The news of every year
A real headline for each year of your country, with an illustration — and how you heard it: a radio, a TV, a phone.
A life simulator in real decades
Live a whole life in the real decades of your country
Be born anywhere from 1950 to 2010 — in the USA, West or East Germany, or the USSR. Year by year: the news on the radio, the queue for a TV set, your first job, your first love, kids, grandkids. Then an heir carries on.
Coming soonApp StoreComing soonGoogle Play
- No ads
- Works offline
- No sign-up
Free to play · one-time Premium
Step one
Where will you be born?
Three countries, three very different childhoods. Pick one and turn the dial of decades below.
Step two
Turn the dial of decades
The game changes its colours, letters and music with every decade. So does this page — try it.
News of the year
1970sRETRO
Year by year
Everything a life is made of
1,400+ small stories
A plate of semolina, a borrowed bike, a first salary. Little humour and a lot of recognition.
39 jobs of their time
Miner, nurse, cooperator, shuttle trader, engineer at a research institute — each with its own stories.
History happens to you
Gagarin, the Wall, August 1991, the 1998 default, the Cuban crisis, 2008 — seen through your age and your family.
Echoes of the past
A boy you defended in school comes back forty years later. Small moments return when you least expect them.
A family line
Marry, raise children, help your parents. When your time comes, an heir lives on into the next decades.
Goals of a life
A doctor in the USSR, a house before 35, three children in the GDR. Pick a goal — or just live.
Live it better than me
Every life has a code. Send it to a friend: same country, same year, same start — who lives it better?
Moments
The days everyone remembers
Each country has its own. In the game they come at your age — a child sees them differently from a grandmother.
Move over the table · tap a card
Gallery
Over a hundred pictures of the past
Every illustration in the game is drawn in one warm, slightly rough print style. Filter by country, decade or kind.
Nothing here for this filter yet.
Questions
Before you start
What is Retrolife?
A text life simulator. You are born in a real year and country and live one life year by year — school, work, love, family, old age — with the real news of each year around you.
Which countries and years?
The USA, Germany (West and East until 1990) and the USSR/Russia. You can be born in any year from 1950 to 2010; a life can run on into the future decades.
Is it free?
Yes. The whole life and every country are free. A one-time Premium adds the exact birth year, character traits, rewinding a year and the look of any decade. There are no ads.
Is it on Android?
iPhone comes first. The Android version is in the works.
Is it historically accurate?
The news, prices and wages follow the real history of each country, simplified for a game. The people and stories are invented — your life is your own.
Which languages?
English, German and Russian.
One life. Your decades.
Tear off today's leaf and begin.
Coming soonApp StoreComing soonGoogle Play