Shipping on October 15, 2026, two brand-new clamshell portables are hitting the market: TheC64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld. Both are currently up for pre-order at $129.99 USD (along with higher-priced, and limited edition, collector’s bundles).

Here’s a breakdown of what to expect from each of these pocket-sized microcomputers consoles.

Shared Hardware Architecture

Before diving into the differences, it’s worth noting the shared DNA between these two units. Both handhelds feature a slick, reimagined clamshell design that protects the screen when not in use. Under the hood, they boast an 800×480 IPS high-resolution screen. While that’s not ideal from an aspect ratio standpoint, I was assured by the company that there will be ways to go 4:3, pixel perfect, etc.

For audio, you’re getting stereo speakers and a standard headphone jack, though sadly no Bluetooth audio support. They also include a MicroSD slot, which lets you add your own ROMs.

TheC64 Handheld

TheC64 Handheld leans hard into its beige-box roots. It features themed tactile plastic function buttons that evoke the feeling of the original breadbin keyboard. It comes pre-loaded with 25 built-in C64 games, representing a solid mix of legendary classics and impressive modern homebrew titles.

Standout Included Games:

• Boulder Dash
• Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
• Paradroid
• Sam’s Journey
• Galencia

The Spectrum Handheld

On the other side of the aisle, The Spectrum Handheld embraces Sinclair’s iconic aesthetic, right down to the signature themed rubber key function buttons. Just like its Commodore counterpart, it ships with 25 built-in Spectrum games, focusing heavily on the platformers and arcade adventures that defined the British microcomputer scene.

Standout Included Games:

• Manic Miner
• Head Over Heels
• Skool Daze
• The Great Escape
• Starquake

The Verdict

Whether you grew up typing LOAD "*",8,1 or LOAD "", these handhelds offer an elegant way to engage with video game history. The $129.99 price point is highly competitive for dedicated emulation hardware with a quality IPS display, and a clamshell design makes them perfect travel companions. Even better, you can add a USB keyboard or controller for even more versatility. While it’s a crowded retro gaming and computing market these days, it’s always nice to see new options that do something just a bit different.

The post Clash (yet again!) of the 8-Bit Titans: TheC64 and The Spectrum Handhelds Arrive appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Here’s the press release:

July 3, 2025 – Cloanto today released version 11 (build 11.0.22.0) of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, the official Commodore/Amiga preservation, emulation and support suites for Windows.

More than two years in the making, this new generation expands into the physical world with high-fidelity virtual printers, touchscreen input, and handheld device support, bridging classic computing with modern interaction.

Each of the new virtual printers (EpsonQ, MPS 803, and CBM 8026) was engineered to be best in class, delivering vector-sharp text, high-resolution color graphics, and live previews. These are not only unmatched in the emulation space, but also raise the bar for what virtual printing can achieve overall.

For advanced Amiga users who prefer PostScript printing, a new integration with the optional Ghostscript software makes it possible to render Amiga PostScript to non-PostScript printers, or to convert the output to vector-based PDF.

On the CBM 8-bit side, two virtual printers are featured. The MPS 803 recreates an accurate dot matrix experience, using scalable vector dots. The CBM 8026 provides a new benchmark for printing and preserving listings and documents, as it combines laser-quality text with “quote mode”, reverse and PETSCII characters. These capabilities were missing from the original (slow and expensive) daisy wheel hardware.

All printers have a wide-carriage option and extended character sets, including European and Japanese characters used across C128, C64, VIC 1001, and VIC 20 models. Version 11 also includes PETSCII TrueType fonts for accurate export and editing of printed output.

For maximum nostalgia, a virtual fanfold paper option renders perforations and cut marks to recreate the ultimate “retro printer” effect. As one enthusiastic user put it: “I’ve always wanted to print in the old dot matrix style on modern printers.” Thanks to Cloanto’s RetroPlatform framework, which provides shared access to virtual devices like modems and printers across systems, it’s even possible to connect 8-bit printers to the Amiga, or to have older systems like a PET or a C64 use EpsonQ or PostScript emulation (geoPublish and geoWrite, anyone?)

