WELCOME TO MY LOFT, RETRO GAMER!
My name is Andrew and I am the founder of Retrogamingloft.com.
It is such a pleasure to have you here!
I have been an avid gamer for more than 30 years. I reckon I have tried more than 5000 different games, ranging from arcade machines to personal computers and consoles.
I decided to build this website to help people reconnect with their youth, through the medium of games and consoles of yesteryear.
Fasten your memory belt, I am going to take you back to your heyday!
(Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that – at no additional cost to you – if you click through and make a purchase, I may earn a commission. For more info, please check my affiliate disclosure page.)
ABOUT ME
I am a 41-year-old dad of three beautiful kids, aged 11, 8 and 3.
I have been married for nearly 15 years to a “holy” woman, who has always supported my incurable Peter Pan syndrome.
I hate growing old.
I compare my spirit and my energy to those of a teenager who has just got bought a new scooter.
Sadly, my ID card “friendzones” me on a daily-basis, but I have got a secret weapon to fight back the ageing process:
I have never stopped playing!
I am very much a family man and my favorite playmates are my children.
I showed them early the magical world of video games – with, obviously, special consideration for the classics- and I successfully turned them into gamers.
My eldest kid has already told me that one day he will write his retro gaming stories here on this very blog. Edit: that day was closer than I thought!
That is what I call “passing on a legacy”!
Outside of playing and writing about video games, I love… Playing again: playing chess, playing soccer (I was a promising central defender until I blew out my ankle), playing table tennis and playing piano.
I also enjoy traveling: every time we visit a big city, we waste no time in looking for some retro gaming stores. 😛
THE REASON BEHIND RETROGAMINGLOFT
When we play retro games, it takes us right back to when we played them in the past.
By telling retro stories, I want to help people remember their carefree years and find a shelter for their nostalgia attacks.
Imagine this place as your parents’ loft: It is time to open up the chest and pull your old treasures out.
If you have any questions or if you want to share your retro memories, I encourage you to leave a comment below.
I will more than happy to read, discuss and help you out.
PASSING ON THE LEGACY
Retro gaming is more than just a hobby to me. When I play a video game from the past, it is like meeting an old friend who accompanied me through the most important stages of my young life.
Although we have been away for some time, we have never stopped talking to each other and every time feels like the first time.
And this is the goal of Retrogamingloft.com: to get you to know my old friends!
I could never accept retro games being forgotten, it would also mean forgetting the carelessness and the zest for life of our heyday.
Every time one of my blog’s readers tells me I have made him feel young again and every time I bring a Generation Z guy closer to retro gaming, I feel like telling another story and sharing a new memory.
And so the legacy will live on…
Stay Young, Stay Retro,
Andrew
You have reminded us of a very important point here…To play and have fun! We get older and serious and life is no longer a joy.
I believe it is very important to do something you love, that makes you feel good, that stirs up the imagination and makes you come to life. We are much nicer to be around too 🙂
Stay young in heart my friend. That is what living is all about. That is what makes us greet each day with a smile 🙂
As children we learned everything through play. Why does it have to stop?
This is such a refreshing article and I enjoyed the memories that have come back to mind.
Many thanks to you.
Here’s to your success 🙂
Di 🙂
Hello Diane,
What a profound comment, I am flattered.
I could not agree more anyway… Why do we have to stop playing? What are we left with if we stop playing? Mentally getting older and serious will result in our physical health going adrift.
We only have ONE life. An old wise once told me: ” Life is a citrus fruit, just squeeze it until you get the last drop.”
I tell myself every day: “We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
And I add: “I am still a toddler boy, then! 😀 ”
One toast to your success, one toast to your young, open mind!
Andrew
Hi Andrew, I can easily relate to your story. I have been playing video games for at least the last 25 years, my where has the time gone. I remember playing Zelda when I was younger now that Legacy has been passed on to my two daughters one is in her 20s and the other just turned 17 recently. The old Spyro is going to be on the new systems. My daughters and I had so much fun playing that game and a lot of other retro games. I miss those times, you are doing a great job in keeping our younger gaming years alive!
Hello Shy, how nice to hear there are also other people trying to pass on their gaming legacy!
I often wonder where the time has gone, but I try to stay as busy as I can in order to not think too much about it.
