Retro gaming is quite popular among geeks. Retro gaming consoles allow people who grew up in the 80s and 90s to relive their fond memories. I still remember the endless hours I spent playing my Commodore 64. We didn’t have hi-res graphics back in the day but we surely enjoyed those games. In this post, I will show you how to acquire a retro gaming console and share my experiences with it.
Getting the console
This part is simply ordering an item but I wasn’t aware these things existed so it may be a surprise to some of you too. Just go to eBay and search “retro game console”.
You should get a LOT of results that look identical and look like the ones shown below:
Of course, I can only show the UK ones, but since the kits look identical I’m sure they are pretty much the same everywhere for the price of £20 and equivalent.
Once you unpack your box, you get these contents:
Contents:
- 1x Host
- 2x Gamepad (battery not included)
- 1x 64G memory card
- 1x USB receiver
- 1x HDMI cable
- 1x USB power cable
- 1x Manual
Setting Up the Console
Normally I would never plug in a product like this, but it’s completely offline. It connects to your TV via HDMI. It’s a self-contained small Linux box running Retroarch OS. All the games are already installed so no network connection is required. This gave me assurance for security and I plugged in the box and put batteries in the gamepad.
It boots very quickly and you get a list of the games already:
There are so many games and navigation may be a bit challenging at first because you have to get accustomed to the buttons on the gamepad.
Once you’ve got hold of that, all you have to do is find your childhood’s favourite games:
Conclusion
Ideally, I’d like to build my own retro gaming console, probably based on a new Raspberry Pi 5. That way I can enjoy every step of the experience, not just the result. But it’s also good to know that to get the job done, all you have to do is fork over £20, plug a small computer into your TV and you’re good to go!