Version 11 also adds native touchscreen input, with support for swipe, pan and pinch gestures, plus multi-touch functionality for the virtual keyboard. The keyboard itself can now be operated in a new Overlay mode (in addition to Docked and Floating), designed for fullscreen use and interaction via touchscreen or game controller.

With 2025 shaping up to be a pivotal year for handheld devices, Amiga Forever 11 and C64 Forever 11 bring together touchscreen features, the new overlay virtual keyboard, and expanded game controller shortcuts (including multi-button combinations) into a unified experience optimized for portable use.

Hundreds of smaller new features and refinements also made it into these new versions. Windows too went through several new releases since the previous major release of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, and the new code base provides better support for features introduced in Windows 11 and Windows 10 versions up to 25H2.

As always, we remain grateful to the many friends who support this project and share our passion, vision and hope for the Amiga and CBM 8-bit heritage.

Amiga Forever 11 is available now in three editions:

• Value Edition (downloadable installer)
• Plus Edition (downloadable installer with optional DVD ISO image)
• Premium Edition (downloadable Plus Edition, plus boxed software and additional videos on 3 DVDs)

C64 Forever 11 is available now in three editions:

• Free Express Edition (feature-limited version)
• Downloadable Plus Edition (downloadable installer with optional CD ISO image)
• Boxed Plus Edition (downloadable Plus Edition, plus boxed CD)

Both packages recognize and work with each other, with options to merge the different platforms into the same interface.

Prices start from $9.95. Version 11 is free for Lifetime Upgrades customers and to anyone who purchased version 10 on or after March 1, 2025.

Visual Tours

Here are some suggested highlights for YouTubers and others who prefer a more visual exploration. Some celebrate the classic 8-bit CBM systems, while others showcase features shared with the more advanced Amiga environments.

• Amiga – Print like it’s 2025? Start “Amiga 4000 Enhanced 3.X” from the Systems folder, click Clown.pic at the bottom, then select Print from the Project menu. Explore the new print and preview features. Press Ctrl + Scroll wheel to zoom in and out. To preview in color, make sure the selected Destination printer supports it (e.g. Microsoft Print to PDF). Prefer a slower experience where you can literally watch yellow, magenta and cyan stripes appear one by one? Start “Amiga 2000 Enhanced 1.3”, then launch GraphicDump (inside Utilities). Be patient, as this configuration emulates a CPU running at the speed it had 40 years ago.
• 8-Bit – Curious about how the iconic MPS 803 6×7 dot matrix printer worked, or want to introduce a new generation to vintage computing? Check out the “MPS 803 Printer Playground” title in C64 Forever (under Applications). It includes the MPS 803 User Guide and all sample listings ready to load from disk, where they are named after the corresponding manual page. For example, to load the zodiac listing from pages 31-32 type LOAD”PAGE31B”,8. When you RUN the program, the Print dialog opens automatically to preview the output.
• Shared – BBS like it’s 1985: in C64 Forever, launch CCGMS! (Applications folder), then connect to one of the BBS entries in the phone book. To do so, press <F7> to go to the dialer and parameters screen, press <A> to go to the phone book screen, use the cursor keys to select a BBS, then press <C> to connect to it. You are online!
• 8-Bit – Amber PET? In C64 Forever, set the PET/CBM system colors to amber (Tools/Options/Emulation/Hardcoded Palettes), then start a PET/CBM system from the Systems folder.
• Shared – Light vs. Dark Mode, via Tools/Options/Skin.
• Shared – Arcade and Tile modes, via View menu. Be sure to try out fullscreen Arcade mode (via the maximize button on the title bar), and to use it with a game controller or by swiping on a touchscreen.
• Shared – Virtual Keyboard: launch a configuration like “Amiga 4000 Enhanced 3.X” (in the Systems folder) and then double-click the keyboard menu at the bottom left of the playback window to open the Virtual Keyboard. Inside the emulation, open the Input Prefs and change the keyboard to a different language (e.g. German). Did you notice how the virtual keyboard on the Windows side also updated its layout? And still, it all keeps working with your unchanged physical PC keyboard, no matter what layout that one has. Then on closing the session you can choose whether to commit the keyboard layout change to the title configuration, or not. If you prefer fullscreen modes, try out the new Overlay type of virtual keyboard. If the keyboard covers an input field, drag to reposition it.
• 8-Bit – Virtual Mouse: start an 8-bit title (e.g. a PET 2001, or 8032, or C64) from the Systems folder of C64 Forever, and use the mouse to move the text cursor around. If you ever spent a lot of time programming or writing on those systems, isn’t this something you’ve been wanting to do for more than 40 years?
• Shared – Fullscreen Controls: start or switch any Amiga or 8-bit emulation session to fullscreen (use the button in the top row of the playback window), then hold down the Escape key for one second to open the fullscreen controls. These can be selected with the mouse, with the keyboard, or with the same controllers you are using to play. At last, you can swap disks, pause, resume, save, etc., without needing to leave your favorite screen mode and controls.
• Shared – Type Clipboard Text: use the keyboard menu at the bottom left of the playback window to paste the content of the Windows text clipboard. Works with any Amiga or 8-bit system (in Japanese too…)

