My childhood was full of playground battles about whether the C64 or ZX Spectrum reigned supreme. (The C64, natch. Don’t @ me!) But whichever camp you swore allegiance to, your pride and joy was tethered to a wall and a telly. Portable gaming back then meant squinting at a Nintendo Game & Watch and calling it a day. But now we get to see what these 1980s classics would have looked like had they been portable (like today’s best heldheld consoles), by way of the (awkwardly named) THEC64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld.
They’ll rock up in October 2026 and cost $129.99/£109.99 each. You can preorder now via HyperMegaTech, the outfit behind the Super Pocket range, with its ties to the Evercade ecosystem. Not that you’ll find Evercade cart slots here (boo), because these new handheld micros are part of a team-up with Retro Games Ltd, essentially squishing down the THEC64 Mini and The Spectrum consoles and making them foldable.
Spec-chums
Both machines go heavy on nostalgia cosplay. The ZX Spectrum handheld is a slick black slab with rainbow stripes and – yes – rubber keys. The C64 handheld is… very beige, with plastic buttons. And they’re clamshells too, bringing to mind the Nintendo DS (or, if you’re of 1980s vintage yourself, the Donkey Kong Game & Watch).
That means the 4.3in 800x480px screen will be protected when you sling your handheld in a bag. And when playing, you can tilt to taste, while preparing to discover that you left your reflexes back in the 1980s along with your original 8-bit hardware.
Beyond that, these gadgets give you front-firing stereo speakers, a headphone jack for when you’d rather not subject strangers to Spectrum screeches or lush C64 SID warbles, and USB-C charging. Battery life clocks in around three hours. And there’s a USB-A port for joysticks – or even keyboards, if you’re mad enough to want to tackle a text adventure on a tiny portable.
Game on
No retro box is complete without games, and both handhelds ship with 25 built-in titles. In each case, you get a solid mix of classic heavy-hitters alongside newer games that wring magic out of ancient hardware.
The Spectrum Handheld line up is: Archon: The Light and the Dark, Avenger: The Way of the Tiger II, Bounder, Bugaboo the Flea, Devwill Too ZX, Hammer Knight, Hammerfist, Head Over Heels, M.O.V.I.E., Manic Miner, Nightmare Rally, Penguin Attack, s1ncla1r c1ty, Shovel Adventure, Skool Daze, Snake Escape, Sorcerer Kid Adventure, Splat, Starquake, Switchblade, The Great Escape, Tiny Dungeons, Tourmaline, Where Time Stood Still, and Zynaps.
And on the THEC64 Handheld, you get: A Pig Quest, Aztec Challenge, Druid, Encounter!, Galencia, Hunter’s Moon Remastered, Ice Guys, It’s Magic 2, Knight ’N’ Grail, Krakout, Lee (as in, Bruce), Metal Warrior Ultra, Millie & Molly, Nebulus, Paradroid, Planet Golf, Sam’s Journey, Shadow Switcher, Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe, Spherical, Squish ’Em, Steel Ranger, Super Boulder Dash, X-Out, and Yeti Mountain.
Everything’s fully licensed, although if your personal favourite is missing, there’s a microSD card for loading your own games.
If that’s not enough to scratch your retro itch, there are also Collector’s Editions. These cost $149.99/£129.99, are limited to 2000 units and come with a matching hard-shell case, along with a printed copy of Crash or Zzap!64 with articles about the included games.
All of which leaves one burning question: where’s The Amstrad CPC Handheld? Come on, HyperMegaTech: complete the set. I dare you.
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