If you've wandered into Retro Code Ramen, you've essentially walked into my workshop.
By day, I'm an IT professional with a decade of experience keeping networks alive, securing environments, and making complicated systems behave like polite citizens. I build infrastructure, automate workflows, and spend a suspicious amount of time thinking about how to make technology both powerful and human. I take the work seriously. I just don't take myself too seriously.
By night, I build things no one asked for.
Fantasy consoles that never existed but should have. A 1994-era machine called Nitro Core DX with real FPGA ambitions. An 8-bit prequel console from an alternate 1989. A modern reimagining of the Cybiko using LoRaWAN because of course I would try to reinvent dial-up culture with mesh networking. A Tiger-electronic-style handheld with swappable e-ink cartridges that I absolutely need to get back to. A tabletop RPG called Rad Renegades and Fierce Foes that feels like Saturday morning TV collided with a rulebook.
I like the future that could have been. So I build it.
When I'm not soldering imaginary timelines together, I'm rolling dice in D&D, slinging spells in Magic: The Gathering, or writing code that probably didn't need to exist but feels better now that it does. I have a soft spot for anachronisms, retro interfaces, and anything that boots with a startup chime.
But none of that is the center of the story.
The center is home.
I have two brilliant kids who constantly make me feel like I'm behind on my own upgrade cycle. One is an aspiring engineer who treats remote-control cars like research platforms. He builds, modifies, programs, reads, moves, and somehow fits Construct game development into what most people would call "free time." Engineering is his hobby, not his homework.
The other is a gentle soul with big Sonic energy and even bigger dreams of becoming a software developer. Maybe game development. Maybe something entirely new. In between, there's dancing, creativity, and the kind of joy that makes you want to protect the world just a little better.
And then there's my wife.
She's ambitious in the best way. Never stagnant. Always reaching. She works hard, studies hard, and somehow remains the sweetest, most grounded person in the room. She's driven without losing kindness. Focused without losing warmth. I build fictional consoles; she builds real momentum. I'm lucky. I know it.
We also have two dogs who believe they run the house. They might be right.
Retro Code Ramen is the intersection of all of this. Professional discipline meets playful curiosity. Enterprise IT meets pixel art. Structured systems meet chaotic creativity. It's where I document the experiments, the half-finished prototypes, the resurrected ideas, and the occasional moment where something actually works on the first try.
If you're into retro tech, fantasy hardware, tabletop worlds, slightly over-engineered projects, and the ongoing attempt to build a kinder, nerdier corner of the internet, you're in the right place.
Welcome to the workshop.
