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 collectibles.
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 Pokemon 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 kickstarted 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 re-brand 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 an 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 continue creating 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:
Sebastian Burgstaller – Austin Ernst – Luke Cai – Petie – Federico Viticci – Noelle – devyl – iwishiwasdeinonychus –Adrian Jantzi – Philipp B. – EmbraceBecoming – Gabriel Meredith – Pyro Ranger – Marc Hull – Ryan Litwin – James Webb – Joseph – Azlaroc – John Whalen – Christian Stump – Finn Campbell – GameXData – Eric Czarny – Pete Campbell – Case – Tim Rachor – Alex Willis – stsp – Paul Stellingwerf – Trond Kjetil Bremnes – Tom Rosenow – Paul Sweeney – Simon Therien – Carlo – Farrah Bostic – Tobias Wolfram – Syaoran1190 – gm00 – Jacob Tyler – Jonathan Kade – chad royal- Andrew Stott – That One Girl – D Amos – Derek Nuzum – Tyler McKinley – Jacob Iyamu – DankLord – Sara Vieira – Spencer McIntyre – Old School Gamer Magazine – Igor Zubov – Patrice Mallette – Daryl – Paul Robein – Baymoo – Aaron Smith – stephenbelanger – Eoin McNamara – Richard McMullan – Shane Burgess – Tom – Jamesy – Courtney Pure – Isegrimm – Anthony Arakelian – SW PL GAMING – Steel Sand Gaming – John Grant McColley – Dan – Christa Lehr – Garry Heather – Chris Milios