The cheapest way to turn your tablet into a retro gaming powerhouse

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You don’t need a special console to take part in the retro gaming resurgence. At a minimum you need a phone, but a home tablet would be a better choice. With the right apps and inexpensive accessories, it can become a powerful portable console that can breathe new life into the retro games you’ve collected over the years.

Gameplay benefits from the tablet’s larger screen and longer battery life, allowing for better fidelity and extended gaming sessions compared to a smartphone. Additionally, emulators bring modern quality of life improvements, such as screenshots, save states, filters, online play, and even achievements, which make gaming more fun and engaging.

For the ROMs you will use, make sure you obtain them legally. While this is a legal gray area, you should be good to go if you have made a backup of your physical titles for personal use, whether it’s a disc or cartridge. If you download the ROMs elsewhere, even if you own the physical games yourself or share the saves with others, you are essentially participating in piracy – and we all know that’s illegal. So if you’re ready with ROMs, it’s time to figure out what to install to run them on your tablet, whether it’s an iPad Mini, iPad Pro, Lenovo Tab One, or Samsung Galaxy Tab S11.

It’s time to set up the right app for retro gaming. I recommend RetroArch, which allows you to manage multiple emulators under a single interface. It’s open source, completely ad-free, and supports emulators (also called cores) of almost every major console, from the 1970s Atari 2600 to the 2000s PlayStation 2. However, newcomers may have difficulty setting up RetroArch and some of its 200 cores, and following an installation guide may be necessary.

If you only want to play a particular system, it may be better to download its standalone emulator. Free and open source software includes PPSSPP for PSP, Dolphin for Nintendo GameCube and Wii, and Azahar for Nintendo 3DS. These can sometimes offer better performance than a RetroArch core. Additionally, if you download emulators that support RetroAchievements, they will have built-in achievements like those you find on modern consoles, offering ways to show off and track your triumphs on fun challenges. You can track these achievements with an app like RA Tracker.

With many of these emulators also supporting online play, you’ll need Discord to voice chat and share a screen with friends. This is also where you can find the emulator community of your choice, giving you access to tips, guides, and hacks to improve the experience.

Although the tablet’s screen is large enough that on-screen controls don’t obstruct it, touch controls can still be imprecise, especially due to the lack of tactile feedback. If you have a mini tablet smaller than 8.4 inches, you can get a cheap mobile controller like the GameSir X5 Lite for better performance. It costs $34.99 and has Hall effect joysticks, turbo functionality, and connects to your tablet’s USB-C port (with pass-through charging support). It’s a pretty basic controller, but for retro gaming, it’s all you need.

Most of the mobile controllers you’ll find on Amazon are intended for mini tablets, but you can also use Bluetooth controllers from well-known brands like 8BitDo, Razer, and AceGamer. You can even use a PS5 DualSense controller or the Xbox Wireless Controller to play on a larger tablet.

Since you won’t be holding the full-size tablet like a portable handheld, you’ll need a case that also has a stand. There are affordable universal cases that do this, like the Fintie Universal Case, which costs $9.99. This is a leather case with a microfiber interior and three inserts at the bottom to adjust your viewing angle. Alternatively, you can get the cheap Ugreen Portable Dock for $9.99, which can accommodate an 11-inch tablet on its base ledge. The back support can be adjusted for a comfortable viewing angle and its non-slip base can hold firmly on any surface.