‘Retro Park’ Revives the Nostalgia of 80s and 90s Video Games at the 2025 Esports World Cup

03 Oct ‘Retro Park’ Revives the Nostalgia of 80s and 90s Video Games at the 2025 Esports World Cup

The video game industry has undergone rapid evolution over the past decades, with various devices and platforms shaping the characteristics of successive generations, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.

In this context, the Retro Park pavilion attracted large crowds at the 2025 Esports World Cup, currently taking place on Riyadh City Boulevard. It offers an interactive journey through the world of classic video games, inspired by the 1980s and 1990s, continuing into the 2000s and up to the present day, starting with the 1972 Odyssey, the world’s first home game console, and culminating with today’s virtual reality technologies.

In the 1970s, specifically in 1977, the Atari video game console gained prominence with its iconic Pac-Man. In 1983, the Arab world saw the launch of its first home video game console in Arabic, known as Sakhr, along with the family console, fondly remembered by a generation for the classic Mario game.

In the early 1990s, the Super Nintendo console emerged, accompanied by the release of Super Mario World in 1993. Arcade machines also became popular in gaming halls before many of their titles were adapted for home consoles.

A significant turning point came in 1996 with the launch of Sony’s PlayStation, which gained immense popularity thanks to its hit game Crash. The decade concluded with the release of the Sega Dreamcast console.

In the 2000s, home video games made major advances with the release of PlayStation 2 and 3, along with popular games like Ratchet & Clank and Black Ops. Nintendo also launched the successful Wii, while portable consoles from Nintendo and PlayStation gained momentum. The emergence of YouTube in 2005 laid the foundation for “Let’s Play” content and other gaming-related media.

In the second decade of the millennium, video games continued to evolve with the rise of motion-based games like Just Dance, while meme culture and reaction content spread among gamers and internet users, becoming part of their digital memory.

By 2020, virtual reality (VR) technology gained significant importance through the use of VR headsets, elevating the gaming experience to unprecedented levels and becoming a key part of the global future of the industry.

The Saudi gaming scene is an active part of this evolution, with the Kingdom experiencing significant growth in the number of players and content creators, in line with Saudi Vision 2030, which emphasizes the gaming sector as part of digital transformation and youth empowerment.