Nowadays I’m all about emulation, but about 8-9 years ago I had a brief flirtation with original hardware and even got an NES and a bunch of games. But it wasn’t long before I decided I wanted some more modern conveniences like save states, portability, and whanot, so I ditched the NES and embraced emulation.
After a fair bit of research I settled on a GPD XD. This was around 2015 and I still have it, and still use it often. I chose that particular system for two reasons: 1) I love the Nintendo DS form factor, and 2) It has an HDMI port, so it can basically be used as a Nintendo Switch, where I hook it up to a monitor and use one of 8BitDo’s retropads.
Truth be told I tend to not use the HDMI port as often as I thought I would, but it’s still neat to have.
At any rate, I do play mostly modern games, but I’d guesstimate I probably beat 2-3 retro titles a year, and play around with unbeatable titles (like Pinball or Hockey or something) at least a couple of times a month. There’s just something about the 8/16/32-bit eras of gaming that I enjoy, and many of the games from those eras have aged beautifully, particularly the 16- and 32-bit eras.