My three kids give me a big helping hand taking up all of my leisure time, but I could not ask for a better company! 🙂
I truly hope to hear from you again!
Hi Andrew,
I swung back around to learn a bit more about you and your blog and it was great to see that we have much in common. I too hate growing old and fight the monotony of work with playing games to transport me back to my childhood. I think too many people lose the sense of enjoyment and imagination/creativity that comes along with playing games.
Keep up the awesome work and keep making people feel young 😉
Cheers,
Shane
Hello Shane, I am glad to hear from you again in such a short time span.
Let me tell you one more time that I am so grateful for your genuine appreciation. It is one of those things that you just feel.
You know, despite some bad real life situations, I was fortunate enough to fully enjoy my childhood and teenage years and I now I feel like I have to pay it forward somehow.
My secret was that I always maintained a positive attitude and that helped me smile under every circumstance.
Video games were my parallel universes, my real life friends were my adventure companions and together we shared countless experiences.
This is my message, this is my legacy.
I read one of your blog posts yesterday and thought I would check you out and see what you are all about 🙂 it’s awesome that you share your love of gaming and retro be with your kids! It is something you will be able to do with them even as they get to be teenagers and think you’re not cool anymore (sorry, I have teenagers and have learned the hard truth about that). How fun that your oldest wants to write for the blog! You know, he could maybe have his own tab and start writing now 🙂 kids might enjoy hearing the perspective from another kid. Nice to learn about you and look forward to reading more.
Hello Lynne, it is so nice to hear from you again.
Yeah, I hope I will be able to do that even with my great-grand children honestly. I know that the concrete risk of being suddenly seen as “my grumpy old man” is like a sword of Damocles over my head, but so far so good. Let us say that my secret weapon – never stop playing – is working fine. 🙂
That said, I have a feeling I will keep my “coolest daddy in this galaxy”status, as long as I can beat both my kids(and their friends) and the games that we play. lol I will keep you posted, anyway.
As for James (my eldest kid), yeah I was fancying doing that and we even talked about it a little… He went: “What about me having my own space?” And we agreed he might have his own tab named “james’s corner”. The fact that a parent who also happens to be one of my blog’s readers had the same idea, leads me to believe that it could work and he would have a lot of fun (which is the most important aspect). For more on James anyway, please read his interview in the “Retro Stories” section. I would be so glad if you did.
I appreciate you taking the time to leave an another comment, please stay tuned for more Retro articles!
Nice to meet a fellow parent and gamer! Glad to finally find a blog that has both the heart and soul missing from most gaming sites.
Reading this section has brought me back to my teenage years where Final Fantasy 7 and Doom ruled my life. I remember the excitement it brought me playing those games and I hope to pass that onto my own son as he grows. So far he is too into playing Roblox to share my love of retro games. Though I am hoping to get him into some of the old school Nintendo 64 games like Mario Kart to see if he loves it? Any advice on what other retro games to introduce him to?
Maybe one day my son will be able to read exciting gaming stories from your eldest 🙂
I am curious, are there any genre’s of games that you and your kids specifically enjoy playing together? Are there any games that your children have introduced to you that you fell in love with?
Hello Nessa, I am flattered by your words… You left such a lovely comment!
One thing my son did not mention in his interview is that he also loves to play Roblox and has recently introduced his younger brother to it (his sister has been playing Roblox for a while as well).
To be honest with you, some of Roblox games are a bit “retrogamish”. There are even some groups where they look at the games from the 20th century, so maybe you could start from there.
As for your questions: 1. Mario Kart is always a good choice to introduce new generations to retro gaming. There are so many versions and all of them are so good. Normally, Mario Kart young lovers like to see what the older releases look like. In one of the last tournaments I partook in, I have seen some young kids having a blast with Mario Kart Double Dash for Nintendo GameCube. Apart from MK, if your kid loves soccer, nothing is better than Sensible World of Soccer (Amiga and/or Pc). It is another game that young kids absolutely love. It is easy to play (just one button, to pass, shoot and tackle) but has a basically an endless learning curve. You will never stop discovering new things!
