RetroGaming Radio is no longer on the air but the spirit of the show lives on.
Shane R. Monroe (Host)
Founder and host of the show, Shane has a great background in computers and video games – over 21 years of experience – not just as a user but as an avid programmer and professional.
At 11, he started working with a TSR-80 Model III (Ah! The old TREK!) then moved through the entire line of Commodore computers (Vic-20 to Amiga), finally making the leap to the evil PC in 1995 (when Windows finally caught up with AmigaDOS).
Before he could afford a Commodore 64, he would sit at Sears in the Mall, programming and demonstrating the C64 machines there (selling more C64 computers than the sales people did – no wonder they gave him the run of the place).
In 1985, Shane saw his first Amiga (playing Defender of the Crown) and knew he’d fallen in love with computers all over again.
In 1988, he got his first Amiga 500 and spent the next 7 years of his live as an Amiga advocate, user, and sometimes retailer. He now does professional web site/application development and writes video games for the PC under the label Dark Unicorn Productions (the name of his former Amiga shareware programming group).
Along the way, Shane did plenty of time on consoles. His cousins had a loaded Atari 2600 (they weren’t allowed TV, but were allowed video games … go figure) and many a weekend were spent playing Cosmic Ark and Adventure. One of his best friends soon got a Colecovision and marathon madness playing Venture, Ladybug, and Donkey Kong soon ensued.
In the Navy, Shane went through a Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Nintendo Gameboy (sold off almost immediately to get an …), Atari Lynx, and finally ended up with a PSOne and Dreamcast.
With the death of Dreamcast, Shane no longer believes in the viability of the console market … “Its nothing but whoring and rehashing titles now. Good mass of original gaming ended with the Dreamcast …”
Shane began to collect video game cabinets in 1997 when he obtained a dedicated Gauntlet II cab. He went on to get a Xybots (sold), Ms. Pac Man, Super Sprint, and Top Gunner (JAMMA).
In the late 1990s, Shane became involved with classic video game emulation and went went on to run some of the most successful classic gaming/emulation websites in the world (Insert Coin, Amiga Emulation Zone). He started the Retro Radio show in 1998.
Bryan Smith (Producer)
Bryan passed away in January of 2005. He is horribly missed by us all…Bryan, has a extensive experience in pinball, classic arcade and console video games that spans over 20 years.
At age 9, his first experience in electronic gaming came in the form of spending hours on end playing pinball machines such as Ali, Six Million Dollar Man, Playboy, Superman as well as a host of other pinball machines. At the age of 10, Bryan then moved on to console the console video game scene by being exposed to Atari Pong.
In 1982, Bryan’s life forever changed like everyone else’s when he discovered Pacman. Sad to say that he pretty much robbed and hustled his teenage years away trying to score quarters and sneak out the house to play basically half of the games that can be found in MAME today. He has been lucky enough to grow up in one of the area’s where most games where tested at, Los Angeles, California. The list of games include, Cloak and Dagger, Nintendo’s Arm Wrestling, I-Robot as well as several other rare (hardly ever seen) arcade cabinets of that era.
On the console side, Bryan has owned a Atari 2600, 5200 and 7800 as well as a Colecovision. In 1983, Bryan wanted a Atari 800 to play Pacman at home but instead was given a TRS-80 Color Computer instead. His life was never the same after that and went on to code the classic Eat and Run (Pacman clone) for several operating system platforms. The game celebrated it’s 15th year anniversary in 1999 by being ported over to Windows.
In 1996, Bryan was exposed, in quite a unusual way, to classic gaming. A friend he met on a message board told him about Atari 2600 emulation and pointed him towards the old Node 99 website. From there he discovered Atmospherical Heights and MAME and his life forever changed after that. Bryan then hooked up with Shane in 1997 through IRC and they have been friends ever since.
To quote Bryan Smith, “I am hoping to bring a host of great new ideas to the show. I would like to see all my video game and emulation heroes interviewed on this show. There are so many things that we don’t know that goes on behind the scenes that make games what they are today and I want to expose it all for the world to see. These people are so cool when you finally get to meet them in person. I want everyone to see that and that is what I plan on bringing to the show.”