Gaming is our specialty, but definitely not our only field of work!
If this is your first visit to the site, welcome! If not, welcome back and hopefully you’ll learn a little about what we do, and more importantly why we do it! I founded Retrodex back in 2017 as a way to start developing video games and code, giving me a presence in spaces where a formed company was required to access resources such as development kits, API’s and even to promote the company as something more than one-man one-band development on app stores. Even in the Doom modding community where I cut my teeth coding and developing it gave me a way to separate from the personal side where lets be fair, opening yourself up on the internet is a dangerous game!
As time went on I was finding myself repairing and upgrading my machines in house, and in conversation with people I found more and more who wanted their machine repaired, but had no faith in larger chains, or local repairers who mis-quoted or just straight ignored customer requests. With this I took a large tangent and set up shop!
Nothing working wasted, no matter how old the Silicon!
So I began, orders came in, machines got repaired, upgrades installed and custom rigs built. The important thing for me is that waste is minimised. Too many times I see upgrades and replacement machines upsold instead of repairing or sidegrading perfectly serviceable machines that end up destined for a skip! Even 10 year old machines can feel fresh and responsive with the right software and hardware combination and provide years of use over and above the original planned service life. This is where we come in at Retrodex.
A prime example of this is our use of Ubuntu Web and Chrome OS Flex. Both of these operating systems are incredibly easy to use, android style systems that can be installed on any machine and leverage the power of cloud computing to offload actions to remote servers, meaning even low power machines can feel brand new! Second is our repair policies…
The guts of a Sega Game Gear receiving new capacitors
While we aren’t yet equipped to perform true component level repair to modern PCBs, we can do these repairs on older consoles and laptops, especially those suffering from the capacitor plague of the late 90’s/ early 2000’s! What is done however, is only replacing those components that actually require it, minimising wastage and constantly adjusting skills on those damaged components with the aim of being able to provide true cost-effective repairs with zero waste. For now, any damaged parts are properly recycled to minimise the plastic and rare metal wastage and do our little bit to help cut said wastage.
That brings us to today. Thanks to your trust and returning patronage we have been able to consistently upgrade the workshop, and provide more and more services which you will see adding to the website over the coming weeks. More and more machines are adding to the store, fully recovered and repaired, complete with our 3 month warranty (coming soon!) on all repairs, or the manufacturers warranty on parts (whichever is greater).
Where it started
Where we are!
The proudest part of our workshop is everything we use to manage and repair machines, has been built or repaired in house rather than purchased new! It may not sound like much, but monitors, TV’s, KVM’s, network switches, servers, PC’s, laptops, iPads, workbench, tools, even the walls are all done in house to minimise that key wastage stat to at most, a PC case box worth every three months.
Repairing a network switch
Racking reclaimed machines
Repairing the big monitor!
While the company name found its roots in the software field, it’s the hardware we shine. We still deal with software, in fact, we are accredited by Microsoft to advise on their Azure & 365 business suites, as well as fully capable of equipping your business with cloud, hybrid and local systems to mirror our own, or provide something completely bespoke to ensure you can operate as efficiently as possible!
So there you have it, with Retrodex you are funding a small dream of one day being able to open a full store, with in-house build tables to build your own machine with our guidance if needed, a place to hang out while browsing, and an honest and straight talking maintenance system that only carries out the work required on your beloved machine, while doing everything we can to keep your data safe, secure and importantly, recoverable when needed knowing that we carry out the work on our own machines too!
If you would like to know more, please comment below, use the chat plugin or drop us an email at enquiries@retrodex.co.uk! We have a constantly changing stock in the store and are always expanding our services! More importantly, we love engaging with our customers and potential customers!
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