Recommend me an old handheld console

[The_J]

So.... somehow, I sometimes I have the need to entertain myself, and after thinking a bit, an old handheld console might be the best for me.
But now which...?

Why the decision:

• Q: Why don't you play on your PC some rounds of Civ? A: My PC is 11 years old without a decicated graphics card, and it runs an Ubuntu. It works perfectly fine, and I only expect the HDD to crash at some point, in which case I'll just use one of the other 2 in it. In short: Not a gaming machine, and I don't want to upgrade it
• Q: Why don't you watch some TV instead? A: I don't have a TV, and not really a space in my apartment where it would nicely fit. I also don't feel like paying for a monthly streaming subscription if I maybe want to use it once a month
• Q: Why not a normal console? A: I don't have a TV... are you even following me?
• Q: Why don't you just buy a Switch? A: Because I TBH don't want to spend that much money, and I' also don't want to keep up with all the current stuff, and online stuff, and I'm getting old and grumpy, get of my lawn.

So, therefore I decided I should just my an old handheld, because I don't plan to play a lot, and therefore don't want to invest a lot of money. Limited battery life is fine. A limited game selection is actually also fine, then there are less things to think about.

I grew up with the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and SNES, and also had a Gameboy, so that is the oldest suitable era. But I've not really kept up with anything. I've had a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_handheld_game_consoles , and the candidates are the ones from the big companies

• Sega Game Gear
• Gameboy Advance (no point in the normal or colour if there's compatibility)
• Nintendo DS
• Nintendo 3DS
• Playstation Portable
• PS Vita

The rest is of no importance, unless I missed anything...?
(although the Sega Nomad really sounds cool)

Any thoughts and insights, what's best for retrogaming right now?

 

[Kyriakos]

I only had the original Gameboy (green colors...)

Wouldn't recommend it.

In fact, can't you play more advanced games on your phone?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I make do with the games from Steam and Big Fish Games. But then I'm not into war games or shooting games.

(just tried the Chimp Quest demo... chimpanzees building signal towers, fighting boars, building bridges, collecting bananas... it's a time-management game with no "relaxed" mode, but at least I haven't done worse than 2 stars out of 3... so far)

 

[amadeus]

I’d go with the GBA for its backwards compatibility with original Game Boy and color titles. One consideration though is that some of these games use battery backups and those batteries in the cartridges are over 20 years old, so you might not be able to save progress. They’re pretty much regular watch batteries so they can be swapped, but you have to go through the hassle of switching them out.

 

[Synobun]

You mention not wanting a Switch due to cost, but you can get a similarly priced handheld and use it as an emulator for everything on your list. For example, the Odin 2 can emulate everything except the Xbox line and from PS3 onward.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Anyone remember the Neo Geo Pocket Color?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo_Geo_Pocket_Color

 

[Chukchi Husky]

A Nintendo DS can play Game Boy Advance games and a 3DS can play Nintendo DS games. The Game Gear is basically a hand held Master System and it eats batteries unless you get it modded. I do have a modded Game Gear with rechargable battery packs, better sound and a back lit screen. With any hand held before the DS you may want to get a modded version. If you have the money you may also want to get an Ever Drive cartridge, it's a cartridge with an SD card slot.

Anyone remember the Neo Geo Pocket Color?

One of my friends has one of those. It lasts forever on batteries.

 

[Sarin]

Another option: play old games. Really, really old ones. You computer should be capable of handling anything that is about 20+ years old, either through WINE or DosBox. And even in that category, there are gems that can entertain you for years.

 

[Angst]

Gameboy Advance's library is actually crazy good. Nintendo DS can run GBA games and also has a cool library. If you get a GBA, make sure you get the... I think the one named the GBA SP? It's less comfortable in your hand but has a backlight.

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

I had a Nomad. It played Sega Genesis games, like Streets of Rage 1 and 2, a few Sonic games. And some others I forget. Never had that many.
I got a PC, though, and never looked back.

 

[amadeus]

How about some of those Tiger handheld games? Pro baseball so realistic you’d think you were Billy Martin himself.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

You mention not wanting a Switch due to cost, but you can get a similarly priced handheld and use it as an emulator for everything on your list. For example, the Odin 2 can emulate everything except the Xbox line and from PS3 onward.

This is the correct answer. FWIW, the Vita is also a great emulation machine if you still want an actual console from one of the Big Three.

If you genuinely want to use a handheld in its official capacity only, my vote is for GBA, which gets you the entire Game Boy family library. My second pick would be the PSP, a criminally underrated console with plenty of bangers.

 

[Zelig]

So, I’ve actually been catching up on games over the past number of years and am currently finishing up the GBC library with Oracle of Ages/Seasons.

TBH you’re going to be best served by just emulating older handhelds - you can play with a modern controller and paper over the lack of QoL features by spamming save states and fastforward shortcuts on the controller. edit: And anything up to GBA level will work on basically any PC released within the last decade.

The 3DS (either the New 3DS XL or New 2DS XL) are worth getting on their own - they have deep libraries (including DS games), and their dual screens can’t be adequately emulated. One downside is that some of the better games are now getting pretty expensive for the physical cartridges, and the estore was recently shut down. (Many original DS games were available on the Wii U eshop where you can use the Wii U gamepad as the second screen… but the Wii U eshop has also been closed.)

The playdate is also pretty neat: https://play.date/

My general approach to older games is that I skip any games if there are newer remasters available - by that metric, the PSP/Vita didn’t have any exclusives that were really worth playing.

• Q: Why not a normal console? A: I don't have a TV... are you even following me?

Do you only own a laptop without an external display? If so, that sounds... awful. You could get a USB-powered HDMI capture card and use any console with an HDMI output with your laptop's display, but I'm not sure on how performant that would be with an old laptop.

