R36S Retro Handheld Games Console, 3.5-Inch IPS, Dual Sticks

It won't get you back to 1997. But it'll get you pretty close.

You remember the feeling far better than you remember the graphics.

Thumb locked on a D-pad. The very specific panic of a boss you'd nearly beaten four times running. Split-screen with someone sitting close enough that you could see their half if you cheated, which you did, every time.

All of it runs on this. The 8-bit stuff. The 16-bit sprite work that still looks better than it has any business looking. The first wobbly, ambitious run at 3D, when nobody had quite worked out where to put the camera yet.

The R36S is built for that era rather than adapted to it. A 3.5-inch IPS screen that treats pixel art like it was drawn on purpose, because it was. Dual analogue sticks and a full button layout for the later years. A D-pad with real travel for everything that came before.

It runs ROCKNIX, an open-source Linux gaming OS. No account to make, no store, no subscription, nothing asking you to buy the same thing twice. Adding to the library is drag and drop from your computer, about as involved as copying photos across, and a MicroSD card holds far more than you'll ever get through.

Your phone can technically do this. It just can't do it with your thumbs off the screen.

The details

• 3.5-inch IPS screen, sharp and bright enough to use outdoors
• Dual analogue sticks and a full button layout for the 3D era
• Real D-pad with proper travel for everything before it
• 2900mAh battery, around 4 hours of play per charge
• Four spring-loaded L/R shoulder buttons
• 128GB card with MicroSD expansion
• Runs ROCKNIX, open-source Linux. Load your own legally owned game files
• Fits a jacket pocket, not just a bag