Evercade maker Blaze has teamed up with Retro Games Ltd to announce two new clamshell handhelds: THEC64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld. Both are launching in October 2026, and pre-orders are open now.
The form factor is an obvious conversation starter. The clamshell design draws a clear line back to the Game Boy Advance SP and DS era of portable gaming, while the hardware itself leans into the distinct visual identity of its respective machines. THEC64 Handheld ships in Retro Beige with tactile plastic function keys, while The Spectrum Handheld goes Classic Black with rubber function keys matching the feel of the original rubber-keyed Spectrum. Each unit includes four mappable function keys designed to stand in for keyboard input, plus a menu/start/select layout.
Under the hood, both devices share the same specs: a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 256MB DDR RAM, a 4.3-inch 840×480 IPS display, a 2000mAh battery rated for 3-plus hours, USB-C charging, and a USB-A port for connecting an external keyboard. MicroSD support is included for loading additional games beyond the 25 that come preloaded on each unit.
The format support is worth noting. THEC64 Handheld lets you switch between C64 PAL/NTSC, C64C, C64SX, PET64, and C64 GS configurations. The Spectrum Handheld covers Spectrum 48K through +3e and 16K variants, with CPU under and overclocking also supported.
Standard pricing comes in at £109.99 / $129.99 / €129.99 per unit. Collector’s Editions are available exclusively through Funstock at £129.99 / $149.99 / €149.99 each and include a hard shell case and an exclusive magazine, Crash with the Spectrum and Zzap with the C64. Those are limited to 2,000 units apiece, so if that’s your speed, the clock is already ticking.
October is not that far off, and for the crowd that grew up on either of these machines, the Collector’s Editions in particular seem engineered specifically to empty wallets.
Source: Time Extension
