Best Retro Gaming Gear for 2026: Five Ways to Play the Classics the Right Way

So I found my old cartridges in a box at my mom’s house, right. Shoebox. Labels half peeled off, smells like a basement. And I’m holding them like they’re the Ark of the Covenant, and then it hits me: I’ve got nothing to play them on. Anyway, I’ve got to read this, so let’s read it.

Retro gaming isn’t about digging through a thrift store for a console with a yellowed case and a power brick held together with tape anymore. There’s real hardware now: handhelds loaded with licensed classics, consoles that take your original cartridges and put them on a modern TV, and controllers built for the old-school feel. These five picks run from something you can throw in a backpack to the full shrine under your TV.

Super Pocket Capcom Edition

Start here. It’s a pocket-sized handheld with 12 Capcom classics built right in: Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, Final Fight, Strider, Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, Mega Man, 1942, 1943, Bionic Commando, Captain Commando, Mercs, Forgotten Worlds and 1944: The Loop Master. Eleven of those are the arcade versions, which is the version you were feeding quarters into at the pizza place. It also has a cartridge slot that takes Evercade carts, so when you finally beat Ghouls ‘n Ghosts, which you won’t, there’s a whole library waiting. Turn it on and you’re playing.

8BitDo Ultimate 2 Bluetooth Controller

The rest of this list is about playing the old stuff, and this is what you hold while you do it. It works with Switch, Switch 2 and Windows. TMR joysticks are 8BitDo’s next step past Hall effect sticks, built for precision and long-term durability. The triggers flip between linear Hall effect and clicky tactile, so you can go analog for racers or snappy for shooters. There are two pro-level back buttons, vibration, motion controls on Switch, and a charging dock, so it’s always charged when you sit down. Quick heads-up: Switch 2 support needs a firmware update from 8BitDo before the first session.

Atari 2600+

This is where it all started. The Atari 2600+ plays original Atari 2600 and 7800 cartridges and puts them on your modern TV over HDMI, with a widescreen mode if you want it. In the box: a CX40+ joystick recreated to the original’s specs, and a 10-in-1 cartridge with Adventure, Combat, Missile Command and Yars’ Revenge. If your parents still have their cartridges in a closet somewhere, this is the excuse to go get them. One note: there’s a USB-C power cable in the box but no wall adapter, so grab one from the drawer.

Evercade Nexus and Banjo-Kazooie Double Pack

This is Evercade’s newest handheld, and it’s the big one. A 5.89-inch screen, dual analog sticks for the first time on an Evercade portable, and a button that flips vertical arcade shooters into portrait mode. The bundle includes a cartridge with Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, reworked for the Nexus with widescreen and a twin-stick camera. If you spent any of 1998 yelling at that camera, this is your redemption arc. It also plays the existing Evercade cartridge library, and EverSync lets two Nexus owners play together off a single cartridge.

Analogue 3D Funtastic Watermelon Limited Edition

And here’s the shrine piece. Analogue 3D doesn’t emulate the N64. It uses FPGA hardware (a chip programmed to behave like the original circuits) to recreate it, so it plays your real cartridges, and it’s compatible with the full N64 library. It outputs up to 4K, it’s region-free, and it has four original-style controller ports for your old pads. This one comes in translucent watermelon red, matched to the see-through plastics everyone was obsessed with in the late 90s. It’s the console your childhood should have had, plugged into the TV you actually own.

That’s the lineup. A pocket arcade for the commute, a controller for your hands, the original cartridge king, a new Evercade with Banjo in the box, and a translucent N64 for the shelf. Go find that shoebox. That’s it, that’s the read. Links are right there.