It was definitely a nostalgia purchase. If I ended up doing any development for it, I’d still probably emulate and transfer files to it. But I never did anything more than play games on it as a kid, so there would be a time sink and learning curve if I wanted to do more with it.
I’ve been showing it off in my makerspace to the college students who weren’t alive in the 80s (or 90s). All the new features are welcome additions — USB, HDMI, WiFi, etc. And there are some modern chiptune applications included.
I’ve vindicated my childhood by discovering that the games that were difficult and confusing back then still are, and maybe some of them were just poorly designed in the first place.
I still love the soundtrack to Rock N Bolt and a good playthrough of River Raid though.