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Retro Empire

Buy a filthy console from a stranger, bring it back to life on your workbench and sell it in your own shop for what it's really worth.

Wishlist on Steam Download the free demo

For Windows and Linux. Early Access on Steam in March 2027.
The demo is also on itch.io

Steam

Every empire starts small

Watch it on YouTube

Free demo

Days 1 to 5

Retro Empire

What the demo comes with

Dirty handhelds
3
Boxes of games
2
Empty shelf
1
Repair jobs
8
Broken arcade cabinet
1
Shop days
5
Play time
About 1 h
Price
$0.00

In the demo

  • Unpack your first delivery, set up a shelf and open the doors. Your first sale comes within minutes.
  • One of your three handhelds won't turn on. Open it up and find out why.
  • From day 2, eight customers walk in with their own broken consoles, each with a different fault. Two of them say it won't turn on, for two different reasons.
  • Haggle on RetroPop, the city's second-hand app, and meet the sellers in the street.
  • Buy a used arcade cabinet with a dead board, fix it, then play it yourself.
  • The demo ends when day 5 is over.

In the full game

  • Staff who run the shop while you hunt for deals: a cashier, a buyer, a stocker and a technician.
  • The old video club down the street, turned into your own arcade hall. You can already walk in and look around in the demo.
  • A giant Comet demo kiosk where customers try your cartridges, a sticker album and a game corner with tournaments.
  • Game and console rentals, wholesale orders and twenty store levels.
  • Coming next: a cyber café and bigger premises for the shop.

Clean it. Fix it.

Most of what you buy arrives dirty or broken. On the workbench you scrub off the grime, unscrew the shell, swap the batteries or the broken part and power it on before it goes on sale. If it boots, it sells for a lot more.

Repair jobs

Customers bring their broken handhelds to the counter. Quote the job, fix it on the workbench with their ticket in front of you and have it ready when they come back for it.

Hunt for bargains

RetroPop is the city's second-hand app. Find a listing, make an offer, push back on the counteroffer, then meet the seller in the street or have it delivered to the shop.

Open the doors

You set the prices. Customers browse, compare, bring in their old games to sell you and remember how you treated them. You can rent games and consoles out too.

Insert coin

Put an arcade cabinet in the shop. Swap the board to change the game and empty the coin box now and then. The games on the boards are real, and you can play them yourself.

Fill the shelves

The courier leaves your orders in boxes on the pallet by the door. Carry them in, put the shelves wherever you like and fill them one game at a time.

Make it yours

Paint the walls, hang posters and design your own sign for the door. How the shop looks has an effect on how many people come in.

Watch it grow

Every day you open earns experience. Each level brings new furniture, services and staff, until the shop almost runs itself.

A note from Daniel

DVN Software

I'm Daniel, and Retro Empire is the first game from DVN Software. It's still on the workbench: I work on it every day, so expect things to change between versions.

At the end of the demo, and in the pause menu, there's a two-minute survey. It's the most useful thing you can do for the game. If you'd rather tell me another way, write to me or come by the Discord.

Daniel