Each year, the Detroit Retro Gaming Show sends waves of video and computer game nostalgia throughout the region. And you have Andy Duff to thank for it all.

Andy lives in West Bloomfield with his wife, Sevan Karadolian Duff, and from the moment you step into their home, it’s clear he’s serious about gameplay.

“My entire basement is an arcade,” he said. “Pinball machines, vintage consoles and cartridges, artwork, vinyl records. Every era of gaming is represented here.”

That philosophy is at the heart of the Detroit Retro Gaming Show, which Andy founded in 2021. Originally held at the Livonia Elks Lodge under the name Detroit Retro Video Game Show, the event has grown to over 2,000 attendees.

“It fills the 28,000-square-foot Southfield Pavilion each November,” he said. “Over 50 vendors selling retro games, consoles and gear. And we’re starting a new event – the Ann Arbor Gamefest – in the spring, expanding the community even further.”

For Andy, the show is beyond mere buying and selling.

“It’s about families,” he said. “Parents bring their kids to show them what they grew up with. People discover things they’ve never seen before, including prototypes, rarities and homebrews. You take the headset off, get out of the house and connect with real people, live in-person.”

The event features curated exhibits, including a display of famously ill-fated 1990s consoles.

“Atari Jaguar, TurboGrafx-16, Philips CD-I, Sega 32X,” he said. “The failures are just as interesting as the successes. They tell an important part of the story.”

Andy’s dad is from Minnesota and his mom is from Mount Clemens.

“I grew up in Waterford,” he said. “Graduated Waterford Mott High School. Then I attended MoTech Automotive Education Center in Livonia and worked as a mechanic throughout the 1990s. Later, I transitioned into IT after studying at Baker College, and worked in IT until about a year ago.”

Along the way, Andy was also a DJ, a skill he feels has been diluted by modern DJ software.

“The art of blending and transitioning vinyl records was mostly lost with the rise of digital computers,” he said. “Spinning New Wave vinyl will always be my favorite.”

Gaming, though, has been a mainstay.

“The Atari 2600 changed my life,” Andy said. “And the PlayStation 3 in 2006 was another turning point. It wasn’t just a console, it was a Blu-ray player, a media hub. It showed where things were headed. I own every PlayStation from 1 through 5.”

A big fan of physical media, Andy hopes to add vinyl records to his shows.

“I love physical media,” he said. “It commits you to the experience more. I even had over 2,000 CDs before I reluctantly digitized them to save space.”

In 2014, Andy and Sevan moved to West Bloomfield and quickly fell in love with the area.

“It’s centrally located, close to family and has everything we need,” Andy said. “Favorites include Mezza, Nino Salvaggio and J. Alexander’s, and I love cruising around on my Vespa GTS 300.”

When they’re not home, the couple spends time at their cottage in Coleman or up at Higgins Lake on their 20-foot Crownline Bowrider.

For Andy Duff, whether it’s gaming, music or community, the real high score isn’t found on a screen, it’s found in bringing people together.

“That’s the magic,” he said.