Nvidia Shield Portable
New “Zscaler Logo on a weird computer” alert!
While most of the computers in my "Retro Roadshow" collection are truly “retro,” I also love devices of any era which are just *weird.* This week I thought I’d highlight one from this category: The NVIDIA Shield Portable from 2013. The device has the general shape of a game controller, but is really a full Android gaming console. The ‘cover’ contains a flip-up 5" display, and the system is powered by a 4-core ARM “Cortex” CPU running at 1.9GHz.
Nvidia marketed the Shield Portable as a way to stream games from a desktop PC to the handheld over a home WiFi network for couch play, but that’s not necessarily what the device ultimate became best known for. Instead, the Shield Portable is one of the most powerful portable emulation systems ever released. My Shield Portable is loaded with emulators and classic games, with hundreds of titles for various Atari consoles, vintage Nintendo consoles and even later systems like the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 1 and Sega Dreamcast.
The Nvidia Shield Portable may have been marketed for a use-case that wasn’t all that compelling (streaming PC games within walking distance of the gaming PC), but as a pocket-sized emulation library, it can’t be beat. Happy Friday!
