Retro Garden aims to become the premier website for news, tips, reviews of Retro Games. I bought the domain in 2006 and didn’t do anything with it. Eventually, I decided to do something and made this website.
I have been playing games now for over 15 years, starting in early 1992 with the Commodore 64. In my time, I have owned the Commodore 64, Snes, Nes, Megadrive, Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Dreamcast, Atari ST, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, Playstation 2, X Box 360, PC and Nintendo Wii. However, this couldn’t whet my appetite, and I spent most of my Saturdays in the amusement arcades.
Like any decent retro gamer, I believe that games were never as good as they once were, so I’m using this site to educate people on games they should play, not games PR Types want you to play . Enjoy!
About The Authors
Rhys Wynne – Editor
My love affair with computer games began in Christmas 1992, with a Christmas Present of a Commodore 64. It was to end 24 hours later when it broke, but reborn when we got a replacement. Despite being at the end of the computer’s development cycle, I spent over 4 years lovingly playing the games on it, as well as obtaining a Gameboy and NES thanks to my brothers. In 1996 I got another major console – the Super Nintendo, and loved the games released for it. Christmas 1999 brought me a Sony Playstation, and I never looked back since then.
Since having a job and no long term relationship, most of my money goes on my two main interests, traveling and gaming. This site is dedicated to retro gaming, but as well I will mention newer gaming – remakes of games for modern systems, upcoming franchise revivals or games that appeal to people like me, which I hope will appeal to people like you.
Paul Havell – Author
The first time I began to realise I had an unhealthy gaming obsession was at merely eight years old, when my Atari VCS started smelling of warm dust and ultimately caught fire due to overplay. Amazingly, this traumatic experience didn’t spoil my growing love of games, from my ZX Spectrum 48K of 1986 through to today’s Xbox 360 with all Nintendo, Sega and weird console stops in between (yes, even the Mega-CD). My obsession has left me ultimately with little money, terrible eyesight and the wrists of a seventy year old. I care not.
My love of these has led to me starting my online blog, where I now plan to ramble on and honour all those memorable games from the past, on a daily basis. If visitors say “I remember playing that!” just once when looking at it, my job is done.
Games from yesteryear still have that certain something that simply can’t be replicated today. I’m so glad they are still getting recognition and becoming cool again, they deserve to be. I enjoy reminiscing about them, I get pleasure writing and sharing my thoughts on them, but most of all I love playing them – I hope this comes across in what you read.
Paul Havell can also be seen writing at I Remember Playing That!
Red Conine – Author
Francis Clarke – Author
I started gaming when I was about 4 years old with a V-tech edutainment robot that you had to put little cards in and then do either some sort of geography or math quiz.
I quickly moved on to the Commodore 16+ and then spent about six years moving up the Commodore ranks, from the 64 to the Amiga 500+ and eventually 1200. I gave in and got a 486 PC for my tenth birthday, complete with Windows 3.1 and a copy of SimCity.
I got into Retro Gaming partly because I wanted to play the games I’d enjoyed when I was a kid, and partly because my interest in PCs meant I missed out on hundreds of good games that were being released on the consoles. I still like some modern games but I find good releases are few and far between and nothing can beat nostalgia!
Francis Clarke is a freelance journalist for video gaming. You can view his portfolio by clicking here.
