Inventor’s Nephew Designs Gift-Card-Sized Raspberry Pi Gaming Console with 4-Inch IPS Screen and Preloaded Arcade Games

Okay, so I was just sitting there, minding my own business, and suddenly—bam—retro gaming is cool again. Like, who would’ve thought? It’s like those vinyl records that just won’t quit, you know? Anyway, there’s this super tiny gaming thing by Grant Sinclair that’s the size of a gift card. Yeah, no joke—like the kind you find hanging at the checkout line.

So, a bit of trivia here: Grant’s uncle is Sir Clive Sinclair, the ZX Spectrum guy. A whole generation started coding and gaming on that thing. It’s like they’re keeping it in the family or something. Just like old times, I guess.

This new gadget, dubbed GamerCard® (props for the catchy name), runs on a Raspberry Pi. Imagine squishing all that gaming goodness onto a 4″ screen. And get this: it has these two circular touchpads. Eight buttons on these pads—like, I’m getting arcadeflashbacks already.

Now, I’m a sucker for good indie games, and they’ve got two exclusives—Bloo Kid 2 and AstroBlaze DX. Remember when they were only on the Nintendo Switch? Yeah, well now they’ve been tweaked to fit this little dude’s square screen. Graphics pop in pixel-art style, and everything just screams nostalgia, but in a good way.

Oh, and it’s got this flashy home launcher. Big icons, emulators galore. You can code on it too! Like, MicroPython and BASIC and some other fancy stuff. It’s kinda wild how much they’re packing in here.

Alright, I know I’m sort of going on, but this thing is thin. I mean, 6.5 mm thin! I barely trust my phone to stay in my pocket without a case, and now there’s this? It even dangles on store racks like a gift card—totally random design choice, but hey, what do I know about marketing genius?

But wait, there’s more! Underneath it all, it’s basically a PC. USB-C, HDMI, and all that jazz. It’s crazy versatile, even though the price tag has me feeling… meh? Let’s be real; it’s almost more like a glorified Raspberry Pi. Cool if you’re into tiny flashy tech, I guess.

Wrapping it up: it’s priced at about 170 bucks. Compared to its peers? Well, there’s cheaper stuff out there, no doubt, with more oomph under the hood. But I suppose if you’re in the market for something this unique, and you really love those old school vibes… maybe? Just maybe it’s your thing.

The whole “is it worth it?” debate is a rabbit hole, but can’t deny—it’s a creative splash in the gaming pond.