Retrogaming has certainly gone mainstream this year. The NES Classic Mini is 2016's Tickle Me Elmo--in my opinion, dramatically overhyped for the scant 30 onboard games and mysteriously scarce considering its relatively simple tech. This is like the third time in recent memory that Nintendo has been plagued with inexplicable product shortages, and I'm paranoid enough to suspect that they're trying to drive up demand. There are other options, of course, but nothing that plays everything...yet.
Newcomer Doyodo is entering the fray with the RetroEngine Sigma, an emulation console that promises to play everything from Vectrex to PSP, Amstrad to N64. The console itself is palm-sized like the NES Mini, but is housed in a stainless steel case reminiscent of the model-1 Sega Genesis. It outputs to HDMI and accepts a wide range of USB gamepads but there's no clue as to how to put games on the thing; Doyoda's very bare-bones website and trailer does not indicate internet connectivity or an SD card slot.
In fact there's very little on the ground about this supposedly miraculous little console. The teaser site promises that more info is coming soon. Apparently the console is coming to Kickstarter in December with a starting price of $50, and that's already setting up red flags in my head.
My honest opinion? The RetroEngine looks like something anyone could throw together with a Raspberry Pi 3 and a bit of knowhow. The UI glimpsed in the trailer even looks like the standard RetroPie interface. That said the average consumer doesn't want to bother with putting a Pi together, loading the OS and configuring a bunch of emulators and roms, so a product that does the same thing with plug-n-play simplicity could be very lucrative with 30-something gamers looking to rekindle old memories.
I will admit that I'd love to see a scrappy young startup produce a console that can play a huge host of retro games. They would be thumbing their noses at Nintendo and their 60 dollar, 30-game, walled garden nostalgia-bait box. As much as I'd like to see someone beat Nintendo at the nostalgia game, I'm still skeptical enough that I'd rather just spend my money on a RetroPie setup and make my own classic gaming box. We'll see soon enough if the RetroEngine Sigma is the real deal or another Coleco Chameleon bait and switch.
Source: Nintendolife