I am also going to name some arcade games in random order: Bubble Bobble, Mustache Boy, Paddle Mania, Buggy Boy, Puzzle Bobble, Wonderboy in Mosterland, Super Sprint and NBA Jam. I guarantee he will be absolutely intrigued! Please note that I do not know how old your son is, so I can only suggest titles whose contents are suitable for all age groups.
2. We specifically enjoy playing multiplayer games, so I would say the majority of them are Nintendo Titles… Mario Kart, Mario Party, Pikmin Adventure, Wii Sports (we love Wii Bowling), Wii Play et cetera.
When there is only James and me, we dig a bit more into retro gaming and explore RPG like the Final Fantasy/Suikoden/Zelda series (PlayStation and Nintendo), platforms like Crash Bandicoot or Conker (PlayStation and Nintendo), soccer games like like Swos and Football Kingdom (PlayStation 2) or Sports games like Track and field (Arcade), Virtua Tennis 2 (DreamCast) or NHL’94 (Super NES).
3. Yes, absolutely! Trials for Xbox 360 is the first game that comes to my mind. Viewtiful Joe for GameCube is another example.
I am so grateful for your comment, please stay tuned for more Retro Stories and please know that an exciting gaming story from my eldest is closer than you think! 😉
Hi Andrew. I love the way you say unabashedly that you love retrogaming and you hate to grow up. Don’t we all have the same feelings? At least I do. I love retrogaming. I loved the way you interviewed your favourite retrogamer, you son James. I remember when I used to play video games I used to play non-stop! I got addicted and used to forget eating, sleeping and used to get real thrashing from my parents. It was so much fun. I have book marked your site to go back to those days again.
Helo Gee thanks for dropping by again, I am so glad you took time to read and comment on another article.
I can feel your support and it is really motivating! Yeah I kept those very same memories in my heart for a long time, until I finally decided to let them out.
When I read comments like yours, I feel like I am talking to a bunch of real friends, so now and again thank you very much for connecting with me and please stay tuned for more Retro Stories!
I will tell you the truth, when I was in the age of gaming there was no such thing as computer games. We started with flipper 🙂
A little bit later the first pac-man machines came up in our favorite place, restaurant where we used to game. I was never too good in that because I already got used to the practice of flipper which I still love to play.
Today I love table football and when my daughter plays games I like to watch her but I’ll never compete with her because I have no chance to win 🙂
Hello Stefan, thanks for stopping by again.
Well, although my main retro interest is video games, it does not take away the I like playing Pinball, table football and table tennis.
To say it best, I like anything that is fun. 😉
When I was in the age of gaming, the above mentioned pinballs were starting to be a bit overlooked (video games stole the show), but I have appreciated them.
My father basically grew up playing pinball and table football and he would tell me many stories about it… Pinball is just the forefather of video games. You know what, you gave me an idea: I will ask my father to write a Retro Story about pinballs!
As for your our kids, fortunately in some games I can still make a statement when playing James, but man, he is impressive! Maybe we should let them play Pinball and see next… 😉
Thanks again for stopping by, until next Retro Article!
Hi Andrew! I have felt the same way when I play a game I played 25 – 28 years ago. They bring back so many memories. I’m in my early 30’s now and games have come a long way since I started playing. I enjoy both: the old ones and the ones that are launched today. But I also enjoy going through the memories the old games evoke. Thank you very much for putting this site together. I’ll visit you here quite often.
Hello Henry and thanks for stopping by again.
i appreciate your kind words and I am glad to hear we are like minded. You are more than welcome, it will be a pleasure to share our gaming memories with each other. Thanks again for leaving such a nice comment and for your encouragement!
Well hello hello Andrew! Until I finally decided to visit your Blog and take a look. I really felt identified with the Peter Pan syndrome, and being Retro should be associated with being young instead of the “old” association to it. I was inspiring as well to see some posts from your son. I have two kids and they join me gaming from old Atari to Switch, as long we all have fun together, making good memories they will carry on. The Blog is now saved in my favorites and I’ll keep coming to see more of what you present on IG.
Hello Retrogamingrock, that is a very big surprise! I am so glad you took time to read and leave a comment on my blog. 🙂
Also very pleased that my “philosophy resonates with yours. And you said it, our kids will carry on both the beautiful memories that we are making and our approach to life. We will stay young as long as we stay retro!