 

[Kyriakos]

11 years is a good age to take your computer to the retirement home, and adopt a new one.
Although these days, computer makers don't care about optimizing games as much, so better buy something near the top if you don't want the computer to be noisy.

 

[Ordnael]

If you don't mind a smaller screen than the standard PSP, the Go model is a great machine! I also own a N3DSXL but the sheer versatility of Sony's OS for the PSP that makes the hardware pretty much a media centre and the ease of soft hacking this system to play pretty much anything PSP era and below, makes the Nintendo system hard to recommend. I watched Saint Seiya OVA's while taking the train to my, now, wife, played SNES civ, while also going trough the absolute masterpiece that is MGS Peace Walker. And with the correct cables you can also plug it to a 2000s TV Set.

 

[Plains-Cow]

Just emulate games on a DS. Easy. You can even buy DSes with games on them on ebay.

 

[The_J]

I’d go with the GBA for its backwards compatibility with original Game Boy and color titles. One consideration though is that some of these games use battery backups and those batteries in the cartridges are over 20 years old, so you might not be able to save progress. They’re pretty much regular watch batteries so they can be swapped, but you have to go through the hassle of switching them out.

Ah, I always wondered how that worked.
And why not more games had saving mechanisms, now that makes sense.

You mention not wanting a Switch due to cost, but you can get a similarly priced handheld and use it as an emulator for everything on your list. For example, the Odin 2 can emulate everything except the Xbox line and from PS3 onward.

TBH you’re going to be best served by just emulating older handhelds - you can play with a modern controller and paper over the lack of QoL features by spamming save states and fastforward shortcuts on the controller. edit: And anything up to GBA level will work on basically any PC released within the last decade.
[...]
The playdate is also pretty neat: https://play.date/

In all seriousness, I'm just getting old. I want something simple.
Here I need to think about which emulator, then where to get games from, which in most cases is also illegal, then need to see if they work, and also need to figure out what to play... naaaa.... I just want to put in a cartridge and not think further.

If I intended to play a lot, or ... I don't know, simply had more time, then I'd totally follow these suggestions though.

The playdate seems cool, but would be a bit concerned about the quality of games.

A Nintendo DS can play Game Boy Advance games and a 3DS can play Nintendo DS games.

Does that....er... propagate? I mean if the 3DS can play DS games, and the DS can play GBA games, can the 3DS play GBA games?

Do you only own a laptop without an external display? If so, that sounds... awful. You could get a USB-powered HDMI capture card and use any console with an HDMI output with your laptop's display, but I'm not sure on how performant that would be with an old laptop.

I have a computer screen from very ancient times, it has VGA and DVI input, and it measures as 19 inch, but feels older.
So... nope .

 

[Chukchi Husky]

Does that....er... propagate? I mean if the 3DS can play DS games, and the DS can play GBA games, can the 3DS play GBA games?

No. With the 3DS family Nintendo removed the GBA slot. It's similar with what Nintendo did with their home consoles. The Wii could play GameCube games and the Wii U could play Wii games but not GameCube games.

The 3DS Virtual Console used to have GBA games, but Nintendo closed the eShop a few months ago.

 

[Zelig]

In all seriousness, I'm just getting old. I want something simple.
Here I need to think about which emulator, then where to get games from, which in most cases is also illegal, then need to see if they work, and also need to figure out what to play... naaaa.... I just want to put in a cartridge and not think further.

If I intended to play a lot, or ... I don't know, simply had more time, then I'd totally follow these suggestions though.

I guess... I recently did a from-scratch emulation setup for Oracle of Seasons that took like 15 minutes... while I'm probably saving 10+ hours during actual gameplay via save states and fast-forwarding.

Sourcing legit physical cartridges isn't much easier than sourcing games from non-cartridge sources. The internet in rife with bootleg cartridges (the cartridge equivalent of burned CDs), including high-quality reproduction boxes/manuals. Legit originals of non-shovelware tend to command significant price premiums. e.g. checking ebay now, the going rate for Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for the DS is in the $120 range (or $400+ for new-in-box copies)

The playdate seems cool, but would be a bit concerned about the quality of games.

That's a fair concern, and I haven't played enough of them to comment too much, but some are better than others - I've found it's easiest to just be fairly aggressive about abandoning ones you don't like (plus a lot of the games are deliberately short), versus retro consoles you can just stick to the greatest hits.

I'd note that most consoles' libraries haven't aged particularly well - e.g. by my determination there were four NES games worth my time, eight GBA games, six N64 games, zero PSP games, zero Vita games, etc. (And most of these only tolerable with the aforementioned save states and fast-forwarding, if I had to play them in real time the list would be even shorter.) Playdate games, while varying in quality, are at least generally afforded modern game design conveniences.

Even if you don't want a PC setup, retro hardware is just... not very good. The Analogue pocket blows away original Nintendo hardware for gameboy games: https://www.analogue.co/pocket

I have a computer screen from very ancient times, it has VGA and DVI input, and it measures as 19 inch, but feels older.
So... nope [IMG alt=""]https://forums.civfanatics.com/data/assets/smilies/lol_xmas_cfc.gif[/IMG].

HDMI and DVI are electrically compatible! A $10 cable or $5 adapter will let you plug any modern console into your monitor! Though you'd have to figure something else out for sound output...

 

[amadeus]

Ah, I always wondered how that worked.
And why not more games had saving mechanisms, now that makes sense.

Nintendo in Japan had originally released some titles like Zelda on floppy disk. The downsides of course were slower loading times and reliability problems since the disk surfaces were left unprotected, much like the old 5 1/4” floppies.