Screenshots and Box Shots

• Amiga Forever Screenshots
• Amiga Forever Box Shots
• C64 Forever Screenshots
• C64 Forever Box Shot
• Cloanto Logo

Additional Information

• Focus on New Features
• Quick Instructions for Upgraders
• New Printing Features
• C64 Forever Homepage
• Amiga Homepage

New Features
https://www.amigaforever.com/whatsnew/

Quick Instructions for Upgraders
https://www.amigaforever.com/kb/15-121

This Page
https://www.amigaforever.com/news-events/af-11/

Amiga Forever Homepage
https://www.amigaforever.com

C64 Forever Homepage
https://www.c64forever.com

The post Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 11 Released – Big Updates! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Here’s a link to C64 Forever: https://www.c64forever.com/

Here’s a link to Amiga Forever: https://www.amigaforever.com/

If you buy both packages, they work together!

Here’s the full press release:

The post Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 10 Released! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

What follows is the press release with more details:

Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 9 Released

March 10, 2021 – Cloanto released today version 9 of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, the official Commodore/Amiga preservation, emulation and support suites for Windows.

The new editions are the result of more than two years of development since the previous major version, which also saw the parallel release of numerous free updates to the previous version, and the development of Amiga Explorer 8 and Amiga Explorer 9 (now included in Amiga Forever 9 Plus Edition and Premium Edition).

Version 9 celebrates beautiful new visual features like Arcade mode, Tile mode, light vs. dark options, and a first set of more colorful skin variants. Under the hood, hardware-accelerated technologies like Direct2D are used to provide a snappy experience. Powerful new column and tile field selection and sort options provide unprecedented control within the player interface, while a new property handler and an enhanced preview handler enable seamless content access via File Explorer and Windows Search.

New automation and title authoring features make it possible to automatically run a script or application on startup, e.g. to quickly invoke different features or games from a shared Amiga setup. This is envisioned to be only the beginning of new automation capabilities which are planned to be released over the next months.

Additional Amiga improvements include RDB disk image enhancements, while 8-bit features include new SID audio, drive and media options, and support for the MAX Machine and the C64 Magic Voice cartridge.

On the input front, shared Amiga and 8-bit improvements include the ability to use the player entirely with a game controller, and enhanced virtual buttons that can now simulate guest joystick events (e.g. autofire) in addition to keyboard events.

Hundreds of smaller new features and refinements also made it into these new versions. Windows too went through several new releases since the previous major release of Amiga Forever and C64 Forever, and the new code base provides better support for new features introduced in Windows 10 versions 1909, 2004 and 20H2.

