HyperMegaTech are the company behind the portable $69 Super Pocket handhelds that take Evercade cartridges, offering a physical and modern way to collect and play retro games that are officially licensed, and they even come with physical manuals too.
It's Evercade's sister company that focuses on more affordable, slightly more niche devices aimed at retro gamers with specific needs. This year they announced not one, but two new handhelds completely separate from the Super Pocket line called The C64 Handheld and The Spectrum Handheld. These sit under the "Home Console Handhelds" and are designed to play licensed games in a manner that looks like the original consoles that they are emulating.
These have gone down well with the retro gaming community and certainly look the part; however, HyperMegaTech has shared across social media and in a blog post that these devices will now be delayed until April 22nd, 2027, which is a big jump from the original October 25th 2026 release date. It seems like they have come across some serious quality control issues that they are respectfully changing so that customers get the best possible product when delivered next year.
"We wanted to share an important update regarding the upcoming TheC64 and The Spectrum Handhelds. After careful consideration, we have made the decision to move the release date from 15th October 2026 to 22nd April 2027. This date change applies to both standard and collector’s editions. During production, we identified areas where the product construction was not meeting our high standards. While we could address some issues quickly and release the products in 2026, we believe taking this additional time is the right decision to give you the best experience possible."
More specifically they mention "product construction", which isn't a small defect to alter if it means reconstructing placements or shells entirely. At first I thought it could have been the issue of finding screen or memory suppliers, perhaps even delays in deliveries on that part, but we're too close to its original release for it to be that. But undoubtedly, HyperMegaTech will sort all of this out before it gets released in April of next year. I believe pre-orders are on hold now until they fix the issue, but be aware the Evercade Nexus is unaffected by this delay.
