Blaze Entertainment Announces Retro Handhelds Reimagining ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64

Blaze Entertainment, the company behind the cartridge-based Evercade consoles, has announced two new handhelds that reimagine iconic '80s personal computers as portable gaming machines. The Spectrum Handheld and The C64 Handheld eschew the productivity aspects of the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum to focus on gaming, with each portable coming with its own collection of 25 retro titles that can be expanded using a microSD card. If you're craving a desktop gaming experience, they can both be connected to a keyboard and joystick over USB. Shipping isn't expected to start until October 2026 at the earliest, but you can preorder the The C64 and The Spectrum through Funstock starting at $129.99 each. That's a bit on the expensive side given even Anbernic's cheapest device, the $48 RG28XX,can easily emulate these games, but the real appeal here are the designs of both handhelds featuring colors and cases inspired by their original '80s-era counterparts. Both handhelds include a 4.3-inch screen with a generous 800x480 resolution, remappable D-pads, action buttons, and additional function buttons, stereo speakers, a headphone jack, and a three-hour battery that can be recharged over USB-C. Bundled games from the Commodore 64 include titles like Boulder Dash, Aztec Challenge, and Nebulus, while from the ZX Spectrum you get Manic Miner, Switchblade, and Starquake, among others.