I have a weird relationship with retro gaming. I enjoy having a few old consoles and a small collection of games, but I love seeing crazy huge retro gaming collections on Instagram and Reddit. Some people have insane gaming rooms with dozens of consoles hooked up to an old CRT television with numerous video switchers to make it all work. I enjoy the nostalgia of old game hardware (and the convenience of emulators), but really want to find a practical, usable way to enjoy retro games. The upcoming RetroN 5 from Hyperkin seems to be the perfect solution.

Over the past year or so I’ve (re)acquired the NES, SNES, and Genesis consoles. The NES I found needs to be repaired and I just haven’t gotten around to replacing the pin. The SNES works occasionally, and the Genesis works really well. I would still keep them if they were all completely bricked, just for the nostalgia of having them on a shelf. But, the RetroN 5 looks like it will be my go-to system for playing old games. This console can play games from these consoles:
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When I started an Instagram account for Top Hat Sasquatch a few months ago, I never thought I would enjoy it so much or “meet” so many cool people. I just created the account so I could regularly post geeky/nostalgic photos instead of flooding my personal account. Five months and 800+ followers later, I’ve been having a blast on there.

Pretty soon after I joined I found the Retro Collective group. Browsing photos with various retro gaming hashtags inevitably leads to a few cool folks like @BowserIsKing, @SBKRetro, @Dano_Brown, @WTFIsThisNerdShit, and @Matchu_Payne. These guys were building a retro gaming community around a hashtag and eventually expanded it to an Instagram account. There are a few weekly hashtag-based contests around things like Complete in Box (#CIBSunday) games, Sega, game manuals, and more.

The coolest thing about the group though is the sense of community and the general awesomeness and generosity of everyone involved. Whether it’s someone mailing you some old Game Boy manuals or trading a game they have doubles of, the Retro Collective folks are always there to help. They also have a bitchin’ logo that I was lucky enough to snag on a t-shirt, and they have a new Duck Hunt inspired shirt up for order right now.

If you’re on Instagram and you’re a fan of retro gaming, make sure you go and follow all those guys and start browsing the #RetroCollective hashtag. I’ll see you there!