What I hoped for from RetroPornArchive was a good selection of classic hits from the 1970s with the kind of cheesy music, big moustaches and gawd-awful settings that remind you of your grandparents' basement. I say "hoped" because all these negative qualities are what make 70s porn flicks so great.

What I feared from this site was that it would only give you some "old" videos and pictures from a couple of years ago that are being recycled and repackaged as "retro" in an attempt to squeeze as much money out of them as possible.

What I didn't expect was that this site would have a completely different concept of "retro." The stuff here dates back farther than that the 1970s, some as far back as the early 1920s.

Content is divided into photos and videos, and then further divided into softcore and hardcore. Softcore has the usual solo posing and foreplay, although not in the style that you're likely used to. You'll be surprised by the hardcore content, which has everything from gaping holes to BDSM.

Even though this collection predates the era of video, I counted 345 movies. Keeping in mind that they're dependent on archival footage, it's a wonder why sites with new material can't offer such a large selection of content. That said, it looks like the site has exhausted its resources, as it hasn't updated since 2008.

The photos section doesn't have large sets but offers about 20,000 individual photographs. The size varies but they're typically small. Considering how old some of these images are, don't expect high-res quality. All of the pictures are in black and white.

As with the still photos, most movies are black and white, although there are some color flicks that look like they were made in the 1950s. The quality isn't up to par with today's technology, but that is to be expected. They're typically about 10 minutes long. The flicks vary in quality and can be saved as either AVI or Windows Media files. Some vids look good, but quality varies and downloading takes a while.

With close to a hundred years of porn history here, you're guaranteed to be intrigued by this truly classic collection of erotic and hardcore material. There may be no more updates, but a brief visit is worth it.