Game Sack

Since 2011 Joe Redifer and Dave White have been reliving the glory days of gaming, sharing their extensive classic collections with the world through their YouTube channel Game Sack. From the NES to modern day consoles there is nothing the duo has not covered though they are more famous I would say for the older stuff as well as their decidedly 90's inspired humor. It at times can be pretty cringe inducing, or dare I say crass, but it hits more than it misses.

Game Sack was the first YouTube channel I ever subscribed to believe it or not. Before then I watched a lot of the platform, but I never took it as more than a way to watch old commercials or music videos. Game Sack changed that though and soon I was subscribed too lots of channels about gaming and other interests of mine. It made me realize the potential of the platform as a medium for creative expression.

A lot has changed since the early days of the channel though mainly the quality of the presentation. You would be hard pressed these days to find a more complete representation of a games look and audio than Game Sack and Joe's expertise with audio and visual recording and editing are always entertaining and authentic to the hardware. I find myself amazed watching episodes in 4K or 1080p and wondering why my set does up not look this good. Of course, Joe is usually right there to explain in detail how you could be getting the same results with such and such hardware or so and so settings. Another big change is the departure of Dave from the channel as Joe now flies solo in most episodes, although occasionally Dave will make an appearance for nostalgia’s sake.

But a consistent theme is the love for classic games and the channel has reviewed everything including some very obscure platforms like the Sharp X 6800 and the Amiga CD 32. And speaking of consistent, a new episode of Game Sack will always, without fail, release every other Sunday. I can set my watch by Joe's release schedule. That is great and always something that should be praised when considering online content creators. Joe also has a second channel called Sound Sack where he explains the witchcraft behind Dolby digital and THX sound to those of us who have no idea what any of that means. As a former projectionist and a current video and sound editor he is an expert source for explaining the concepts in a way that makes sense to everyone. This channel is a bit more of a niche audience I must admit but I still was quite impressed with it.

The main draw for me though is that I re-watch a lot of Game Sack. I am a collector as well and there have been hundreds of games I bought because of Game Sack. As Joe and Dave have said many times, they play the bad games, so you do not have to. But in all seriousness, I own a Saturn, Master System and Turbo Grafix 16 all because of Game Sack. In a world of one and done entertainment. Game Sack creeps back into my playlists because I use it almost like reference material or a checklist. I find myself watching the episodes before I go on long trips so if I pop into a retro game shop my impressions of what I want to buy are fresh.

The bottom line is that this channel almost feels tailer made for collectors. If you want to get into collecting retro games and consoles but are not sure where to start, then I cannot recommend the channel enough. It is informative, and the quality of the recordings, both video and audio, is second to none. Try out this channel, especially the console focused episodes, it will make a collector out of you.