Founder and CEO, Analogue; chief marketing officer, 8BitDo
US native Christopher Taber is behind Analogue, a video game hardware company reverse engineers classic video games in high-definition for nostalgic gamers — which was founded in 2011, and brought to Hong Kong in 2016.
For the retro game enthusiast, The seed was planted when he was in high school. “My brother and I had picked up an old Super Nintendo, which we didn’t grow up playing,” remembers the retro game enthusiast.
“We started doing quite a bit of reading online, looking into what the best games for Super Nintendo and Super Famicom were. We came across all these communities of people who were dedicated to just talking about video game history.”
When Taber went off to college in Montana to study philosophy, he started “refurbishing, restoring and re-selling classic video game items” out of his bedroom. Living without a car in cold Montana climes, he bootstrapped and made multiple deliveries a day by bike.
With no formal training, Taber is self-taught from reading books. “I was a designer, engineer, assembler, marketer, creative director, customer support, shipper, accountant, lawyer, and public relations specialist.”
With his products partially manufactured in Asia, he began spending time in Shenzhen. On his first visit to Hong Kong, he says he instantly fell for the place.
Today, Analogue has around 10 employees and independent contractors worldwide. Alongside running the company, he works as a chief marketing officer for 8Bitdo, a China-based video game company also specializing in retro games.
Taber says he wants to give video game history the “respect it deserves.”
“When we look at music history or film history, a respect has been cultivated for these mediums — to explore their histories, genres and artists within them. Unfortunately, the same has not been cultivated for video game history.”
“The first place to start for me, was to make a product that allows you to explore video game history, with no compromises.”
His first job? Working at a local bakery in Chicago, baking and then managing farmers markets.
His role model? Film director Werner Herzog, neuroscientist Sam Harris, Tesla boss Elon Musk, filmmaker and writer Andrei Tarkovsky.
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