The All-in-One Mini-Retro King for under £270
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The Mighty Mini PC Engine
Technology marches ever forward, or so we are led to believe, and it seems with progress comes growth. Not just for the manufacturer, but the product. Thankfully, Geekom do not see things the same way. And thanks to Geekom supplying me with one of their myriad of mini pcs for review, we can delve something different. They offer a range of specs and form factors to suit all pockets and needs. This particular A5 2025 mini model is around the entry level but still packs a lot of tech into a neat, tiny and well-built package. An all in one, versatile PC packing an AMD DX12 capable GPU running dual displays up to 8K, Ryzen 5 6c/12t x86 upto 4.2Ghz cpu, 16GB of fast DDR4 3200 Ram, 512GB Pcie3x SSD, Bluetooth, WiFi 8, complete with windows 11, but Linux and other distros are supported. As a dedicated gaming PC, it can run modern games, retro arcades, classic consoles and is smaller than a book and costs less £270, which can be even less if you the links below in my video review. That is far less than a decent laptop, an Xbox Series S, Steam Deck or Switch 2. But it offers great scalability of uses at a low price. We know it is small, but is it mighty?
The little box is a solid, metallic, sturdy unit and comes with a Kensington lock slot, vesa wall mountable plate, dual HDMI, dual USB-C gen2.3.2 both A and C are mixed at front and rear. It even has a 3.5mm phono jack for the full retro connection of stereo speakers. All this and still small enough to disappear on any desk, side table or cabinet. Taking up less volume than a Dual Sense or SX controller, measuring just 25cm by 12cm by 10cm high yet packs an AMD Ryzen 5 7430U APU with Radeon™ RX Vega 7 Graphics.
Now, expectations in check, if you are expecting current Gen console quality 4K gaming and RT, you are not getting that on this menu. However, expect somewhere around PS4 to Switch 2 levels of quality, CPU wise expect much more. But that is not what this device should be used for, it really is a jack of all trades. streaming gameplay, lightweight video editing, video server, business focused work, coding, accounting, light web or data server are all options. As are modern games in a cutdown form, such as big hitters TLOU2, which run at very low settings with just 512mb of Vram. As does Ghost of Tsushima, Arkham Knight which manages to exceed Xbox One visuals and performance and even the console crushing Cyberpunk 2077 can run and compete with Valves Steam Deck. Not bad for a unit that can fit in your pocket, well some, and run all these games at less that 35W.
PC Engine Reborn
I had very different plans for this little gem, a way to bring the old and new together. Using the ease of hardware emulation, modern, free emulators, instant loading and excellent quality an, All in One DIY retro, emulation box. Something I feel it could have been design for. And not just any emulator, a 1970s to 1990s mix of arcades, consoles and even computers, hooked up to a LED or OlED panel it looks and play excellent. But we can do more, with the ease of some cheap retro connectors, we can take this experience up a notch and back further, to the period appropriate CRT or multi-Sync monitor experience. let’s get the PC engine started.
For this particular use case, I have opted for RetroArch as more core manager and then mixed up a selection of Mame Arcade, Megadrive, PC-Engine, Snes, Game ube, C64, Amiga and PC DoS titles to showcase the ease, speed and quality we can achieve. Those who watch me regularly know I am an advocate, and own and use, almost all period hardware from the Magnovox to the Megadrive, Atari VCS to Atari ST, Amiga, Archimedes, BBC Micro, Amstad, PS1, and one, the fact is it is not practical, let alone cheap or easy to source, use and maintain all these pieces of hardware. And this is where emulation comes into its own, offering a single solution to create a retro arcade, computer, console or all in one unit. No hassle finding plugs, carts, controllers or space, here we can set-up our emulator cores, install a vast selection of games, pretty front end and deliver our childhood in glorious simplicity for a budget price, so let’s turn back the clock.
The results are exceptional, as you would expect. Specs wise the unit is overpowered for this job; it can exceed an Xbox One and even an average gaming PC of around the same era. CPU is around a 3600X desktop level and GPU wise it can run even early 2011 generation PC titles under DX8,9 and 11. But the benefit here is it can be easily fitted into a small-scale arcade form factor at full height or mini size. Under a TV on your wall, in a draw or even attached to the side of a CRT. Bootup straight into a carousel of games, genres and decades controlled by a BT controller of choice, or mouse, steering wheel. Once ready, then picking from Space Invaders to Spiderman is simply a button press away. With Afterburner II we get all the Top Gun, 60fps, sprite scaling System X visual splendour which still looks superb and sounds exquisite with stereo bass speakers. As does the earlier Outrun from Yu Suzuki, a super smooth even at 30fps remember, Afterburner hardware pushed to 60 in 87, But the fun, serenity, challenge and genuine icon of the 80s arcade scene it was, remains perfect on a CRT inside a cabinet, desk and even on a modern LCD. Creating the Magnum PI meets Cannonball run frenzy of the era in a game that reinvigorated arcades then and still personifies the final heyday of sticky floors, 50 ps and high score, sit down cabinets. On this Geekom little box, with Faux CRT Filter we are still running at the original 30fps rate, but it scales smoothly, plays as good and looks great on this 28” Asus 240Hz LCD monitor. But, the true glory days are delivered on this 4:3 multi-sync monitor with no need to fake the phosphor quality, contrast and unrivalled response times. All we need now is the sound of the seaside, fish n chip smell in the air and a change machine for 10ps and we are in 1985 all over again.
Final Thoughts
The ease and joy here is jumping into any genre, era or hardware we want. Early 90s sprite swamping best em up action with Golden Axe II revenge of the death adder, easy and impressive as ever. Maze marching, pill popping, jelly chewing Pac-Man is another it delivers in seconds complete with that arcade signature tune and sound. The sheer range and decades it handles without any problems and pulls less that 28w with the best I tested from the plug. C64 to Amiga, Monkey Island to Magic carpet, Street fighter 2, Ghouls N ghosts, Golden Axe 3, Virtua Racing, the Irem legend that is R-type in all its forms arcade, Stunning PC Engine, Amiga and even master system. This PC can be hooked up to play every game, genre, generation and format you can think of at the push of a button. And when your thumbs have become to weak to continue, you can roll back to Windows or Linux, fire up a movie, watch YT, browse the net or get some work done all for less than £270 pounds. It offers up an almost unrivalled level of value and a form factor which means it can be used anywhere, in any DIY option and it is so well built, well ventilated running below 65 degrees even in the baking 30 degree we had here in the UK during much of my testing, It not only looks and feels robust and industrial or packs power inside that can deliver our retro gaming dreams for next to nothing, and can you really put a price on such bliss.
