Retro Dodo is an independent online magazine dedicated to informing and educating retro gamers/collectors from around the world, founded by Brandon Saltalamacchia in 2019.
We focus heavily on breaking industry news, reviewing the latest gear by our team of expert product testers, and diving deep into exclusive investigations about retro gaming culture and collectables.
Our Mission
Our mission is quite simple: To educate and entertain retro gamers & collectors, producing high-quality content written by human experts that gives readers an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, all wrapped up in an easy-to-explore website without distractions.
Our Story
The story originally started when Brandon was just a child, opening up Pokémon Yellow for his Game Boy on his 8th birthday in 2000. It sparked a core memory and a love for video games, which directed his career to this very day.
Brandon eventually started working in the online publishing industry back in 2014 as a freelance video editor for start-ups and media companies. During his spare time between jobs, he started a YouTube channel about his passion for retro gaming and collecting, which kick-started a personal brand.
As the years went by, the channel grew slowly, and so did his experience working in the online publishing world, landing a job as a video producer at one of the world's largest media companies, Future Publishing. In 2017, Brandon created a blog about another one of his passions, camper vans (which is how he met our Editor-in-chief, Sebastian Santabarbara). Working full-time, building his retro gaming YouTube channel and creating a new content brand certainly made for an intense couple of years, especially on the cusp of the global pandemic.
Brandon decided to put his camper van blog up for sale as the pandemic hit due to financial difficulty in his family. Unknowingly misunderstanding just how valuable it was, a buyer offered a respectable price for the blog, which changed his career path for the better.
Brandon used this money to build his dream media company. This gave him a 12-month runway to build a content brand dedicated to retro gaming, which prompted him to rebrand his personal YouTube channel into Retro Dodo and create the very website that you are reading today.
The first 12 months were a success, and Sebastian joined him on his new venture too. We were learning fast, growing efficiently and met an array of incredible people over the following few years, employing top-tier talent, and showcasing awesome companies on a daily basis. It was an exciting and incredibly grateful moment for us.
We collaborated with the likes of Casey Neistat, built two books called 'A Handheld History' and partnered with some of the world's biggest gaming companies such as SEGA, ATARI, and Nintendo.
Now many years on, we continue what we do, all while battling algorithms and AI robots that try to extinguish/copy our work. We're passionate about what we do and look forward to continuing to create incredible content for the retro gaming community for many more years to come.
Our Supporters
We wouldn't be here without our incredible paid members; you quite literally keep our lights on, so for that, we are incredibly grateful. Here's a big thank you to every single one of you: