Retroya: Hobby Toy & Game Shop Review

Let me tell you, retro gaming is making a huge comeback lately! People of all ages are getting super into classic video games and consoles from back in the day – the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. This old-school gaming craze has led to some totally awesome specialty shops opening up just for retro gamers and collectors.

One of these rad shops is Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop in Bangkok, Thailand. Retroya is like a dream come true for people who want to relive their childhood gaming favorites. They’ve got a ton of used retro games, systems, controllers, and other sweet swag you can buy. But even better, you can go in and actually play the classic games on the original hardware!
Retroya has going on for retro heads. We’ll check out their stock of retro games and gear, cool services like buy/sell/trade and repairs, the amazing old-school gaming setups in the store, the customers who shop there, and any promotions or events they’ve got happening, Whether you’re a total retro collecting nut or just now falling in love with old games, Retroya is the prime spot in Bangkok.

Classic Games of the Past

The beating heart of Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop is its spectacular selection of retro gaming wares. Scour their stock to unearth over 2,000 classic titles across dozens of vintage home and handheld systems.

Iconic Retro Favorites

Flip through any well-loved back catalog from the NES, SNES, Genesis, or PS1 era. Retroya stocks all the iconic franchise mainstays and hidden gems that defined retro gaming’s heyday.

Home Console Classics

• Nintendo: Super Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong Country
• Sega: Sonic, Golden Axe, Virtua Fighter, Shinobi
• Sony: Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, Twisted Metal

Handheld Must-Plays

• Game Boy: Tetris, Pokemon Red/Blue, Legend of Zelda Links Awakening
• Game Gear: Sonic Triple Trouble, Shinobi II, Dragon Crystal
• Neo Geo Pocket: SNK vs Capcom Match of the Millennium, Metal Slug 1st & 2nd Mission

Plus many more iconic series spanning decades of platforms and publishers. Peruse beloved arcade ports, mega-popular sports titles, and all the best from gaming’s 2D and early 3D heydays.

Finding Rare Retro Gems

Beyond the usual suspects lie shelves filled with obscure oddities demanding discovery. Retroya’s seasoned buyers source elusive games worldwide to delight fellow collectors.

Category	Sample Rare Titles
Prototype / Unreleased	GetViewableArea demo cartridges, Pokemon Green, Star Fox 2
Import Exclusives	Hagane (SNES), Policenauts (PS1), Mr Bones (Saturn)
Special Editions	Final Fantasy VII misprints, gold Ocarina of Time cartridges
Limited Print Runs	Little Samson, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Suikoden II

Retroya often acquires ultra-rare titles like these to surprise nostalgic visitors. Their frequently rotating inventory promises fresh retro holy grails unlocked for play and preservation.

Gear Up: Consoles, Controls & Cables Galore

Beyond games lie fully outfitted original hardware setups from gaming history’s headiest eras. All the tech that powered past play sessions stands boxed or bagged behind Retroya’s glass cabinets.

Consoles: Original Units

• NES/Famicom – Bring an 8-bit savior home along with Mario and Zelda’s first quests
• SNES/Super Famicom – 16-bit masterpieces from Square and Konami in their natural habitat
• Nintendo 64 – Rumble Pak owners rejoice! Mario enters the third dimension intact
• PlayStation – Connect that DualShock to dance with Parappa and Solid Snake in PS1 glory

Accessories: Gear for Specialized Play Sessions

• Control Pads – Pack multiples for local multiplayer marathons
• Light Guns – Duck Hunt and shoot your way through Area 51 again
• Steering Wheels – Rewind to pole position with custom wheels
• Dance Pads – Bust moves in DDRymax with mint pads
• Special Controllers – Go bananas with bongos, maracas and more!

Cables, memory cards, VMUs, link cables – stock whatever you need to reconnect with forgotten games requiring peripherals. For collectors, limited edition consoles and accessories appear frequently, too.

Retroya has all hardware essentials covered across over 30 retro platforms. Gear up with mint or replacement condition parts sourced worldwide.

Play Before You Pay: Test Games in the Retro Lounge

Unlike dusty game stores with piles of untested wares, everything in Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop gets vetted thoroughly. Confirm collectible quality or enjoy free play sessions in their lounge before buying anything.

