The "Modern Retro" Console - A modern console with no internet

[Pee Cola]

I understood. But it would be too niche. Not enough people would buy it.

True, and even the OP acknowledges this.

Whilst I really like the concept, I can't see any way this sort of console would succeed in the current year, especially at the proposed price point. Remember the Intellivision Amico? This was supposed to fill a very similar brief, but the whole thing ended in disaster.

Prior to the Amico, there was the Coleco Chameleon. Not so much a stillborn retro console as an outright scam; it was just an 8-bit NES-on-a-chip in an Atari Jaguar case.

The reality is that if you want a (relatively) inexpensive retro gaming experience on real hardware, something like a SNES or Genesis with an AliExpress Super Everdrive or Mega Everdrive clone respectively is as good as it gets, though it may be a generation too early for the OP to vibe with.

 

[BradeRunna]

True, and even the OP acknowledges this.

Whilst I really like the concept, I can't see any way this sort of console would succeed in the current year, especially at the proposed price point. Remember the Intellivision Amico? This was supposed to fill a very similar brief, but the whole thing ended in disaster.

Prior to the Amico, there was the Coleco Chameleon. Not so much a stillborn retro console as an outright scam; it was just an 8-bit NES-on-a-chip in an Atari Jaguar case.

The reality is that if you want a (relatively) inexpensive retro gaming experience on real hardware, something like a SNES or Genesis with an AliExpress Super Everdrive or Mega Everdrive clone respectively is as good as it gets, though it may be a generation too early for the OP to vibe with.

No, I don't remember those at all. It wouldn't succeed.

His best shot is to buy something like a Retro Pi or some other emulation device and just play older games. There are so many games for the older systems he could definitely manage to find new old games to play. You would have generation of consoles at your fingertips with massive libraries of games to play.

That's all it is. It's just a cool idea. There just isn't any practical about it.

 

[TaimuRadiu]

buy a wii

hack it

never connect it to the internet

get a classic controller

there you go

 

[William F. Clinton]

Something I'd like to see come back with a pseudo-retro console is the way console and older PC games' physical versions had a presentation of being more like box-sets than just discs or cartridges: big boxes, detailed manuals and compendiums, lavish artwork and commentaries, etc.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

Do you remember the Atari VCS or even the Ouyi? They did not do very well.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

The recent Switch 2 reveal has been a good argument for one of these.

 

[SSj_Ness (Yiffed)]

A new console with no internet capability

Already a bad idea imo. No reason to purposefully gimp the system. Online multiplayer and leaderboards was already a retro feature, Dreamcast normalized it but there were cracks at it before too. Online isn't at all a modern thing, it's just it being good and widespread that's changed.

 

[skykiii]

The problem with OP's idea is the problem with a lot of throwback ideas, which is unfortunately we don't live in the 1990s anymore so anything like this will just feel forced and artificial, and will at best be a novelty, completely different from, say, getting a SNES for the first time--when it came out, it was legitimately new and promising hardware, not a gimmick console meant specifically for old guys.

I have a similar problem to when someone makes a brand new NES game on a real cartridge. As cool as that is in concept, my brain just can't help but think "okay, but I would rather buy a ROM and play it on an emulator." Somehow a newly made game just does not have the same appeal as one that actually came out back when the system was new.

If anything I'm actually more depressed seeing something like this than I am of the idea of a console that relies entirely on digital downloads. The only way it would be exciting is if it somehow came about as a result of the world actually shifting in such a way where such a machine was viable again.

 

[Rome's rightful successor]

I'd buy a modern retro console that is just a bunch of retro games from multiple systems over the years that is organized by console like a non-subscription based nintendo online classics or a pre-built in pre payed Virtual Console. It has to be portable like the steam deck or the switch that can also link up to a monitor and play like a home console too.