YouTube Gaming Channels, what do you follow?

And mas has been on podcasts with me!

Bump after eight years!

You have to say “fair play” to Classic Game Room. More than half a decade after winding down their YouTube and social media channels and controversially selling off viewers’ donations while taking their money from a Patreon that was producing no relevant content, it’s returned – and with the exact same patter as before.



It’s like he’d never went away. Once you’ve seen one Classic Game Room video you’ve seen them all. There isn’t a two-minute spell without a reference to either “TRUXTON!”, the Vetrex or the Chevrolet El Camino. That said, as useless as much of its content is I find Classic Game Room to be very wholesome and extremely easy viewing.

Otherwise, I'm getting a lot of recommendations to watch channels about folk who film their visits to their nearby CEX, have a mosey and tell the viewers what they've got. They're addictive! There's this one Cockney guy - OG Duffy, I think his name is - who does that but also includes videos of his trips to ASDA's beer aisle and to his local Yates's pub. It's honestly endearingly crap.

Anybody following any other gaming channels?

Balladeer wrote:

Is JonTron still going?  He's hilarious.

Holy heck this did not age well.

As for new channels, y'all probably already know that Yahtzee's old stomping ground The Escapist's new owners salted and burned its earth, with Yahtzee himself popping off to help create Second Wind. It's the exact same stuff only the dog's less endearing than the imp, but it's a strike against corporate overreach so I'm all for it.

Matthew Taranto's top as well. He used to do the webcomic Brawl in the Family which I loved - just a superb innocent sense of humour. Now he does songs on a channel. This tribute to Martinet and Toto's Africa by five Waluigis seem worth linking to. Also he made a game that never made it to the UK eShop so it doesn't count.

EDIT: Ha! I did this before seeing Balla's reply.

JayMoyles wrote:

Jesus, a lot. Some recommendations would have to be JonTron and Totalbiscuit.

Balladeer wrote:

Is JonTron still going?  He's hilarious.

2014.

Balladeer wrote:

Toto's Africa by five Waluigis seem worth linking to.

You f***ing c*** why did you make me listen to this? I think I love it. But I did have to listen to the original straight after to calm down.

Oh - I'm gonna attempt to actually answer the original question.
For general gaming youtube stuff:

• Any Austin - a chap who deliberately looks for the most mundane and unimportant parts of gaming - off-beat and wonderful. Anything of his is good, so I can't link (plus not all things are playlisted) - but recently check out the Unemployment Reports for fictional settlements and the the odd forgotten corners of video game worlds
  
• Game Grumps - definitely still doing well. Arin's grown up a little, and Dan has long since settled into the seat of the last guy, and might be a candidate for nicest human being on the planet. Can't point anywhere specific, but actually the opposite: maybe avoid Tears of the Kingdom if you played it yourself...
  
• Gracie's Gaming Gauntlet - game music quizzes. A lot of them! I am bad at it.
  
• Memoria - a buddy of Austin above, and a similarly laid-back look. Anything more recent.
  
• This pairing of OutsideXBox and OutsideXtra - basically better versions of the listicles that the "big sites" would do. Also watch Ellen learn how to play Dark Souls, that's some Chosen One stuff
  
• Sntnl6 is cheating because he's a personal lifelong friend of mine. But he plays the weird adventure games so you don't have to. Particularly recommending the Twitch stream of The Lost Crown (not the Prince of Persia one) where he explains backstory and locations, and avoids you having to play the game twice to work out what the hell's going on
  

For old shit that probably only I like:

• Colin Hoad - charming polite source for all things BBC Micro. You want the top 85 games for the Beeb? You got it. You don't? Get out of here
  
• Yesterzine - a look back at old game magazines from the last 40 years (although not always that retro) with a focus on the best/worst reviewed game - and does something which a lot of retro peeps forget about, which is look at the game as a newcomer playing it today. Maybe check the Amgia macazine Rise of the Robots bollocks.
  
• Rose Tinted Spectrum - not really limited to the ZX Spectrum, so could go in the above list, but probably the best retro channel that's popped up in the last few years. Genuinely nice chap, and is doing great, considering he's had a shit year personally. I'd watch anything probably, but he has been slowly been dragging his way through every episode of Bad Influence - it felt shit at the time, and is even worse in retrospect.
  

Jimbob wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Toto's Africa by five Waluigis seem worth linking to.

You f***ing c*** why did you make me listen to this? I think I love it. But I did have to listen to the original straight after to calm down.

That's a lot of channels - any suggestions of where to start or best bits?  I'm still not that keen on gaming YouTube in general, it seems to be a morass of terrible Americans doing That Face in thumbnails and four-hour rambles that could and should be fifteen minutes long, so I really do need a 'here's a place to start' to get into anything these days.

EDIT: I can't read, you did give some. My error.

