The Quintessential Questionable Gadget

I didn't need an R36S. I don't have time for hours of video games. But once upon a time I had the time, and once upon a time I dreamed about a handheld that played all my favorite games (the Gameboy era missed me). I love classic Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and arcade. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

The purchase.

When I saw a handheld promising more than 60,000+ pre-loaded classic games for under $30, I was too tempted to say no, even if it meant trusting an AliExpress vendor. So I sent my money across the internet to China, crossed my fingers, and waited. And waited. In reality it wasn't that long, but in my Amazon-induced haze of instant gratification, a product slow-shipped by boat might as well be lost at sea. (Good news since then: plenty of AliExpress sellers now ship from U.S. warehouses, and it's also available via Amazon sellers.)

Would it turn on? Was it legit? Would the games work?

Yes, maybe, and mostly. I don't know how they do it, but it works as expected. The device says it has more than 60,000 game titles, organized by system and generation, so you can relive your youth and also discover hundreds of games you've never heard of. Does it really have 60k games installed? I have no idea, but I think so — you can certainly scroll game menus for days. I've tried loading and playing fewer than 100 of them, and most all of them worked as expected. Only a few loaded but weren't mapped accurately to the R36S controls, or needed a keyboard (which can be connected).

The upgrade that makes it a console.

A USB-C to HDMI cable puts it on the big TV, and a Bluetooth controller (I added the 8BitDo pad) makes it a retro home gaming system. For another $20, that's a second product for the price of a pizza.

The Mrs. Questionable Test.

For all her amazingness, Mrs. Questionable is not a gamer (perhaps again raising the issue of my own judgement), but at least it means I don't have to worry about her sneaking it out of my office like my Questionable Kids. She had no opinion on the device, but plenty of opinions on when I would have time to play with it.