RetroStone 2 Is the Ultimate Handheld Emulation Console

New video games are, of course, being released all of the time. But there are likely hundreds of great games from the past that you’ve never played. Why drop $60+ on a single brand new game, when you can go back and play the classics instead? That’s the whole idea behind retro graming. You will, however, need something to play those games on. That’s where the new RetroStone 2 comes in, and it’s one of the best handheld consoles we’ve ever seen for emulation.

RetroStone 2 recently launched on Kickstarter, and has already tripled its original funding goal. Like the original RetroStone, the RetroStone 2 was developed specifically with emulation and retro gaming in mind. You can use it to play games made for dozens of older video game systems, including the Game Boy, NES, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Atari, various arcades, and much more. RetroStone 2 simply improves the experience with upgraded hardware that fans of the original RetroStone requested.

The biggest improvement is the screen, which has been upgraded from a small, analog 360x480 pixel display to a large, digital 3.5" 640x480 LCD. The processor has also been upgraded to an Allwinner A20 with the Arm Cortex-A7, which has two cores running at 1.0GHz. RetroStone 2 is designed to run Retrorangepi, which is a Retropie distribution built specifically for Allwinner processors that supports emulation for dozens of consoles.

Like the older version, RetroStone 2 also has tons of connectivity options. There are three USB ports for gamepads, an ethernet jack, headphone jack, charging port, an HDMI port, and even a removable 4000mAh battery that is good for 6–7 hours of gameplay. By plugging RetroStone 2 into your TV with an HDMI cable and connecting a few gamepads, you can get 4-player couch co-op games going with your friends.

If you want RetroStone 2, the Kickstarter campaign will be running until September 17th. One console, with either a gray or clear-blue enclosure and an 8GB microSD card, will cost you about $143. There is also a Pro edition available with a few additional features. Rewards are expected to be delivered in December.