Gift Ideas

Toys > A Retro Console

November 18th, 2023

Anyone born after 2000 cannot grok the sea change in media consumption wrought by streaming and fast internet. The difference between “watch whatever’s on 5 TV channels, hire physical media for £4 a night, or buy it for £15 apiece” and “watch a limitless stream of high-quality content: consume as much as you like for maybe £10 a month” is staggering. The same revolution affected computer games. Yes, you can still buy an expensive console¹ and £60 games today, but now there’s vast options: mobile games, subscription services, and Steam sales make your £60 go a lot further.

One options is emulating old consoles. A lot of 16-bit games - the Mega Drive and SNES - are still great fun, even without any warmth from nostalgia. There’s good stuff in the 8-bit era too. And 30 years of technological progress has given us inexpensive fast processors and storage. The games can be found online. Which means you can now buy a handheld for $80 and play literally every game from 1995 and earlier.

If you’re buying one as a gift, know that some tinkering will be required. The initial setup can be tough to figure out. If they already have a Nintendo Switch, then their retro needs might already be met².

First of all, decide which systems you want to play. If you have no interest in anything newer than the Mega Drive and SNES, you don’t need joysticks³ or powerful hardware - the Anbernic RG35XX is fine. If you’d like to run PlayStation and N64 games, you’ll need better hardware and an analogue joystick: The Anbernic RG353M (metal, horizontal, $200), RG353V (plastic, vertical, $150), or Retroid Pocket 2S (plastic, horizontal, $140) should be fine. The /r/SBCGaming buyer’s guide has some more options.

Secondly, decide if you’ll pay extra for an included memory card. If so, it will come pre-loaded with games; if not, you’ll need a memory card and some ROMs. Legally you can only play games you already own; practically, you can download games online. Morally you’re on your own, but personally I think you’re fine to download 30-year-old games, especially if they’re not commercially available any more. I can’t tell you where to get them, but Reddit is a good start.

I own the Ambernic RG405M, and I really like it. Its metal body and more powerful internals cost about $220 all-in, but it can also run more systems. The PlayStation 2 games I’ve tried ran poorly, but I’ve had good luck with the Dreamcast⁴. It’s well-built, the screen is clear, and the battery life is great. It charges quickly via USB-C. It turns on and off instantly, so you can drop in and out of games. The OS is sufficient: it comes pre-loaded with emulators and has an attractive frontend⁵ for browsing most systems, but some⁶ require you to launch them from the Android interface instead. Selecting custom game install paths is fiddly. The default wallpaper is a glowing waifu.

But I’ve had a blast revisiting the games I played as a child, and others I missed. Yes, I could play these on my laptop, but not comfortably while lying in bed or on the sofa. I’m looking forward to my next flight. It’s been fun to see which games still hold up (Super Mario World, Yoshi’s Island, Wipeout, Mario Picross) and which do not (Battle Arena Toshinden, Psycho Fox). You can drop in on games that would leave you feeling ripped off if you’d bought them, and enjoy them for what they are (or abandon them without guilt). I think this would be a great gift for anyone who grew up in the 80s/90s/early 00s or is interested in retro gaming.

← A PS4 Controller