Introducing THEC64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld from HyperMegaTech and RetroGamesLtd
Coming October 2026, pre-orders now open! £109.99 | $129.99 | €129.99 each
Collector’s Editions available from Funstock with a dedicated hard shell case and an exclusive Crash/Zzap!64 Magazine! Limited to 2000 units!
Your keychain can run a C64 emulator lol. This is a crazy price.
$130 for what? Every $30 Handheld from ali express runs those systems flawlessly. Probably also comes preloaded with every of their games ever.
For that price, you’d at least expect a slide-out QWERTY keyboard under the game pads so you can do some BASIC programming when you get bored of Chucky Egg.
Let’s say 60 for a really good one but otherwise fully agreed. (I think it’s a given it’s non fpga since their other mini systems aren’t either)
Are these the FPGA ones or just specially branded ARM Linux retro-gaming handhelds?
Other than the form factor, why is this needed? There are tons of cheap linux handhelds that play these games. And if you like the form factor, there have been C64 and ZX emulators for the Nintendo DS for ages. Emulators that are old enough to drive at this point. I mean, if the price point was closer to $40, I could see it. $60 would be pushing it.
Plus, it tics one of my pet peeves of having a 16:9 screen for a specifically 4:3 media.
Other than the form factor, why is this needed?
Having labeled dedicated run/stop, F1, F3 and F5 keys is a huge lifestyle update for certain C64 games.
The C64 keyboard was literally built in and so always present, so some game devs gave no thought to how their game would function without a keyboard
Edit: I’m not saying that’s worth the price, of course!
But I think it’s cool. If I had million million wishes, I would spend one on this device.
Who needs FOUR buttons? Madness.
Another perspective, it’s ONLY FOUR buttons? It’s emulating a computer, surely there are games that require more keyboard support. You could play a C64 emulator on a Nintendo DS, and you would still get the same form factor, the same button layout, the right screen ratio, AND a virtual keyboard on the lower screen.
