Classic Game Room debuted as The Game Room in November of 1999 on the Internet startup, FromUSAlive. Founded by producer, writer, and artist Mark Bussler, the original show is regarded as the first Internet video game review show. The first series ran for about a year until it was canceled in 2000 after about 80 episodes.

The Classic Game Room HD series launched in February of 2008 on the fledgling website, YouTube. The series ran almost daily until 2017, after running its course. No longer were professionally produced game reviews relevant in a landscape of self-produced smartphone videos and the dawn of influencer culture.

Before shutting down the production studio, Bussler produced the Classic Game Room 2085 series on Amazon for a year in 2018, which is now available in its 15-hour entirety on Blu-Ray

In 2017, Bussler changed the company from videos into print and design publishing and rebranded it as CGR Publishing, which continues to this day.

To celebrate the series' 25th anniversary, Classic Game Room returned for a few final reviews in 2023-2024. Plans for a second season of Classic Game Room 2085 were tabled as the show failed to find a home in the era of Shorts and TikToks. As of this time, Bussler has no plans to continue hosting a show or recording game journalism. "Whether or not the series continues someday with someone else at the help is a source of discussion. Don't expect the original format again. It took too long to produce and doesn't fit well into 12-second chunks."

In 2025, after launching plans for a new product line from CGR Publishing, the Classic Game Room brand and characters may resurface as an animated series called (with the working title) Classic Game Room: Engage Disco. The experimental series celebrates 1970s and 1980s arcade gaming culture, music, and the classic atmosphere of space movies and 20th-century cyberpunk.

"I've already heard that Classic Game Room is returning, and that brings up the image of free game reviews on YouTube. That's not the case. It's not 2010 anymore. I have no interest in ever hosting a show again.

We have some really interesting stuff coming out later this year, and it just so happens that Classic Game Room is a good fit for it. I'm concentrating on filmmaking and sound design through animation while the CGR Publishing team looks at marketing. The Omega Ronin brand gets to handle all of the music distribution.

All I can say at this time is that I'm no longer doing anything that could be considered "content creation." That's all been absorbed by influencers and A.I.  We're going way out there with physical stuff that can't be replicated by keystrokes.

The same project is also wrapping CGR Publishing brands like Omega Ronin, Bird Fantastic, and maybe even SwordRealm into the mix. It'll make more sense later... but oddly enough, Classic Game Room gets to spearhead it. You may want to clear some room on your shelf. Nobody puts Edit-Station 1 in a corner!"

"Engage disco!"