Something extraordinary is happening in 2026 and it’s easy to miss it if you’re not paying attention. While the mainstream gaming conversation is dominated by AI-generated content, rising GPU prices, and the usual cycle of sequels and remasters, a quieter revolution is taking place for people who care about classic games.
The Neo Geo AES — the most expensive home console ever made — is being reborn at £179.99, built on real hardware, compatible with original cartridges. The Evercade Nexus has just been announced with a 5.89-inch screen and dual analogue sticks, finally making the 32 and 64-bit era feel natural on a handheld. A Sony PS6 Portable is reportedly in development that could natively run the entire PS4 library — a feat that PC emulation can barely touch. And in his bedroom workshop, someone called Elliot has turned a broken, filthy PlayStation 1 into a machine with USB-C power, HDMI output, SD card game loading and wireless controllers, for less than the cost of a new game.
We might be living through the golden age of retro gaming hardware. Here’s the evidence.
The Neo Geo AES+ — The People’s Arcade Machine
The original Neo Geo AES launched in 1990 at $649.99. Games cost up to $600 each. It was extraordinary hardware — true arcade experience at home — but it was never for most people. It was a luxury object, and it’s remained one ever since. A working AES console today runs £200-500 on eBay. The good games run considerably more.
The NEOGEO AES+, announced by SNK and Plaion Replai in April 2026, launches November 12 at £179.99. It’s not emulation. It uses re-engineered ASIC chips that replicate the original hardware behaviour exactly, and it plays original AES cartridges. Ten new cartridges launch alongside it — Metal Slug, Garou: Mark of the Wolves, King of Fighters 2002, Samurai Shodown V Special and more — at $89.99 each.
For the first time in 36 years, the Neo Geo experience is accessible to people who don’t have collector budgets. That’s genuinely historic.
The Evercade Nexus — The Retro Handheld That Finally Grew Up
Evercade has always had the right idea — officially licensed physical cartridges, legal game libraries, real manuals and boxes — but the hardware has previously felt slightly underpowered for the ambition. The EXP-R was good. The Nexus, announced in April 2026 for £169.99, is something else.
The screen is 5.89 inches — nearly Switch-sized. More importantly, for the first time in Evercade’s history, it has dual analogue sticks. That sounds minor. It isn’t. Without analogue sticks, N64-era and PS1-era 3D games are always compromised. With them, games like Banjo-Kazooie — which is included in the box, along with Banjo-Tooie, both remastered with widescreen support — play the way they were designed to.
The Nexus is backwards compatible with all 80+ existing Evercade cartridges, covering over 700 games across Atari, Capcom, Namco, Codemasters, Rare, Data East, and dozens more publishers. It adds EverSync local wireless multiplayer, Wi-Fi 6, and wireless headphone support. It launches October 30, 2026.
At £169.99 with Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie in the box, it’s the most compelling Evercade hardware yet — and arguably the most compelling entry-level retro gaming handheld available, for people who want legal, physical, no-fuss access to a curated library of classics.
Pre-order the Evercade Nexus on Amazon UK
The PS6 Portable — Sony’s Accidental Retro Machine
This one is still a rumour — leaked from a Sony internal document according to YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead — but if accurate, it changes the handheld retro gaming conversation entirely.
The PS6 Portable is reportedly capable of running PS4, PS5 and PS6 games natively. The retro gaming significance of that is specifically the PS4 angle. PC emulation of PS4 is in its infancy — ShadPS4 runs a handful of games at best. PS4 has an enormous library including hundreds of titles that have never been remastered, never come to PC, and exist only on the original hardware. A portable device that natively runs that entire library would be the only practical way to access that generation outside of owning the original console.
Add PS Plus Premium streaming for PS1, PS2 and PS3, and Sony’s handheld would cover PlayStation gaming from 1994 to the present on one device. The catch flagged in the leak: digital purchases only — physical disc copies can’t transfer. For a generation that grew up buying discs, that’s a significant limitation.
It’s a rumour. But it’s a believable one, and the logic is compelling.
The Modded PS1 — Retro Hardware Meets Modern Convenience
Not everything in this golden age costs £179.99. A maker called Elliot from the Retro Future YouTube channel recently documented what he calls the “ultimate PS1” — a broken, filthy original PlayStation transformed into a machine with USB-C power, genuine HDMI output, SD card game loading via a PicoStation ZeroWire mod, and wireless Bluetooth controllers.
The total cost of the mods is well under £100 if you source parts carefully. The result is a PS1 that connects to any modern TV, loads your game library from an SD card, and works with a modern wireless controller. It finishes with a custom respray in the original dev kit blue — the colour the PS1 appeared in when it was first shown to the world before Sony settled on grey.
This kind of project used to require specialist knowledge and hard-to-source parts. In 2026, the parts are documented, the guides are on YouTube, and the community support is excellent. It’s still a soldering iron job — not for everyone — but it’s more accessible than it’s ever been.
The Raspberry Pi — The Swiss Army Knife
And then there’s the option that doesn’t require any original hardware at all. A Raspberry Pi 5, a microSD card, and an afternoon with Batocera or Recalbox installed gives you access to thousands of games across dozens of systems — NES, SNES, Mega Drive, PS1, N64, Dreamcast, arcade — all on one device, all playable on a modern TV via HDMI.
The Pi 5 costs around £60-70. The total setup with a decent microSD card, case, and power supply comes in under £120. Nothing else at that price point gets close to the breadth of what it can play.
It’s not the purist’s choice. Original hardware purists will correctly point out that emulation, however accurate, isn’t the same as the real thing. But for the vast majority of people who want to play the games rather than own the hardware, the Raspberry Pi remains the most flexible and most affordable route into the retro gaming library.
See our Raspberry Pi retro gaming guide for where to start.
Why Now?
Several things have converged in 2026 to make this moment feel different from previous retro gaming waves.
The generation that grew up with PS1, N64, Saturn, and Neo Geo is now in their 40s and has disposable income. The nostalgia cycle has matured to the point where those platforms are old enough to be genuinely retro but recent enough that the people who remember them are still active consumers. Publishers and hardware makers have noticed.
Simultaneously, the technical barriers to authentic retro hardware recreation have fallen. ASIC re-engineering, FPGA technology, and open-source emulation have all matured to the point where producing accurate retro hardware at consumer prices is genuinely viable. The AES+ isn’t possible without decades of reverse engineering work by the community. The Evercade Nexus isn’t possible without the licensing groundwork Blaze Entertainment has spent six years building.
And the modding community has never been more knowledgeable or better documented. The PS1 HDMI mod, the PicoStation, flash cartridges for every platform — the knowledge exists, the parts exist, and the guides exist in a way they simply didn’t ten years ago.
The result is that 2026 might be the best year in history to be a retro gaming enthusiast. More options, better hardware, lower prices, and more knowledge freely available than ever before. The games were always great. Now the ways to play them are finally catching up.
See our guides to the Best Retro Consoles 2026, the Neo Geo Complete Guide, and our full Neo Geo AES+ announcement piece for more.
Prices were accurate at time of writing — always check before you buy.