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Retro Catalog

Wiki entityreferencegaminghardwarehandheld ↳ show in map Markdown
title
Retro Catalog
type
entity
summary
Curated database of retro gaming handhelds and emulator-target games, built by Jipsony as a buyer's guide for the modern Anbernic/Miyoo/Retroid ecosystem
sources
retrocatalog-homepage
tags
reference, gaming, hardware, handheld
created
2026-05-02
updated
2026-05-02

Retro Catalog is a single-author reference site catalogueing retro gaming handhelds — the Anbernic / Miyoo / Retroid / KT Pocket / AYANEO / GAMEMT / MagicX / AYN / Zotac / Valve Steam Deck class of devices — alongside a database of retro games tagged by their target platform (NES, SNES, GBA, PS1, PS2, GameCube, Wii, 3DS, Saturn, etc.). Made by Jipsony, a software engineer and retro-handheld enthusiast.

The catalog tracks 256 released devices, 6 upcoming, 55 staff picks, and 20,579 games as of May 2026. Each handheld page lists screen aspect ratio and size, target emulation tier (the highest console it can comfortably run — "PS2", "Wii", "PSP", "NDS", "Modern", "Saturn" etc.), and editorial notes. The site exposes a comparison view, category filters, and dedicated buyer's guides.

Buyer's guides

The front page leads with a small set of opinionated guides rather than a search box:

  • The Best Gaming Handhelds in 2026 — top-tier picks
  • Best Under $70 — entry-tier budget devices
  • Best Under $200 — mid-tier
  • Best for PS2 — emulation-tier-specific
  • Best for GBA — same, for the lower-power tier

This buyer's-guide framing is the main difference from a raw spec database — Retro Catalog is shaped to answer "what should I buy?" rather than "what exists?".

Data sources

Device data is aggregated from several long-running community resources, credited on the About page:

Game-of-the-Month picks are sourced from r/SBCGaming Reddit polls.

Each game page is tagged with the platform it originally shipped on; the homepage cycles a "Featured Retro Games" rail driven by the SBCGaming GotM rotation. The featured rail in May 2026 includes Celeste Classic (GBA), NBA Street (PS2), Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA), Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GameCube), Gran Turismo (PS1), The Denpa Men 2 (3DS), Mario Kart Wii, and Ninja Gaiden II (NES). The picks lean toward what plays well on emulation handhelds, not just historical importance.

What it doesn't cover

Retro Catalog explicitly distances itself from piracy — the footer reads "Retro Catalog does not endorse piracy or the distribution and usage of illegal software and hardware. Only play games and systems that you own legally." There are no ROM links, no firmware downloads, no jailbreak guides. The catalog points at devices and games; sourcing games is the reader's problem.

It also doesn't cover home consoles, arcade cabinets, or PC retro gaming except where a handheld ("Modern" tier — Steam Deck, AYANEO Next, Zotac Zone Pro) overlaps. The focus stays narrow: small portable devices that play console-era games via emulation or native ports.

Why it matters

The retro-handheld market in 2024–2026 has fragmented into dozens of near-identical SKUs from Anbernic, Miyoo, Retroid, AYN, KT Pocket, MagicX, GAMEMT, AYANEO, and others, often differentiated only by aspect ratio (4:3 vs 16:9 vs 3:2 vs 1:1), screen size (2.8" to 9"), and emulation ceiling (NES tier to PS2/Wii/Modern tier). Picking one without spending hours on Reddit and YouTube has become a real problem. Retro Catalog reduces that to a side-by-side comparison and a tier-targeted recommendation, with the editorial weight to actually rank rather than just list.

  • ps5-linux-loadr — adjacent retro-gaming hardware story (running Linux on PS5 Phat for emulation)
  • sdl3-dos-port — adjacent: cross-platform low-level support for retro targets

URL: https://retrocatalog.com/ — about page https://retrocatalog.com/articles/about