The Retro Gamer's Map

The Retro.Directory is an interactive map which shows the locations of venues related to retro gaming. These include gaming museums, arcades, cafes, bars, clubs and repair services. The map is designed to help retro gaming enthusiasts discover retro-themed locations nearby and around the world.

I am so old that I can actually remember a time before computer games. I can remember the amazing excitement of playing Pong for the first time on a television set (via an Atari games console) and the sudden appearance of arcade games cabinets such as Space Invaders and Galaxians in arcades, bowling alleys and cafes.

I get a visceral thrill every time I stumble upon a retro computer game from my youth. So an interactive map which lists the locations of venues devoted to retro video games ticks a lot of my geek-gamer boxes. What makes the Retro.Directory even more appealing is its deliberate retro computer aesthetic, redolent of an early Yahoo. The sidebar collapsible menus for example allow you to filter the results shown on the map (by events and different types of retro gaming venue).

If there is one thing I enjoy more than playing computer games it is playing pinball. To this day one of my proudest lifetime achievements was clocking the pinball machine in the student union bar at Reading University.

Thanks to Pinball Map it is very easy to track down the locations of nearby pinball machines. Pinball Map has been mapping the locations of pinball machines around the world since 2008. From Soho down to Brighton the Pinball Map must have mapped them all. It currently shows the location of over 43,000 machines. You can even use Pinball Map to find the locations of your favorite pinball machines by name.