Gaming Stations

The shop’s gaming area spotlights multiple complete, era-appropriate hardware displays for visitors to play upon.

Gaming Station	Details
NES Station	14” CRT TV + Control Deck
SNES Station	20” CRT TV + Control Deck
Genesis Station	24” CRT TV + Control Deck
Nintendo 64 Station	27” CRT TV + Control Deck

CRT televisions properly display analog signals from older consoles. Modern HDTVs can’t match their motion clarity for many 2D games.

These gaming setups run original cartridge media off freshly cleaned and restored hardware guaranteed fully operational before sale. Enjoy curated classics or test out personal purchases under ideal conditions with spare first-party controllers available, too.

Confirm Collectibility, Playability & Personal Enjoyment

Retroya encourages all visitors, buyers, and browsers alike to play shop stock freely. Their well-maintained gear and cozy lounge environment serve multiple functions:

• Test Games – Verify obscure finds work properly before purchase
• Compare Versions – Many games saw multiple regional releases. Compare their distinctions hands-on.
• Gauge Enjoyment – Try out unfamiliar games risk-free before buying

Customers gain confidence in making informed purchasing decisions after direct play testing. For visitors simply feeling nostalgic, these stations invite free trips down memory lane as well.

Buy, Sell & Trade: Customer-Friendly Retro Commerce

Beyond buying and playing with wares, Retroya empowers customers directly participating in retro commerce. Both build and liquidate exclusive collections via equitable trades and outright purchases.

Building Collections: Cash or Credit Offered for Retro Rarities

Do you have an overflowing backlog of untouched retro wares lying around? Convert them into shop credit or cash through Retroya’s fair buyback program.

The shop gladly purchases most functional games, consoles, and controllers meeting these conditions:

• Fully Working Condition
• No Excessive Wear or Damage
• Non-Exorbitant Prices

Selling your gear means immediate payment and preservation for another nostalgic gamer rather than indefinite closet storage. Retroya examines all gear carefully before quoting reasonable resale value sight unseen.

Liquidating Collections: Trade Games for Fresh Titles

For collectors focused on curating a tightly edited “best of” library, game-for-game trading eliminates unwanted excess.

Retroya employs a transparent trade-in process:

• Staff assign an accurate resale value to each game based on current market rates
• Gamers pay any difference when trading older games for pricier titles

This means collectors swap their way toward the most desirable gems free of the usual inflated trade-in markups from major retailers. Locate long-lost white whales without breaking your retro gaming budget.

Repair Shop: Fixing Old Games

Inevitably, frayed cables, scratched discs or failing capacitors can interrupt access to aging retro libraries. Rather than succumbing to the planned obsolescence of today’s tech, Retroya strives to preserve perishable hardware and software alike from all generations.

Typical Repairs & Refurbishment Services

Repair Type	Details
Disc Resurfacing	Eliminates scratches, enabling discs to read.
Button & Analog Swap	Replace worn sticks and pads to function as new.
Battery Replacement	Allows dead save batteries in cartridges to keep progress.
Capacitor Soldering	Fixes glitching graphics and sound in aging consoles.
General Electronics & Wiring	Ensures obscure hardware remains operational.

With specialized tools and components consistently in stock for most major platforms, the shop promptly brings both functioning and non-functioning units back up to spec. This dedication does more than fix faulty goods – it actively combats the loss of working hardware required to preserve aging media legacies.

Preventative Maintenance For All Collectors

Beyond handling repair jobs both big and small across decades of platforms, Retroya emphasizes educating newcomers on preventative measures for curbing degradation over time. That means tips like:

• Proper Storage & Transportation
• Handling Discs & Connectors
• Early Warning Signs of Failure

By spreading awareness in addition to servicing busted hardware, Retroya gives new generations their best chance at experiencing iconic retro releases for decades to come.

Connecting Through Nostalgia

Shared enthusiasm and invitation to keep Retroya’s community strong across Bangkok and beyond. Meet the diverse groups of like-minded visitors drawn by the shop’s palpable retro appreciation.

