AYANEO Pocket Air Mini Gets IGS Arcade Edition
AYANEO has launched a new Arcade Home edition of the Pocket Air Mini, and it is aimed squarely at retro fans who want a ready-to-play handheld. The new version keeps the same core hardware, but adds a burgundy shell, gold buttons, and pre-loaded, officially licensed International Games System, or IGS, arcade titles.
The announcement came during a recent livestream led by AYANEO CEO Arthur Zhang. AYANEO says the design takes inspiration from the iconic classics of the 80s, with the colour scheme echoing the Famicom. There is also subtle Arcade Home branding on the back of the device.
The software side is the main change here. The Arcade Home edition includes a Limited Edition version of AYAHome, AYANEO's custom front-end, plus a self-developed emulator built for the bundled IGS games. Titles mentioned include Knights of Valour and Oriental Legend. For readers who prefer less setup and fewer settings to tweak, that is a notable shift.
This also matters because the retro handheld market has often leaned on users supplying their own ROMs. AYANEO's approach is different, since it is bundling licensed software directly on an Android-based emulation device. For comparison, Analogue uses FPGA hardware with original cartridges, while Evercade sells licensed games on its own cartridges. AYANEO is taking a third route here, pairing licensed arcade titles with a custom emulator on a handheld.
On the hardware side, nothing changes from the original Pocket Air Mini. It still uses a MediaTek Helio G90T processor, a 4.2-inch display, 2GB or 3GB of RAM, and a 4500mAh battery. Storage options are 32GB or 64GB. RetroDodo notes that the device is strong enough for GameCube emulation and some PlayStation 2 titles, and the new edition starts at about $129 for the 2GB model and $139 for the 3GB model.
The AYANEO Pocket Air Mini Arcade Home edition is available to order now from AYANEO.com, with shipping expected to start next week. For more handheld news, see our news tag. You can also read more about the publisher behind the licensed games at IGS.
