Retro Mini Handheld plays NES cartridges, brings tears of nostalgia to our eyes
We've seen scads of portable NES mods in the past but still: this is probably relevant to your interests. ThinkGeek's got a new portable gaming system on offer, the Retro Mini Handheld. It plays all those 8-bit cartridges you've had stacked in your room next to your hi-fi since the olden days, and it's got a pretty attractive look. Sure, the cartridge is essentially bigger than the handheld itself, but that's part of its charm as far as we can tell. It's got a 2.4-inch LCD and takes four AA batteries for about 8 hours of game time, and it's available now for $49.99. There's one more shot after the break.
[Thanks, Adam]
[Thanks, Adam]
























That is pretty awesome.
Only one question remains:
When do we get co-op play?
Co-op would be awesome. I would have to imagine its not to hard for the company to retool it so that you can buy two of them and a special cable so that it copies the video feed from one and sends the control signal from the second controller back to the first unit.
Anyone know if the duck hunt guns would work on these :-D
Do want. That's slick.
This is one of the most beautiful retro game systems my eyes have seen. It's an NES Gameboy!!! SWEET!!!!!
tight, man. real tight.
Considering you probably couldn't even fit one NES cartridge in your pocket. It kind of kills the point of the "mini" aspect of this unit.
Thanks Mr Buzz Killington...
yup, ill take one
i'll wait til theres an R4 cart for this
looks like it would run famicom stuff too.
Father's Day - here I come. Now to just dig out my old NES carts.
Just warning you ahead of time, all of your saved games are likely to be screwed. So your totally pimped out 70+ hour Final Fantasy party is likely no more!
Memories, memories.. ahh good times..
It is very cool and all, but I don't want one. Retro gaming is fun to pull up a game for a few minutes. Maybe 30 at most. But I don't need to take it with me. Then again, if someone were giving it away (hint hint), then I'd be all over it.
You fail ... big time: Super Mario Bros. 3
That is all.
I fail?...because I don't get excited about paying $50 to play a game I won 20 years ago, that I can play for free on my PC? To quote The Princess Bride, "You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means". (with Spanish accent).
If the cartridge is so big why can't they make the screen bigger?
trust me, you don't want to see it running on >7" or 720p
It could have at least been 2.8 or 3 inches. I mean people played NES on much larger screens back in the day.
Try playing Gumshoe with the light gun on that min screen. That would be hilarious.
Cost? Just a wild guess.
A rival to the Sega Nomad has arrived!
The press shot should have included a Game Genie.
LOL. I thought the same thing. It's just WAY too bulky. Besides the fact that it's cool that others are still supporting retro gaming, I'd say go for a gp2x instead. pass.
+1
Its pretty sweet if you still have cartridges hanging around.....
Where do I plug in my Zapper?
I dunno, I would think it would just be worth it to spend the extra 40$ and get a dingoo or some other handheld emulation system. Then you dont have to deal with cartridges, get the same experience, plus an extra 5+ systems
getting this
Am I the only one to find the placement of the A and B buttons to be completely unacceptable?
How did so many people comment and read the article without noticing that?
YOU'RE ALL JUST PRETENDING TO LIKE IT, TO BE COOL.
I hope you buy this and permanently damage your right thumbs.
It'd be super-awesome, if I didn't already have a fully-functioning NES emulator for my WinMo phone -- complete with about 150 ROMs! Controls aren't as good, obviously, but still pretty awesome.
It probably wouldn't be as bad on on of the newer qwerty phones. The emulators run really nice on WinMo though.
My Dingoo A320 snaps a hearty salute!
I'll stick to my PSP and emulators, thank you.
I dig the idea, but it appears that I'm the odd man out in thinking that this unit has an extremely hideous and impractical design (not counting the giant cartridge, which I actually like).
What's up with the select button being a third face button? And those speakers are so 1950's. And a reset button a quarter of an inch away from my thumb while playing Galaga? That just sounds like a handheld-through-the-window moment waiting to happen.
I already have one, and I like it. The button placement is not as inconvenient as it looks. When you hold it in your hands, the buttons (and the control pad) fall naturally where your thumbs are.
Do you still have to blow into the cartridges to get them to work?
I'm sure the slow hot breath is needed on this one.
A PSP can hold an entire collection of games on the memory card, and has a bigger screen. It's more money, but it's worth it if you really want portable gaming.
OMFG
But does it play Crysis?
oh man, you're too funny. by the way, this thing has been available (ebay and such) for at least a year. i thought i read about it on here.
F*ck you.
(The above was directed towards x0rn, by the way.)
will game geine work? lol
anyone notice that the cartridge in the top picture says galaga, yet the game on screen is galaxian?
yes, I should get a life.
It's always a NES. Every time. China/HK/Korea need to put out some nice SNES emulation systems.
Sega GameGear with MasterGear Converter was here, Retro Mini Handheld sucks
You know half the space in NES cartridges was empty. I still to this day don't know why Nintendo of America decided to use such huge ass cartridges.
I guess it had to do with the way the Control Deck was shaped... you fed the cartridge into it like a top-loading VCR... if the cartridge was shorter... you'd never get it out.
But it also begs the question... why was the US NES Control Deck even shaped like that in the first place? Top-loading would have been much easier.