I really want to get one of these things. I used my Steam Deck but it got smashed, so now it's phone with virtual buttons, horrible! Some of these are a few hundred bucks though which feels like too much. Any recommendations for a cheap and cheerful one?

Oh no, that's rough 😭 if you're looking for something inexpensive, anything from the Anbernic RG XX line is great for anything up to PS1 for around 60 bucks on Aliexpress! If you wanna aim for 100-150 dollars, the Mangmi Air X punches above its weight. I haven't bought anything further upmarket for PS2 and Gamecube, those run 200+ dollars.

I'd strongly recommend the RG40XXV for general use if you don't need it to be small enough to fit in your pocket though. It's like a jumbo gameboy with a 4 inch screen and really, really good controls. Mine is getting heavy use with a ported version of Stardew Valley.

(I need to write up a review of the handhelds I've used thus far)

I would definitely read your handheld reviews, there are way too many options without some trusted advice!

New Mission: informatively yap about the thing that took over my life these last few months

shifting my favorite games list around, gonna try and get the box art into a marquee for each platform.

Fun Fact! image marquees in plain HTML have a really, really long wind-up time before they restart with the way my site template works. I can't be bothered to set up javascript for this, so I'm just moving my favorite games to the main body, Currently Playing to a sidebar, and we'll see what else gets moved around later.