this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2026
196 points (98.0% liked)

RetroGaming

30062 readers
25 users here now

Vintage gaming community.

Rules:

  1. Be kind.
  2. No spam, AI slop, or soliciting for money.
  3. No racism or other bigotry allowed.
  4. Obviously nothing illegal.

If you see these please report them.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

(Apologies if this was posted already, but I searched and didn't see anything.)

I think there's definitely a niche market for a low specs/low price handheld for 2D retro-style games. Here's hoping the rumor is true!

all 40 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 32 points 2 months ago

Oh snap! I hope it burns through AA's!

[–] WYLD_STALLYNS@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I owned a Game Gear and the battery usage was insane, almost as bad as my Nomad. By then I knew to plug everything in to an outlet.

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

portable 3ft from the outlet.

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 17 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Hey, at least you can play in your room where there was no probably TV, or in the living room if your parents were watching a show.

[–] IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Remember the game gear had a tv tuner?

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 1 points 2 months ago

Haha, oh yeah

[–] rozodru@piefed.world 4 points 2 months ago

also buying the car adapter was a must. My dad didn't like it though cause he smoked.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

If it doesn’t eat at least 25 batteries an hour I’m not interested.

[–] tehn00bi@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Portable modular nuclear reactor sold separately.

[–] maxalmonte14@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago (2 children)

This got me very excited, but with the source being "trust me, bro," I better not get my hopes up.

[–] The_Picard_Maneuver@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

I know... I'm in the same boat. Still though, could you imagine if they did?

[–] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Wouldn't surprise me if the source on Reddit is the same guy on the article... Edit: to be clear, I am not suggesting it is! Don't take it literally.

[–] toxicbubble@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

we need a dreamcast mini and new console, sega's been on a roll lately

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 months ago

Or a dreamcast 2.. Not the Xbox 😁

The steamcast. A dreamcast looking steam deck edition that comes with a new PSO in the same style as the original dreamcast era PSO. And a new shenmue-esque game.

[–] CoolSouthpaw@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

Only problem is that this will be overpriced af. At that point, you're better off getting an Android handheld and emulating everything for free...

I saved up and bought a Game Gear as a kid. But Mortal Kombat II eventually angered me so much one day that I smacked the front of the GG after losing to Johnny Cage. Screen went dark. No longer turned on. I mailed it to Sega for repair, and they sent it back saying nothing was wrong. Somehow during shipping, whatever I knocked loose got knocked back into working order. Magic console.

[–] IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com 8 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Sega should collab with valve.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

Introducing the SteamDeck Pro! Now with Knuckles!

[–] altkey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 months ago

With one of their current lead IPs Yakuza\Like a Dragon working so well on Linux, they don't even need launching titles to make it work. Just bundle SD with Ultimate Wealth and say you can kick asses offline, on the go, in a bus, on the coach. Done, you got several billions out of thin air.

[–] Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 points 2 months ago

Sega got out of hardware and it's probably the only reason they're still around.

This shit has got greedy hubris written all over it. They've seen the Neo Geo revival and rubbed their little hands together thinking of charging $49.99 a go for Sonic the Hedgehog.

[–] Luffy879@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 months ago

market for a low specs/low price handheld for 2D retro-style games

Its called an android emulator.

Those who have the money would rather go for a real retro console

Those who don't probably do not have the money to buy all those cartridges with only 1 game on them, and will just use their phone or pick up a cheap android tablet

And for the retro-modern niche there are emulator handhelds for very cheap

So, basically the target audience is people who:

  • don't have the money to buy a real retro console + games
  • have a problem with emulating/ripping the games themselves
  • want to pay full price for retro games (even if you take the price for steam, they are going to cost more due to the hardware
  • don't want any QoL like with emulator handhelds

It looks so primitive with just a d pad and two buttons.

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

a company that’s done licensed Sega hardware before

this is interesting. where the mega drive and gg mini hardware done in house by SEGA? because unless that was another company that they could recontract, the only other companies i can think of are TecToy, who were making functional non-emulation Master Systems well into the 2000s for South America, and AtGames, who the less said about, the better.

if SEGA Forever had been a bit later, they could have just licensed SEGA-branded Anbernic Arc-Ds. it's a shame that initiative fizzled out so quickly

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

See, here's the thing. The mini mega drive was released like 4 times. I think the first one was back in the mid 2000s trying to capitolize on the plug and play craze at the time. That one might have been done by AtGames.

They had one around 2016 that was juuuuuuuust before the NES Classic craze started. That one WAS done by AtGames, and it was awful.

The other 2 I don't know who did it. My point is, when it comes to the mini console megadrives, there are like 4 of them, and their history is a confusing convoluted mess. It's probably like WWII. No matter how much I learn about WWII, the next time I watch a video, I learn something new. Did you know hitler potentially could have began work on atom bomb technology development as early as 1942? The only reason hitler dismissed the idea is because the scientist was jewish. I won't repeat the quote hitler said upon being explained the concept of the atom bomb. I'd probably get reported to mods for hate speech. Lets just say that hitler was enthusiastic about the idea until he learned the lead scientist was jewish. At which point he said some very antisemetic things and refused to fund the research. He really shot himself in the foot with that one.

.......just the foot for now.

[–] _NetNomad@fedia.io 2 points 2 months ago

mega drive mini was a specific product from 2019, and a second one came out in 2022. the AtGames machines all had their own names like the Flashback or the Gencore

https://segaretro.org/AtGames#Sega-related_products

[–] FreedomAdvocate 1 points 2 months ago

No they were just cheap third party licensed devices.

[–] B0NK3RS@lazysoci.al 3 points 2 months ago

They'd probably be better off just licensing stuff to Evercade instead of doing something themselves.

[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 2 points 2 months ago

That Evercade looks way better, but $25 up to $50 for a cartridge is way too much. At $10 I would have bought them all (yes I know, licensing issues, etc.)

[–] thiscat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago

the idea is great however i fear that the library would be filled with low quality mobile like games they need to be extra careful to not accidently make a portable intellivision amico

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago
[–] Strider@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

OK that would be nice but how about the master system mini pretty please? I mean it's technologically very easy and get m.2 in again.. The only mini I am missing. 😁

But honest 2c. A new modern but cheap handheld with software running natively would be awesome if it's supported long term and open enough to be easily supported.

[–] plutopos@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is really not the right market nor economy for gimmick videogame hardware

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Depends. If it's cheap due to not needing much storage or RAM it could work.

[–] FreedomAdvocate 1 points 2 months ago

No reason to exist with how many cheap and amazing handhelds there are on the market.

[–] homes@piefed.world -3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

“Might” doesn’t blow my skirt up because it’s the language of Trump, you useless media shitbags

Either release it or don’t. I’ll downvote any cocktease clickbait headline until you do, fuckos