Ok, this trend of miniature game consoles was cute when it first launched… but now it’s getting ridiculous.
Yes, this is real. On launch it will cost $99 and come with at least 30 games according to their Q&A. I seriously don’t know where to begin; to this day I still play games from the MSDOS era (Wolf3D being one of the more recent ones), and have even installed DOSBOX on my Amazon Fire for my own small amusement. Why would you spend almost $100 to get a tiny box that plays some of the oldest old school games that ever did old school, when you can do the same thing on hardware you already own? Including smartphones? If you do a search on ebay for a raspberry pi kit you’ll immediately see cheaper options for building your own.
You could also argue that people might want to buy these because they don’t have the time to build their own, or don’t have the knowledge of using a raspberry pi and installing operating systems and then configuring them to start/run accordingly. Normally I would agree, but most of the people that I knew growing up who liked to play MSDOS games were already people who tinkered with their PC’s, whereas with consoles you just plugged them in and inserted a cartridge/disc… done like dinner.
Can’t I just buy a Raspberry Pi, an enclosure, gamepad, keyboard, and mouse, 3D print a faceplate, install Armbian, buy 30+ games, build the source for ARM or install/configure in DOSBox for each and every game, create a menu system with game art, and tell everyone about it at parties?
No.
Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do! :zorak: I’ve actually been reading up more on Raspberry Pi’s and have contemplated getting some sort of kit… possibly of the portable variety. I’m just not sure what I would use it for. Perhaps make my own tablet if my Kindle catches fire?