual time period in which the show is set, with a [[TheForties 1940s]] that looks more like the [[TheSixties 1960s]], and a 1960s that looks more like the [[TheEighties 1980s]]. Nonetheless, the retro flavour, as cheerfully anachronistic as it is, is a key part of the show's GenreThrowback vibe.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' takes place in the early '70s -- Edna Mode mentions several of Mr. Incredible's contemporaries dying in the late '50s -- but in the streamlined future envisioned by the '50s and '60s, not our world's '70s.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series is a classic example. Despite being set two centuries after a nuclear war that is still 60 years into our future, everything has old school art deco stylings, every computer has a [[OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture monochromatic green screen]], and the music consists of golden oldies from the early-mid 20th century. Note that all of this exists alongside EnergyWeapons, PoweredArmor, and [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots androids indistinguishable from humans]]. Fallout America is an amalgam of all the decades of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, as well as the SciFi Produced during those decades. TheForties give the setting its wartime propaganda, urging you to buy Victory Bonds. TheFifties give it their Pre-War fashions, car designs, and [[RedScare hysterical anti-communist propaganda]]; Fifties SciFi gives it ''nuclear cars'' and the styling of its robots. TheSixties give it the use of the word "hippies" (in ''Fallout 3'') and anti-war graffiti (all over Hidden Valley in ''New Vegas''). TheSeventies give it [[TheApunkalypse the punk fashion of the Raiders]] and [[PostPeakOil the pre-war oil crisis]]. TheEighties give it computers that look like UsefulNotes/{{Commodore 64}}s. The post-war civilizations also show elements of TheGreatDepression and TheWildWest, showing how society reverted to [[AfterTheEnd a less technologically advanced time after the war disrupted human society]].

* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'' seems to be set in some kind of an eerie cross between the 1950s and the 1980s because the FramingDevice is an old woman telling about her life as a teenager in the '50s to her grandchild in the '80s. How she aged so fast, however, is anyone's guess.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* Ask the average person when ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'' takes place and they'll state TheSixties, maybe TheSeventies. The fashion especially seems to pin the series as averting ComicBookTime... Except it doesn't. It's subtle but there are still references that pin strips at certain time periods. ''Literature/HarryPotter'' was referenced in a late 1999 strip, putting the kids at modern day in the final strips. The earliest strips are obviously set in TheFifties (Davy Crockett caps, etc.), though they still manage to be pretty timeless.
* The current writer and artist team on ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' have embraced this trope. While still nominally set in the present day, various elements -- most notably the police cars -- look they belong to the 1980s at the latest. Since the strip has been running since the 1930s, and includes both a cast of characters and props introduced at different points all through those decades, this seems like a reasonable [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall acknowledgment]] of ComicBookTime.
* ''ComicStrip/AndyCapp'' began in the fifties, and despite decimal currency and smartphones, in some respects it still seems to be set then. The Labour Exchange may have changed its sign to "Jobcentre", but the running gag of "Andy is offered work, but gets out of it" is utterly unaffected by how the system has changed over the decades.
* The same can be said of ''ComicStrip/TheBroons'' and ''ComicStrip/OorWullie'', except they started in the ''thirties''. This sometimes gets lampshaded; in one Halloween strip Wullie declares he's going to go guising in a home-made scarecrow costume and have a turnip lantern, and his friends are baffled, because they're going to go trick-or-treating in bought pop-culture costumes and have pumpkin lanterns, and Wullie doesn't sound like he's from this century.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The Amish (and other similar groups such as the Mennonites) are a perfect example as different groups have different standards to what technology they'll accept (typically, they'll accept technologies that help them do their work or are absolutely required by their limited interactions with the outside world, while avoiding things that would undermine their culture). It's possible to see a Mennonite farm with [[SchizoTech a modern tractor using GPS tracking for computerized crop planning, and no phone or TV in the house]].
