I could list a bunch of general YTers that cover retro games among other gaming topics, but for those who mainly cover retro games I like Big Ole Words, Hungry Goriya, and Video Works.
It’s gotta be Jeremy Parish and his many videos. just super informative.
Stop Skeletons From Fighting. It doesn’t get better than crazy uncle Derek.
Yep, I love his energy and positive attitude. Feels like he slowed down on releasing videos
He mentioned on Twitter that he was disappointed by the engagement metrics on the DJ Bongos episode and wanted to take some time off. Bummer cause I really liked that episode.
Ah, I’m not on Twitter so haven’t heard that. But he had a big video about changing patreon & trying to be more productive! Well, I hope they come back strong when they are ready, very good quality stuff from the SSFF crew.
If he hasn’t already been mentioned, Modern Vintage Gamer (MVG) on the tubes is awesome. He sometimes adds developer insight into his videos and digs beneath the surface of the tech he’s talking about.
He’s good, but lately some of his videos don’t add much considering their lenght. His best type of video is when he dissects the discovery process of console’s vulnerabilities to enable jailbreaks.
Mistakes were made
Some of them you can tell he’s stretching it out to hit the magic 10-minute mark. I usually can tell which ones are gonna be interesting by the thumbnail/topic and stick to the cream of the crop.
Retro Game Mechanics Explained is one of my favorite YouTube channels of all time. There’s an absolute treasure trove of interesting technical deep-dives about the inner workings of retro games, famous glitches, and how the hardware works. And it’s all presented with clear, silky smooth animations that make everything so much easier to understand.
I’m not even into retro games that much, yet the content is so good that it has me completely hooked anyway. I’d highly recommended it for anyone who wants to learn more about computer science or the clever techniques programmers used to get things to run on old hardware.
Check out GameHut for sure! Same kinda stuff made by the guy behind Sonic 3d Blast and Sonic R
Modern Vintage Gamer and GameHunt are both God tier channels made by old developers. MVG is ran by someone who was huge into console modding and emulation for a while. GameHut is ran by the owner of Travelers Tales, better known for Sonic 3d Blast, Sonic R, and the Lego Star Wars series. Both great channels
My favourites are LGR and The 8-Bit Guy, but there are so many great retro channels out there!
I love both of them! They’re both so warm. 8 bit guy just seems like the nicest guy you’d ever meet
Gamesack, summoning salt, killgruz/gruz has a great voice
Shameless selfplug PressBToCancel
RetroGameCorps is phenomenal if you’re looking into emulation and / or emulation handhelds. Got an Ambernic RG351V after watching his review and followed his guide for setting up Emudeck on my Steam Deck. 10/10 channel IMO
Hard4Games always has the craziest lost finds.
My Life in Gaming is probably my favourite, I love the depth they go into in their full videos, and their Sunday streams are always super chill for me to just kick back and relax to retro game stuff.
SNESDrunk and Summoning Salt come to mind!
Game Sack is a long-running channel that’s one of the best retro game channels IMO. They release a video every week or two. MetalJesusRocks and his endless quest for Hidden Gems is also very good.
They don’t exclusively do retro stuff, but Digital Foundry’s DFRetro series is brilliant.
DF Retro has never disappointed. If I remember correctly, they literally yeeted someone off Game Sack to help do the retro content. Could be wrong about that though.
I used to watch a lot of Angry Video Game Nerd back in the day, the old stuff still holds up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut3n8-9JM5o&list=PLbQ-gSLYQEc4mnWapHJd0K-sPvLcEwOSS&index=1
The newer stuff he’s been putting out is meh.
One of the main editors/writers left the series
James Channel is good. Very new so there aren’t many videos but he does good technical dives and general nonsense with old arcade games and retro systems.
Also made a handheld super Nintendo with duct tape and hot glue.