Lifelong Retro Enthusiasts

No customer archetype keeps Retroya busier than the lifelong video game appreciators. Often, 40-somethings who grew up gaming crave reconnecting with cherished childhood memories by playing forgotten favorites.

Platform exclusives, obscure rarities, mint condition collectors’ pieces — seasoned enthusiasts obsess over aspects mainstream audiences overlook. Retroya’s combination of overlooked gaming oddities and an authentic playable museum-like space caters directly to reconnecting their enthusiasm with like-minded individuals.

Next-Gen Nostalgia Seekers

Not every visitor possesses intrinsic devotion to gaming history itself. Many parents first introduce children cradled in smartphones to erstwhile classics from their youth found in shops like Retroya.

These custodians find value in sharing touchstone interactive time capsules from their past with younger generations. The games serve as crystallized memories rekindling dormant relationships. Retroya’s lounge facilitates this cross-generational bonding through immediately accessible and functional history lessons.

Casual Collectors

Maintaining entire libraries end-to-end proves daunting for light collectors simply targeting specific titles significant through obscurity, personal meaning or scarcity/demand.

Retroya’s frequently updated stock means completionists need not monitor countless sellers. Rarities roll through the shop often enough to save them effort tracking across transitory vendors. Trading also concentrates compilation faster without sacrificing library quality.

Community United

Despite their unique reasons for visiting, every Retroya regular ultimately wants reviving gaming nostalgia, either personal or ancestral. That collective retro appreciation transcends nitpicking platform preferences or genre tastes.

Often, wandering visitors make friends, collaborating on solutions to obscure puzzles in games from forgotten genres. Or bonding over long buried memories from childhood brought back to light.

Through buying, playing and reminiscing, Retroya unites its community.

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Conveniently positioned off one of Bangkok’s busiest downtown drags, Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop enjoys tremendous foot traffic. Yet a second floor removed from congested walkways allows relaxed browsing uninterrupted by noise or exasperated crowds.

The shop sits on Sukhumvit Road amongst local shops and eateries keeping weekends popping around the area. Nearby public transit, like Bangkok’s SkyTrain, connects the area efficiently with other bustling neighborhoods as well. Paid street parking also abounds nearby.

Category	Details
Storefront Size	1,500 square foot first floor retail space.
Location	2nd floor @ 123 Sukhumvit Road Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110.
Amenities	Paid street parking, short walk from BTS public transit.
Atmosphere	Laidback local neighborhood weekend vibes.

Despite tourist crowds flocking to Bangkok annually, many visitors overlook the chain store-pocked central drags. Venturing Retorya’s vibrant second-floor community space offers chances connecting with fellow gaming devotees otherwise missed.

Online Presence: Facebook Page

To complement its physical location, Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop leverages social media, allowing fans daily virtual access. With over 5,000 likes and followers, their Facebook page keeps out-of-towners current on shop happenings.

Features of Retroya’s Facebook Page

Content Type	Details
New Arrivals	Daily photo posts unveil the latest coveted retro stock available in-store.
Contact Information	Phone, hours, location info assist visitors in trip-planning.
Employee Interaction	Staff actively engage commenter questions and overview shop offerings.
Events & Promotions	Sales, giveaways, and events get announced, giving patrons ample notice to attend.

Well-documented opening times prevent wasted trips for those traveling distances to visit while unveiling new inventory finds tantalizes collectors. Frequent participation also forges customer-employee bonds enhanced later during in-person visits.

Traffic Through Online Engagement

Photos showcasing rare, evocative games often compel nearby regulars rushed store visits to purchase items before competitors. For tourists and newcomers, a background in store particulars facilitates this niche small business getting discovered by the wider gaming fan diaspora despite Bangkok’s overwhelming amount of activities competing for attention.

Ultimately, through balancing physical and online outreach, Retroya succeeds in remaining an ever-present part of Bangkok’s gaming landscape.

Promotion: Discounts, Coupons, and Events

Complimenting their incredible ever-changing inventory, Retroya creatively engages patrons through regular events and discounts too!

Retroya experiments with numerous ongoing promotions allowing regulars cost-effective continuing game influx even with limited budgets.