* Large part of what you might call the Third World still uses technology from decades or even centuries ago as part of their infrastructure because it is that hard to change, but that doesn't stop locals who can afford it to get imported tech, usually of the portable kind. There's nothing strange, really, about a shepherd boy that looks like he stepped out of Biblical times playing his Gameboy while keeping an eye on the family's sheep.
** Sometimes the tech that is used comes in because it makes more sense to skip a tech-generation or two. Cell phones are a good example as in many countries they've gone directly from no long-distance communication straight to cells/smartphones because it's easier to set up some towers to provide coverage around a village and link it by satellite to other systems than it is to string copper for landlines.
** One somewhat amusing example is Cuba, where due to trade embargoes, the streets are full of lovingly maintained classic 1950s American automobiles. Many cars have had nearly every part replaced by exact, locally made duplicates a number of times. Cuba's auto mechanics are renowned as some of the best in the world, simply by sheer necessity.
** Brazil's Tectoy company is known for continuing to produce the Sega Genesis well into the 2000s, about 10 years after it disappeared from other markets. The system remains popular amongst poorer communities because of its cheap cost, and easily pirated games. In recent years, it's not uncommon to find stores full of new Genesis games, even if they were pirated and some of them are relabeled and retitled old, obscure games, complete with title re-spriting and packaging design. There is even a Russian Genesis "Gran Turismo" and "Call of Duty: Ghosts" which not only InNameOnly, but also contains a FanTranslation of two particularly obscure Genesis games that have no connection besides genre, and the titles were re-sprited to "look authentic".
** PJ O'Rourke noticed while visiting Somalia in the early 90s that everyone was wearing bell-bottoms - a natural consequence of first-world residents donating their out-of-style clothes to aid groups.
** This can also apply to cases of foreigners speaking English. In some countries that have been cut off from most of the rest of the modern world for decades - specifically, former totalitarian states or countries just making the transition to democracy - people learn American English by practicing from American grammar books; problem is, often these textbooks are enormously outdated, containing idioms and slang from, say, the '50s. Americans in foreign lands in recent years have sometimes reported natives striking up conversations with them and mentioning that something is "peachy keen" and the like. In Yangon, Myanmar (possibly better known as Rangoon, Burma), if you eavesdrop on enough people out on the streets in the early evening, you'll hear them talking in just this fashion. One reporter also noted that the Burmese have recently been exposed to American classic rock, and enjoy discussing lyrics that are pretty obtuse even for native English speakers: "What does it mean when they say, '[[Music/TheEagles We are all just prisoners of our own device]]'?"
* [[http://www.missilebases.com/ 20th Century Castles]] - a real estate company specializing in decommissioned Cold War-era bunkers and missile silos.
* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea is is another good example of this, with very little technology from any later than the 1960s and 70s. Computers are very rare, and those that do exist are mostly obsolete devices from the 1990s. Even the vehicles and aircraft in the North Korean military belong to types that are normally considered obsolete, except for a single squadron of [=MiG=]-29s.
* As noted above in the entries on ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'' and ''VideoGame/DeadRising'', this effect can also happen on a smaller scale in rural towns in the US. A combination of [[GoodOldWays cultural conservatism]] and [[TwoDecadesBehind distance from major media markets]] can often mean that the local popular culture resembles that of a decade or two ago with modern technology thrown in.
* China in the 1980s had atomic power and nukes along with steam trains and lace doilies. Motorcycles were replicas of 1930s [=BMWs=], based on a design introduced the Soviet Union in turn based on pre-war German models.
* India in the same period had cars based on the 1950s Morris Oxford or Fiat 1100, trucks based on the CJ-2A Jeep and Lloyd Tempo 3-wheeler, and the Indian Enfield, a motorcycle that was a version of a 1949 British twin. The banning of competitors (Monopolies Act and a 100% import tax, intended to stimulate industrialisation) left them no reason to change. [[/folder]]