Amiga Forever 9 is available now in three editions:

– Value Edition (downloadable installer)
– Plus Edition (downloadable installer with option to build DVD ISO image)
– Premium Edition (downloadable Plus Edition, plus boxed software and additional videos on 3 DVDs)

C64 Forever 9 is available now in three editions:

– Free Express Edition (feature-limited version)
– Downloadable Plus Edition (downloadable installer with option to build CD ISO image)
– Boxed Plus Edition (downloadable Plus Edition, plus boxed CD)

Both packages recognize and work with each other, with options to merge the different platforms into the same interface. Prices start from $9.95 (Value Edition, or special upgrade offers).

Press Release with Links
https://www.amigaforever.com/news-events/af-9/

The post Amiga Forever and C64 Forever 9 Released appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

“It’s been a little over 4 years since the Internet Archive started providing emulation in the browser from our software collection; millions of plays of games, utilities, and everything else that shows up on a screen have happened since then. While we continue to refine the technology (including adding Webassembly as an option for running the emulations), we also have tried to expand out to various platforms, computers, and anything else that we can, based on the work of the emulation community, especially the MAME Development Team.

For a number of years, the MAME team has been moving towards emulating a class of hardware and software that, for some, stretches the bounds of what emulation can do, and we have now put up a collection of some of their efforts here at archive.org.“

These are a definite blast, with mostly simple, straightforward gameplay and often based on some pretty far out subjects. Even if you weren’t lucky enough to be around during the heyday of these systems in the late 1970s through early 1990s, I still recommend checking this out to see some of what was going on in this area at the time.

The post Play historic LCD, VFD, and LED-based handheld games emulated right in your browser! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 1.02

While the Macintosh never was (and arguably still isn’t) a premiere gaming platform, it nevertheless played host to a nice selection of titles. Although the early Macintosh platform was strictly monochrome – which even at the time of its 1984 unveiling was an outlier – the relatively high resolution created some beautiful, distinctive imagery. While you miss out on the vaguely blue-ish sheen of a real vintage Macintosh CRT, even if you don’t want to use the emulation functionality, the still images on the Internet Archive do a good job of demonstrating just what a good artist could do at the time within the platform’s relative strengths and limitations.

Dark Castle

The post Play Classic Monochrome Macintosh Games in Your Browser or Just Look at the Lovely Screenshots appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

On its home at Archive.org, the Internet Arcade is described as “a web-based library of arcade (coin-operated) video games from the 1970s through to the 1990s, emulated in JSMAME, part of the JSMESS software package. Containing hundreds of games ranging through many different genres and styles, the Arcade provides research, comparison, and entertainment in the realm of the Video Game Arcade.” While other sites like Jackpot Charm have accomplished similar feats for a variety of platforms (in fact, I used to provide regular blog post lists of such sites), and even Archive.org itself provides access to many of them, the combination of functionality, accessibility, and the types of games these are make this specific implementation stand out, as found on new-casino.ca and other new online casinos. In short, this is a major milestone that makes these historically important arcade games available to just about the widest possible audience.

The inception of the Internet Arcade provided a fantastic opportunity for people to relive and revel in the classic arcade games from the 70s to the 90s. Similarly, 新しいカジノ offers the most recent innovations in online casino gaming. They are characterized by enhanced graphics, intuitive user interfaces, and a diverse range of gaming options. They are also usually accompanied by modern security features, ensuring a safe and immersive gaming experience for their users.

Getting Started

Here’s a summary of what you should have in place before you get started:

[First] A Windows-, MacOS-, or Linux-based computer that can run one of the browsers in the bullet that follows. While I’ve been successful in getting a game to show on an Android-based smartphone running Chrome, you may have trouble getting the virtual keyboard to appear to get things going and actually play.

It looks like steps might be taken to better support mobile devices, but for now, I’d say stick to a traditional computer. As for something like a Chromebook, I’ll assume that that will work unless I hear otherwise, though I doubt it will be able to have gamepad support.

[Second] Only the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox provide full functionality, so avoid browsers like Internet Explorer and Safari for now.

Firefox is specifically recommended by Scott over Chrome due to its greater speed running the Internet Arcade implementation, though I’ve noticed little difference when testing on my desktop computer. Waterfox (more or less a 64-bit implementation of Firefox) is also claimed to provide similarly fast and full functionality like Firefox, but in my testing it didn’t detect my gamepad.

