Inventor’s Nephew Unveils Gift-Card-Sized Raspberry Pi Handheld Console: GamerCard with 4-Inch IPS Screen and Preloaded Arcade Games

Okay, so picture this: retro gaming is making this massive comeback, you know, like everyone’s suddenly obsessed with the past. It’s kind of ironic. Anyway, there’s all this rad gear now—some you can literally hold in your hand, others are just on your computer, emulating old games like it’s no big deal. Weirdly enough, these oldie goodies are somehow more in sync with what’s hip today. I mean, why does that even bother me?

Anyway—back to the point, or maybe this is another point (who knows)—there’s this tiny handheld gadget that Grant Sinclair cooked up. Yeah, his uncle is that Sinclair who made the ZX Spectrum, if that rings any bells. This thing is as small as a damn gift card. Like seriously, you could lose it in your wallet!

So, Grant—he’s kind of living in his uncle’s shadow, maybe?—but let’s not dwell there. His gadget, the GamerCard®. It’s got this sweet 4-inch screen, and there’s way too much technical detail about pixel density that I’ll probably forget. The buttons below are like these snap-dome things, which apparently make you feel like you’re really playing something. Throw in some high-energy arcade games and you’ve got a “grab-and-go” bundle, whatever that really means.

Oh! And there’s more. The GamerCard has this cool launcher thingy with big icons for games and emulators—like Recalbox, RetroPie, and this other one called Lakka. It’s capable of playing PICO-8 games, and apparently, you can code in all these languages I can barely pronounce—MicroPython, C, whatever.

But yeah, there’s a cherry on top. A couple of indie games, Bloo Kid 2 and AstroBlaze DX, that were hanging out on the Nintendo Switch, have now crashed onto the GamerCard. They jazzed them up to fit its square screen, which has pixel art that slaps differently on this device.

One weird thing, though. The GamerCard is like thinner than my attention span—6.5 mm, who makes devices this slim? And it barely weighs anything, just 100 grams. They show it hanging near cash registers, trying to pass as a gift card. No case either, just stacked PCBs—whatever those are. It’s like you’re playing on a piece of cardboard, but cooler.

Hold up, we’re not just dealing with a gaming console here. It’s basically a tiny computer, thanks to that Raspberry Pi Zero 2W thing inside it. Quad-core this, cortex that. But wait, there’s more technical mumbo jumbo about USB-C and HDMI ports. Sure, you could hook up a keyboard and mouse, turn it into a desktop if you’re feeling techy. But really, who’d do that? Seems like an expensive Raspberry Pi.

Oh, I almost forgot, the price! At £125, or about $170 in ‘Murican dollars. You could splurge on something like the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro, which is less pricey. Or any of those Anbernic gadgets, which I’ve definitely heard too much about. There are cheaper, more powerful options for sure, unless you feel like standing out with quirky stuff.

At the end of the day—or maybe it’s just me—it feels like this GamerCard is more of a head-scratcher than a deal-maker. Feels like it’s riding on nostalgia, hoping someone buys it just ‘cause it looks nifty. But hey, it’s creative, I’ll give it that.