Being a tech reviewer is a lot of fun, deadlines and backlog not withstanding. This time I was rubbing my hands in anticipation of the Laser Retro Gaming Projector landing on my desk.
Since the announcement back from August this year, I have been to revisit the golden age of arcade gaming. Yes I am showing my age, but I was keen to make this trip down memory lane.
What is the Laser Retro Gaming Projector?
The Laser Retro Gaming Projector is an all-in-one entertainment hub designed for nostalgia-fuelled nights and big-screen arcade adventures.
Onboard it comes with over 80 officially licensed classic games, and it also features built-in ROM emulator support for consoles ike NES, SNES, Mega Drive, SEGA Genesis, N64, Game Boy, GBA, Atari, SNK, and more.
Projector and Portable Design: First Impressions
The Laser Retro Gaming Projector is a project (of course). It is in a square tube form factor. The front is all glass – the projector lens.
The back features an HDMI port, one USB port, power button and a 3.5mm port.
There is a stand that gives 210 degrees swivel, giving excellent flexibility on where you can throw the image.
The unit is immensely portable at 800g grams.
As part of the package, it comes with two wireless gaming controllers, 120″ soft cloth screen with a good handful of hooks and double sided tape.
To complete the retro feel, it has a 2W speaker built in.
Game On: Built-in Games, Emulation, and ROMs
The day the Laser Retro Gaming Projector turned up, it got the attention of everyone.
It was hard to miss the retro games printed on the box. Arraiya of course, was keen as mustard. Even Liam and his OT were really curious about it.
Of course it was a few hours before I could get into it, there was dinner to be cooked, eaten, chores done and all that before we could get some game time.
Finding a blank wall at our place is a tall order, but we made do with the dining table and the wall behind it, Nanoleaf clips, picture frames and all. It’s fine, it’s a retro projector with a 1280×720 resolution so chill.
I could lead off telling you about the features of the Laser Retro Gaming Projector but that’s not what we are here for are we?
If nothing else, you could skip any setup and hop straight into gaming. It takes precisely 4 steps to get your groove on.
- Hook up to power
- Power on the Laser Retro Gaming Projector
- Go to Game Box
- Decide on which one of the 80 classic game gets launched
In between the 8-bit graphics and the tinny audio from the 2W speaker, this is arcade heaven. The kids were gathered around to watch … not me, but Arraiya taking the charge. The 7 year old was dominating (well kind of) Smashing Drive. We all had fun exploring Mr Bloppy Saves the World.
The good part is that is has been a lot of fun – for one player. At the moment we are taking turns.
At the heart of it, this is reliant on a ROM emulator. Laser used of the widely available and popular ones on the market and this one is readily available on Google Play Store.
There are some quirks, as is always the case with emulators. We haven’t quite figured out how to get two player going. Getting out of games require pressing Start and Select together. Some controls are documented, and some requires some button mashing to figure out. Others will need playing with advance settings before it will load. It’s all part and parcel of the experience.
But wait, there’s more.
You can take advantage of the vast stores of ROM online to load up your favourites. I wasn’t about to go past grabbing Donkey Kong and Star Wars arcade. There is a bit of a process to get them onto the file system, it will take some patience and following of instructions.
On the other hand arcade ROMs are tiny, some are in the region of KILOBYTES. Yes, KILOBYTES. Donkey Kong was about 113kb. The classic Star Wars Princess Leia’s Rebel Force is a just 45kb. None of that gigabytes of downloads here, no siree. We are in the 80s and 90s heydays here, gigabyte was out of the question.
I’ll own it, after the kids have gone to bed, I was trying to relive my heydays as the reigning champ of Donkey Kong. I was a gun at it. Anyone else remember the orange Nintendo clam shell unit? Good times!
The Rest of the Package: Android, Connectivity, and Features
Under the hood, the Laser Retro Gaming Projector is powered by Android 13 AOSP, with access to Play Store amongst other things. It functions as a entertainment system.
On the home screen you have direct access to Netflix, Youtube and the Google Play store, where you can install your favourite apps or games.
With an HDMI port, you can hook up your laptop and have it displayed larger than life if you prefer. It won’t give you 4K clarity, but it is portable and you could cart it just about anywhere.
Auto keystone correction can be enabled for up to 15 degrees correction. No more wedging up the projector, manually playing with the settings just to achieve a squarish image. If you want to go old school and take control manually, you can do that too.
There is a focus ring at the front of the projector, if the image is blurry, it could be your eyes, or just adjust that ring. I am still getting used to my new glasses so it definitely could be my eyes in my case.
Bearing in mind that this is not your standard phone or tablet, not all standard apps will work smoothly. There is an included app called TvMarket which has projector optimised packages. Or you might have to sideload them.
If the retro tinny sound isn’t to your liking, there is a 3.5mm jack you could use. Or opt for the modern day solution – Bluetooth connect a speaker to it. The onboard Bluetooth is specifically for audio out only.
Gripes
There is a pretty glaring one for me, to use the Laser Retro Gaming Projector you must have a flat surface to sit it on. There is no option to mount it on an Arca tripod plate
File operations are really clunky but hopefully you don’t need to do it too often. I would have loved for it to have an SMB share so I can copy it over the network, but that is a small quibble.
The OS is a few generations old now, so some modern apps may not work. That said, Laser does not provide any specs on chipset so chances are, you won’t be playing Genshin Impact on it.
Would be nice to have a lens cap included.
Final Verdict
This one has been one of the most fun reviews to do, for reasons that are obvious. It’s portable and only requires power to use if you are not streaming content.
This makes it ideal for road trips where you can take it anywhere, and throw some entertain on any blank space as long as you have power. And if access to a GPO is questionable, there is always the Laser NRGVault Portable Power Stations to fulfil that requirement. Just pack a bunch of AAA batteries because the remote and controllers need them.
The Laser Retro Gaming Projector has a RRP A$299, but at time of publish it is down to about $150 which honestly is a steal.
DRN would like to thank Laser for providing the review unit. Summer holidays is coming and this is going to get a nice workout whether it is at home or at friends’ place.