[Optional] Though optional, a standard gamepad of some type that you already know works well on your computer is usually a lot better than playing from the keyboard. With that said, several classic arcade games have very simple controls, so a keyboard would work just fine in those cases.

In terms of gamepads, I’ve personally tried and have gotten to work Microsoft Xbox 360, Microsoft Xbox One, and Sony PlayStation 4 controllers. I picked those for no other reason than that’s what I typically use on my PCs and the fact that they were handy.

Potential Gotchas

There are only a handful of potential gotchas when starting to play one of these games. The biggest one is that the implementation is still a bit rough in spots and you may find browser glitches here and there with a particular play session. In most cases, refreshing or closing the tab or browser will solve the problem, but in other cases you may need to completely reboot your computer to start over. In short, if you run into the occasional issue, it shouldn’t be a surprise and those are the steps you should take to rectify the situation. While frustrating, keep in mind you’re playing the equivalent of a full size arcade machine using the same software that you look at cat pictures and are reading this text with, so yeah, don’t complain too much and simply enjoy being in the “future.” The only other potential gotcha should be an obvious one and it’s that you need to have Javascript active for this Javascript-based emulation to work. In other words, if you see a blank screen where the game should be, turn Javascript on!

The Steps

I’ve been doing the testing on my Windows 7 desktop, but the steps that follow should be applicable to most other equivalent platforms. I successfully tested this on the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox, though for these specific steps I’m detailing right now I’m using Chrome:

[Step 1] Navigate to https://archive.org/details/internetarcade and pick one of the optimized games shown on the page (now would also be a good time to plug in that gamepad if you haven’t already!). If you’re feeling adventurous, search for or select any other game from the extended master list, keeping in mind it may not work the way it should, particularly if it originally featured an unusual controller setup (I selected Donkey Kong: Pauline Edition because between three daughters, one wife, one cat, and one out of two dogs, anything without a female protagonist is frowned upon in this house).

Internet Arcade

[Step 2] You should now see the game’s landing page. Click on the game’s image or on the Run link in the caption under it to begin.

Landing page for Donkey Kong: Pauline Edition.

[Step 3] If you plan on using a gamepad, make sure it’s detected. You should see a message x gamepads detected., where x  is the number of gamepads found, like in the example below.

The pre-play area should detect the number of gamepads you have connected. In this example, it’s two.

[Step 4] Press the Spacebar or click on the MAME window to start. Note that if the Mute button says Unmute, you’ll need to click on it so that it says Mute if you wish to hear sounds. The Fullscreen button fills your display, but unfortunately does not correctly scale (or letterbox), so in most cases selecting this option will result in a distorted picture. Dark Background switches between light and dark page backgrounds.

[Step 5] The game should now start once it’s finished fetching the BIOS and game data (remember, this is loading the actual arcade machine’s data!). Insert a (virtual) coin by pressing the 5 key on your keyboard, then begin a one player game by pressing the 1 key (you may also see and use clickable buttons for Insert Coin, Player 1, and Player 2 in the upper left of the screen). You should then be able to play using either your gamepad or keyboard.

Donkey Kong Arcade: Pauline Edition play screen.

Here’s a master list of default MAME keys that should mostly apply to the games on the Internet Arcade.

 Important Keyboard Keys

 5 – Insert a virtual coin

1 – Start one player game (after inserting a coin)

2 – Start a two player game (may require more than one coin)

Arrow/Cursor keys – Move

Left Ctrl – First action button

Left Alt/Option – Second action button

Spacebar – Third action button

Tab – Reconfigure most keys and other settings (these are lost after a browser refresh)

Burgertime play screen. While Burgertime, like other games on the Internet Arcade, has sound issues in the present version of the emulation, it’s still a blast to play.

So there you have it. Any questions, just ask, otherwise, have fun and be sure to support all of the Internet Archive‘s tireless and exhaustive efforts at preservation. There have already been several improvements to the Internet Arcade since launch, and I have no doubt that we’ll see even more over time.

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