Promotion Type	Details
Category Discounts	15% off Nintendo DS games every Wednesday.
Bundled Savings	Purchase any console, get 10% off controllers/accessories.
Trade-In Bonuses	Trade 3 games, receive 1 free sub-$20 game.
Social Media Contests	Daily Facebook retro memorabilia giveaways.

Pairing discounts with trade values and contest potential makes each revisit worthwhile hunting fresh deals.

Events Uniting Bangkok’s Retro Community

The shop also initiates community events, encouraging old and new patrons to bond over cherished pastime pleasures.

Event Type	Details
Game Tournaments	Mario Kart 64 battles decide gift card bounties.
Cosplay Contests	Show off your retro costume prowess to win prizes.
Pop-Up Markets	Monthly vintage gaming flea market located in-store.

Online and offline happenings prevent patron enthusiasm from diminishing during dry spells between rare inventory arrivals. Regulars and visitors connect through common activities different than everyday gaming.

Shop for Next-Gen Retro Audiences

Never content resting on reputation, Retroya constantly evaluates adapting to better satiate Bangkok’s enthusiast audience. The shop balances preserving its niche appeal while making gaming history more accessible future generations.

Goals for Retroya’s Near Future

While respecting their retro foundations, exciting plans brew on tap:

• More Locations – Additional shops increase public access to obscure gaming artifacts
• Expanded Repair Library – Preserve aging disc-based platforms passing peak operability
• YouTube Channel – Tutorial videos assist collectors properly maintaining eclectic hardware
• Import Connections – Direct Japanese/US/EU connections secure the rarest titles reaching Thailand
• Mainstream Crossover Merch – Apparel/toy collaborations coax outsider attention

Through advancing its capabilities in multiple directions simultaneously, tomorrow’s Retroya retains quintessential charms while spreading the joy of rediscovery wider into the mainstream.

Staying True to Their Retro Roots

Still, some pillars of the shop shall remain untouched even through massive hypothetical growth into a gaming warehouse giant:

• The area’s most complete curation of mint retro gaming hardware remaining playable for future generations
• An ever-growing library of rediscovered software artifacts rescued from deterioration
• An all-inclusive lounge facilitating gaming literacy initiations young and old
• Above all, an infectious enthusiasm for digital entertainment history shared shop-wide!

Goal	Description	Purpose
More Locations	Open additional storefronts across Bangkok metro.	Increase accessibility for a larger patron population.
Expanded Repair Services	Repair and restore aging disc-based platforms.	Preserve PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox libraries facing deterioration.
Original YouTube Series	Publish tutorial videos guiding hardware maintenance best practices.	Share proper console repair knowledge, improving collections’ longevity.
Direct Import Connections	Coordinate rare/obscure game imports with Japanese & NA/EU exporters.	Secure acclaimed yet region-exclusive software for Thai gamers.
Mainstream Brand Collaborations	Host pop-up shops and sell apparel via partnerships with major publishers.	Draw mass attention to retro gaming from outsider audiences.

Conclusion

Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop is like a blast from the past for retro game peeps in Bangkok. Their epic stash of old-school games and systems brings back all the feels and memories from back in the day. And being able to play the OG titles on the actual old hardware in their gaming lounge? So rad. It’s like time-traveling to when you were a kid.

But Retroya is about more than just selling retro stuff. They’ve built a community around geeking out over classic games together. Through their buy/sell/trade service, repairs, events, and sweet deals, they bring fellow retro nerds together. The staffers are so stoked about vintage gaming, and they pass on that passion to customers.

Even though Retroya keeps it really old school, they’ve got big plans for the future, too. More locations, juicing up their services, new happenings – they’re gonna make retro gaming even more accessible for peeps in Bangkok. As people keep getting hyped about gaming history, Retroya will stay the top retro spot in town.

So, if you miss the golden days of gaming, hit up Retroya Hobby Toy & Game Shop! Immerse yourself in console and arcade classics from back in the day. Drop your quarters and game on like it’s 1989 all over again! For mega selection, awesome prices, and serious retro cred, Retroya can’t be beaten.