...alright, I'll think about it - I just didn't want to bore you with too much info (plus I didn't want to be too much like "hey this band's really cool, you should listen to these tracks...")
Some additional comments will be added to the previous post.

I've give some of those retro and quiz channels a go, I hadn't heard of any of them. Cheers for highlighting them

I have the same feelings here about JonTron - I'm amazed he's still kicking a ball after those prejudiced comments he publicly made. I think I stopped watching his stuff immediately, and that was, what, nearly a decade ago now?

You want to checkout Luke Loves Pokémon, Monster Mash and Save Slot 3

I had this video in my recommended yesterday & was pleasantly surprised by how good it was seeing as it was the only video on his channel. I think I'll definitely be keeping a look out for anything else he does.

Jimbob wrote:

Dan has long since settled into the seat of the last guy, and might be a candidate for nicest human being on the planet.

A friend of mine is a big fan of his. She cosplayed his alter ego from his band, became his friend online, and eventually fucked him.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Bump after eight years!

Otherwise, I'm getting a lot of recommendations to watch channels about folk who film their visits to their nearby CEX, have a mosey and tell the viewers what they've got. They're addictive! There's this one Cockney guy - OG Duffy, I think his name is - who does that but also includes videos of his trips to ASDA's beer aisle and to his local Yates's pub. It's honestly endearingly crap.

Anybody following any other gaming channels?

I've seen OG Duffy's videos, and you're right, they are endearingly crap. It's a bit like Dad YouTube, but at least he's genuinely enthused. I struggle with a lot of YouTube content these days, but will watch Outside Xbox/Xtra as their list content is always solid. I watch (or listen to) some of Mas and his mates' weekly chats as it's entertaining hearing Dave sighing at Chris' latest retro indulgence. In the past I have indulged (very loose use of the term) in your Metal Jesus Rocks (I used to be on a forum with him - racketboy), IGN GameScoop and that British fella called Retro Ghetto, although I sometimes find his stuff a bit on the nose when he's spending his days undercutting charity shops.

I do still watch Game Sack - probably my favourite YouTube gaming channel (outside of Digital Foundry's Retro coverage). I'm going to check out that Yesterzine channel, as it sounds right up my street. I liked Glenn Plant's N64 channel, but he's been quiet for a while.

I feel very unkind about typing that about OG Duffy – I’ve quite enjoyed the videos of his I’ve seen. It makes me smile that he produces videos that chirpily tell us “Thursdays are the new Fridays!” and then uploads them onto YouTube on like a Tuesday morning.

I’ve seen Retro Ghetto recently too, his videos have been on my recommended channels. They’re all right I think, like OG Duffy he seems very enthused about what’s he’s doing ( or he’s on poppers, I don’t know). What really left me scratching my head about him was that he made a video about the birth of his son a month or two ago, but very shortly after made a challenge to himself to complete as many games as possible within a 24-hour single-sitting session. I mean, eh? Talk about setting the wrong priorities.

Glenn Plant returned for a quick series of random reviews at the end of last year – I’d hoped that would last for a longer stretch but nah, he’s been inactive for a couple of months now. That’s probably my favourite retro YouTube channel, alongside Game Sack and Classic Gaming Quarterly.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I feel very unkind about typing that about OG Duffy – I’ve quite enjoyed the videos of his I’ve seen. It makes me smile that he produces videos that chirpily tell us “Thursdays are the new Fridays!” and then uploads them onto YouTube on like a Tuesday morning.

I’ve seen Retro Ghetto recently too, his videos have been on my recommended channels. They’re all right I think, like OG Duffy he seems very enthused about what’s he’s doing ( or he’s on poppers, I don’t know). What really left me scratching my head about him was that he made a video about the birth of his son a month or two ago, but very shortly after made a challenge to himself to complete as many games as possible within a 24-hour single-sitting session. I mean, eh? Talk about setting the wrong priorities.

Glenn Plant returned for a quick series of random reviews at the end of last year – I’d hoped that would last for a longer stretch but nah, he’s been inactive for a couple of months now. That’s probably my favourite retro YouTube channel, alongside Game Sack and Classic Gaming Quarterly.

I've been avidly consuming Retro Ghetto's recent output - he's got an attention to detail that sets his videos apart. Sat in a cafe discussing which way a Master System manual should be stored in the case, with a woman sat adjacent nonplussed at a bunch of middle-aged men saying "Comment below", is oddly admirable. It's very down to earth seeing him tour CEXs with a Greggs on the go. But you're right, he said he had a couple of free days after a week away with mates, and he's going to spend it playing games. Blokes got a wife and kids next door...

I'm sure some of you are familiar with Consolevania, but I particularly liked the first couple of videos they have done that is pure nostalgia:

1984

I’ve never given ConsoleVania a chance. I think at the height of it’s online popularity I was just a bit scunnered with Rab Florence being on everything, everywhere (at least up here in Scotland). That video seems like a good place to give it a go though – cheers for sharing it.
 
