There have been a lot of retro gaming consoles out there and last year we’ve seen the likes of Anbernic, Retroid Pocket, Miyoo Mini and many more. But what if you shrink all those consoles and put in in your wrist? Well… a Kickstarter project created by Jason Rogers is making that possible with his idea of a smartwatch called the Retro Gaming Watch.
Rogers has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funding to finish developing and manufacturing his retro gaming watch. The Retro Gaming Smartwatch will pack a ARM Cortex M33 Processor clocked at 160Mhz, while in terms of the RAM it will have 1.5MB Fast RAM and 8MB External RAM it also features small screen and D-PAD + ABXY buttons just like the good old gameboy.
But instead of the usual cartridges, it will use an FPGA chip (Field-Programmable Gate Array) this will emulate the original game consoles.
This means you’ll be able to play hundreds or even thousands of classic DOS 8-bit and 16-bit games.
Since this is a smartwatch one of the biggest question is the battery life. From the initial testing of the creator with the built in 6,000mAh battery they manage to 2-4 hours of battery life for gameplay. But the consumption of the ‘watch’ can go up to 4 days which is actually not bad.
It may not have all the tech features of a flagship smartphone but you’ll be able to check notifications, track your health with features like a heart rate monitor, and many more. It also connects to your phone via Bluetooth so you can download new games and apps if needed.
Backers of the Kickstarter can pledge different amounts to receive cool rewards. For as little as $5 you get early access to project updates. For $139 you’ll get one of the first retail watches made. Or for over $1,000 you can get 10 watches to share with your friends.
As of writing the kickstarter project already managed to achieved its $35,000 funding goal and already have reached US$ 55,476 funding with 288 backers.
So this could be your chance to finally play all those classic games from decades past, right on your wrist. Will you be backing the project to get your hands on the first retro gaming smartwatch?
