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September 5th, 2026 By Gina Smith I remember my first escape room. I was terrified. I can be claustrophobic and the idea of being locked in a room was one of the scariest things I could think of. Then this opportunity to beta test a brand new escape room came up and we put up our hands, thinking that this might be a great way to give one a try. Alice in Wonderland at Confined Escape Rooms was a visual marvel: all done in black light reactive colours with a myriad of puzzles a

August 1st, 2026 By Gina Smith Just like that, July is behind us and August has arrived, bringing plenty more sunshine and warm weather. Summer has always been our quieter season, as families are busy camping, traveling, and making the most of the nice weather. Before long, though, backpacks will be packed, routines will return, and one of our busiest times of the year will be here... Birthday party season! When we first started dreaming about Retro Oasis, one thing was alway

July 22, 2026 by Gina Smith Phew. The last month has been incredibly busy. From Stampede to Summer Camps, we are always on our toes, trying to make Retro Oasis the best it can be. While our trip to the Calgary Stampede was an absolute blast, it did present us with a unique challenge: where would we put all those arcade machines once they returned to Okotoks? After much brainstorming and creative deliberation, we landed on a solution that perfectly leveraged our passion for b

Gina Smith June 9, 2026 Steve (Co-owner of Retro Oasis) is busy getting the machines ready for this years Calgary Stampede. We started loading in arcade machines this week, with the big load in on June 29th to the Lower Big Four building. It really should be quite something this year: 8-bit Roundup. More than 4000 square feet of pure retro bliss, including over 100 vintage arcade machines and 80 pinball machines old and new, all priced at a dollar a play. There will be a Loun

The Beginning... Let's give you a little background to start off with. We are Steve and Gina, the owners and operators of Retro Oasis. We are proud Gen Xers and come from a time before cell phones and streaming videos...back when you had to get up off the couch to change the channel on the TV to one of 3 local stations. Arcades were where you would go to hang out with your friends and play games and we didn't go home until we had to. Steve's always been into gaming—old school