As for other YouTube Gaming Channels, it’s an offense that I didn’t highlight Kim Justice as my favourite retro gaming channel. Her documentaries are miles ahead of anything else I’ve seen in that genre. Otherwise, I still sometimes watch and usually enjoy Retro Ghetto, OG Duffy and the others that I previously mentioned, though I’ve not found any new channels that I’ve consistently stuck with in a while.
 
One thing that’s increasingly popping up as ‘Recommended For You’ is folks’ vlogs of their retro game hunts around various cities. Honestly speaking, I’ve got no interest in watching a long video about what some pie picks up after they’ve toddled around Bromlington-upon-Brexit, the photo in the 'Yesterday I Bought' thread would do. But one I did watch was a guy going around Glasgow city centre. That’s not because I was interested in what he had to say or what he bought, but purely because Glasgow is easily the worst urban place I’ve been to for looking for old games, it’s just staggeringly rubbish. I think he spent about three quid, and I wasted about twenty minutes.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

As for other YouTube Gaming Channels, it’s an offense that I didn’t highlight Kim Justice as my favourite retro gaming channel. Her documentaries are miles ahead of anything else I’ve seen in that genre.

I'd never heard that name, so I've chucked a video about a Jurassic Park game on my watch later to check her out.

Quote :

One thing that’s increasingly popping up as ‘Recommended For You’ is folks’ vlogs of their retro game hunts around various cities. Honestly speaking, I’ve got no interest in watching a long video about what some pie picks up after they’ve toddled around Bromlington-upon-Brexit, the photo in the 'Yesterday I Bought' thread would do.

This surprises me - that sounds like a pleasant little youtube rabbit hole. I guess it depends heavily on the vibe and likeability of the host.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I still sometimes watch and usually enjoy Retro Ghetto, OG Duffy and the others that I previously mentioned, though I’ve not found any new channels that I’ve consistently stuck with in a while.
 
One thing that’s increasingly popping up as ‘Recommended For You’ is folks’ vlogs of their retro game hunts around various cities. Honestly speaking, I’ve got no interest in watching a long video about what some pie picks up after they’ve toddled around Bromlington-upon-Brexit, the photo in the 'Yesterday I Bought' thread would do. But one I did watch was a guy going around Glasgow city centre. That’s not because I was interested in what he had to say or what he bought, but purely because Glasgow is easily the worst urban place I’ve been to for looking for old games, it’s just staggeringly rubbish. I think he spent about three quid, and I wasted about twenty minutes.

That makes sense you're getting those recommendations, as OG Duffy and Retro Ghetto are pretty much "watch me walk around CEX". I like Retro Ghetto's videos in particular though, as he has his carefully curated game room that viewers have contributed to, and he clearly takes a lot of time and care in making his videos feel a certain way. He also seems to get out and about quite a lot - it's not just "here's my latest ebay haul".

I've done pick up videos etc before but it is when I've gone to a boot sale or gone to the city into the CEX, pawn shop then picked up this expensive GameCube game, not every pick up I've got as who wants to see on YT I got TopSpin on PS5.

I did think about recording when I went to what was Insane now Timewarp games in Bridgey, but the store is just this massive empty space, where I'd be filming for about 30secs going look at the one 3DS game have.

Buskalilly wrote:

This surprises me - that sounds like a pleasant little youtube rabbit hole. I guess it depends heavily on the vibe and likeability of the host.

That’s totally it. When I was starting to go down that YouTube rabbit hole earlier in the year I watched some videos in the “watch me walk around CEX” vein where the content just wasn’t interesting, or where the creator had no stories to tell and seemed to make no effort to engage their audience. There was one I specifically remember where the guy would go to all these different shops and sales, absolutely manhandle the games when he was browsing through them (treating them with no care at all), make lowball offers to the seller and then never add his purchases to his collection but instead sell them for perhaps a quid’s profit at a market. That’s just rubbish content, I’m not following that.
 
What I like about Retro Ghetto and OG Duffy is their enthusiasm, effort, and that they genuinely convey their interest by responding to comments on their videos and social media. They’re building their own wee communities and I hope they succeed with it.

Buskalilly wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

One thing that’s increasingly popping up as ‘Recommended For You’ is folks’ vlogs of their retro game hunts around various cities. Honestly speaking, I’ve got no interest in watching a long video about what some pie picks up after they’ve toddled around Bromlington-upon-Brexit, the photo in the 'Yesterday I Bought' thread would do.

This surprises me - that sounds like a pleasant little youtube rabbit hole. I guess it depends heavily on the vibe and likeability of the host.

I'm personally a fan of watching these kind of videos when people do it outside of the UK because you get a glimpse of different cultures in the process but I can't imagine they're a decent watch if it's over here because the 2nd hand market is generally quite naff, wouldn't mind seeing a Cappuccino Kid produced one though.