this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Active Retro Consoles? (lemmy.today)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by sic_semper_tyrannis@lemmy.today to c/retrogaming@lemmy.world
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What retro consoles still have the most active game development? The most games still being released physically? The best and most popular time-tested consoles?

I'm excited to start learning programming and had a thought to make a game (having an objective makes it easier to learn). I wrote up an entire plan already for the mechanics and it seems incredibly viable for a fun and full experience. I would like to have it playable on real hardware and am just trying to figure out which system to make it for.

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[–] PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 2 weeks ago (11 children)

So I did a quick search on MobyGames looking for new release since 2020, and:

  • Atari 2600: 10 new games
  • Atari ST: 7 new games
  • DOS: 33 new games
  • Commodore 64: 55 new games
  • NES: 72 new games
  • SNES: 12 new games
  • Gameboy: 42 new games
  • Gameboy Advanced: 9 new games
  • Master System: 6 new games
  • Genesis: 49 new games
  • Dreamcast: 23 new games

I believe those are the most active

[–] bbbbbr@mastodon.gamedev.place 2 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

@PiraHxCx @sic_semper_tyrannis There are a lot more Game Boy releases than shown on MobyGames. I don't know if the site is limited to just physical carts, but even if that is the case then the actual number is more like 269 instead of 42 since 2020

See:
https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@bbbbbr/115897847228422258

[–] PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That's awesome!
MobyGames is a collective database active since 1999. Years ago I was looking for a "letterboxd for games" and others like backloggd and rawg were missing a lot of stuff and had poor info about releases and so (I never checked again, so they might be better now). At the time MobyGames seemed like the best one, there is a lot of very obscure releases there, but I don't know if other databases are more complete.

[–] bbbbbr@mastodon.gamedev.place 2 points 2 weeks ago

@PiraHxCx Here's a brief tour of the Game Boy relevant databases...

DMGPage has some of the most complete data (i think?) for the Game Boy. The format is easier for me to work with.
https://dmgpage.com/homebrew-releases/

There is a japanese page that tracks some GB releases:
https://geemuboi.web.fc2.com/misc/new-releases.htm

Game Brew Almanac tracking has more platforms. The format is less structured.
https://www.videogamesage.com/forums/topic/1050-vgs-homebrew-almanac/

And Homebrews Connexion that also has more platforms:
https://homebrews.retro-gc.fr/

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