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Some thoughts on introducing vintage video games to the kids

I’ve been thinking about ways to introduce vintage video games to our kids, specifically ones from the NES, SNES, and Sega Genesis eras.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a new-ish emulation handheld by Anbernic – the RG35XXSSP. It’s got a clamshell form-factor (just like the Gameboy Advance SP), costs around $65 USD, and comes with a 64GB memory card.

The nice thing is that it can run a variety of custom launchers on top of the built-in emulators. I’m currently using one called MinUI by Shaun Inman (yes, that Shaun Inman), which I really like.

MinUI simplifies the interface, making it almost like an Analog Pocket, but without the $500 price-tag.

So, I can load a bunch of legally-obtained ROMs for games like Super Mario Bros, Tetris, etc.1 And, hopefully, the simplified interface and handheld form-factor make it a nice little device to hand over to the kids for playtime.

  1. My (current) shortlist of games: Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Excitebike, Tetris, Bubble Bobble ↩︎