There was a time when 8-bit gaming meant sitting in front of a Nintendo Entertainment System, and “portable gaming” meant hoping nobody noticed you playing your Game Boy under the covers. Before all of that, a generation of gamers were discovering video games through machines like the Atari 2600, and Activision was right there alongside them. For those of us who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, that makes Evercade‘s new Super Pocket Activision Edition more than another retro handheld. It is a little plastic time machine packed with 34 games that many of us spent considerably more time playing than we probably should have.
The Super Pocket Activision Edition launches today, September 28, for $69.99, bringing a collection of Activision classics from the Atari 2600 era into a tiny handheld. The lineup includes some of the company’s biggest early hits, including Pitfall!, Pitfall II: Lost Caverns, River Raid, River Raid II, H.E.R.O., Kaboom!, Keystone Kapers and Chopper Command. And then there are the games that might trigger an even more specific memory. Enduro, Seaquest, Stampede, Beamrider, Skiing, Pressure Cooker and Private Eye are all here, along with a collection of lesser-known titles.
These aren’t games that require a 100-hour commitment or a weekend locked in front of the television. Most were built around straightforward controls, short sessions and the increasingly familiar challenge of trying to beat your previous high score. That is really the charm of the Activision Super Pocket. Modern handhelds are capable of delivering enormous games with photorealistic graphics, online multiplayer and worlds that can take dozens of hours to explore. This little machine is selling something very different.
The Super Pocket itself is deliberately simple. It features a 2.8-inch IPS display running at 320 x 240, a built-in speaker, a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB-C charging. Battery life is around four hours, depending on how you’re using it. There is also an Evercade cartridge slot, meaning the Activision games aren’t the end of the story. The handheld can play the broader Evercade cartridge library, giving owners access to hundreds of additional retro games.
