I’m looking for some advice on setting up a retro gaming system for my son. He absolutely loves the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive and some Atari classics like Frogger. The problem I have is he is autistic, which leads to two very different issues to solve. First is he loves to tinker with things. Which I don’t mind, and actively encourage in kids because that's how you learn. However, when he breaks something, it can cause full blown meltdowns. Like you would think the end of the world is coming level meltdowns. Therefore, things like the Nintendo Switch are great because there is not much he can do in the settings. Especially, with the built-in parent controls. However, when I’ve tried setting him up with a laptop with Retro Arch, he will jack with the settings and break it in a matter of minutes.
I’d like to figure out something I can plug into a TV that will allow him to play retro games, preferably with a wireless controller (because I’ll be damned if I can get him to sit still why playing Sonic). The best solution I’ve used in the past was a Nvidia Shield TV running Arch Browser. He still managed to factory reset once, but outside of that it worked well. However, the fact that it is a full streaming/media system is overkill for what I’m looking for. Plus, I really don’t like the direction it has been heading with the built-in ads and other Google crap.
I looked into the Sega Genesis mini, but they are selling for more than a Shield TV and have wired controllers. I have an Atari flashback, but it is crap with it's IR controllers. Whoever though of that obviously has never tried to get a child to maintain line of sight while playing a game.
So, I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestion for hardware/software that will allow for the playing of retro games on a TV, but also have a way of either preventing tampering with settings, making it more difficult to get to the settings, or even something that can be reset and configured with a few clicks. I’d love to be able to tell him, look if you mess it up just reboot and it will reset.
There's setting(s) in EmulationStation (in RetroPie) that can make it kid friendly.
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Child-friendly-EmulationStation/
That said, https://batocera.org/ is a fork of RetroPie with a lot of sensible presets to make it quite a bit harder to break.
If you don't mind jailbreaking, the Playstation Classic appears to be going for about $100.00, and I understand it can run Genesis and SNES emulator a as well once jailbroken.
Another great option to consider is the Evercade VS: https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/25/22801139/evercade-vs-retro-console-review
And the HyperMegaTech Pocket - which does a terrible job advertising that - it plays the same cartridges as the Evercade VS. https://www.hypermegatech.com/
Evercade has a simple interface, and is easy to factory reset: https://evercade.co.uk/support-vs/
Evercade has a good mix of recognized retro (and new retro-style Indie) games available from Taito, Data East, Atari, Epyx, Team 17, and some real hidden gems from Gaelco, Jaleco, MegaCat, Toaplan, IREM, Piko, etc.
Evercade carts are about $20+shipping, and come with anywhere from 1 (new Indie game) to 20 games (Atari 2600) on each cart. More typically around 7 games per cart. About 14 news carts were released last year, and there's a bit more than 500 supported games so far. https://evercade.co.uk/cartridges/
Source: I'm a minor contributor to the RetroPie ecosystem and a huge Evercade fan.
The Evercade look really cool, and his birthday is coming up, so it is tempting. Does it allow you to add custom roms or create your own carts?
An adapter cart exists for playing games off an SD card. I don't have any personal experience with it. I think I read somewhere that it requires a jailbreak?
https://hackinformer.com/2022/09/21/hardware-review-eversd-for-evercade/