That\u2019s not true for everything retro \u2013 I\u2019ll happily never wear flares or eat cottage cheese again in my lifetime, because why would you \u2013 but the one area of retro content I\u2019m most passionate about is retro gaming.<\/p>\n
Yes, I\u2019m that guy who kept his consoles to this day\u2026 and also the guy who bemoans the ridiculous prices that many retro titles go for in 2026, driven largely by investment speculators.<\/p>\n
As such, I am 100% the absolute market for another retro Laser gadget, its \u201cPortable Gaming Projector with ROM emulator\u201d, but also quite likely to be its fiercest critic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I never stopped playing old games, and as such I have very specific standards and expectations.<\/p>\n
I do have to temper that against the fact that Laser\u2019s whole pitch is on affordability, and I recognise that; I\u2019m not looking for the kinds of presentation that you might get out of, say, Analogue\u2019s gear<\/a>, or that other one I\u2019m loathe to mention for lots of reasons publications with a bigger legal team can say out loud<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n All reviews at Pickr are subject to experienced testing methodologies. Find out why you can trust us<\/a> and change the way you choose. Out of the box, the Laser Portable Gaming Projector is a pretty standard self-standing projector built with its own rotating base, which means that you can easily project up a wall or onto the ceiling if you so desire.\u00a0<\/p>\n At 166x136x126mm and weighing in at 1.38kg, it\u2019s relatively portable and not difficult to set up, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s not surprising for a projector at this level in 2026, however, because you can buy much cheaper projectors than this if all you want is a device that will throw an image up onto a wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n Laser has lower-cost projectors than this if you want one, though my experiences with other brands delving down into the ridiculously cheap<\/a> do suggest that you rather quickly get what you pay for.<\/p>\n At $299, while it\u2019s way below what you might pay for a cutting-edge high-end cinemaphile projector, you should still expect a little more.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is still a basic projector, with a resolution of just 1280\u00d7720, which means that it\u2019s an effective 720p projector, capable of projecting up to a 120 inch display if desired albeit only at a resolution lower than Full HD\u2019s 1080p.\u00a0<\/p>\n At 300 lumens, I also wasn\u2019t expecting much, but then this is pitched much more as a retro gaming projector\u2026 and if you looked at the projectors available back then, this would have seemed like wild future technology!<\/p>\n The Laser Portable Gaming Projector with ROM emulator doesn\u2019t just fly solo in its box, however. <\/p>\n You also get a very simple generic remote, and a pair of even more simple wireless game controllers that steer as close as I\u2019m sure it\u2019s legally possible to the Sony DualShock design as any lawyer might want to sail\u2026 only nowhere near as good.<\/p>\n They have a cheap plastic feel in the hand and are amazingly lightweight, which doesn\u2019t bode well for their likely survival if you were to give them to the kids to play with, and they require a pair of AAA batteries each to run, as does the remote control. These do not come in the box. Some things apparently are optional.\u00a0<\/p>\n What does come in the box is a basic white projection curtain. It\u2019s a simple and obviously fairly cheap bit of kit, but I was genuinely surprised at how well it managed with basic gaming images. Again, this is very much within the Laser wheelhouse; it\u2019s not fancy but it gets the job done, and you do get a set of sticky hooks for helping to put it up in place as needed.<\/p>\n For the purposes of clarity in this review; while I tested with the screen against a wall for best results, the photos taken here are in my home office instead for reasons of privacy, which means it may look better in your home living room, though it is close to what it can do optimally.<\/p>\n At the rear of Laser\u2019s Portable Gaming Projector, you\u2019ll finda single HDMI input port, a USB-A port that\u2019s pre-filled with an adaptor for the included game controllers, a single 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card with a warranty sticker on it that\u2019s very clearly the included storage for the projector.<\/p>\n In-Use<\/p>\n The Laser Portable Gaming Projector with ROM emulator doesn\u2019t just magically run those games, using an Android 13 operating system with a custom front-end that itself looks a little retro compared to what, say, the Google TV Streamer 4K<\/a> presents.<\/p>\n Strictly speaking you don\u2019t have to connect up the projector to Wi-Fi, but if you do it supports Wi-Fi 6 out of the box, which means it\u2019s both 2.4GHz and 5GHz compatible, and is nice to see. Hooking into Wi-Fi does enable connectivity to major streaming services, and it does work with the Google Play store for TV-compatible apps\u2026 which is to say that while it\u2019s Android, don\u2019t expect every Android app to be available.<\/p>\n At just 720p and with 300 lumen brightness, however, this isn\u2019t a spectacular movie, TV or sports projector, and that\u2019s made markedly worse by the integrated 2 watt speakers.<\/p>\n They are \u2013 and there\u2019s no more accurate term to use here \u2013 bad. The speakers are really quite painful to hear, and my one bit of advice here, no matter what you\u2019re using the Laser Portable Gaming Projector for is to invest in a simple external speaker with a standard 3.5mm connector, because the audio out of this thing is just woeful.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a potential future catch here, because being only Android 13 based, and with the strong likelihood that it\u2019ll never see an official update, there could come future dates where updated streaming apps look for a minimum Android version higher than that, at which point its utility as a general-purpose projector may drop.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not the point of the Laser Portable Gaming Projector with ROM emulator, though, is it?<\/p>\n No, it\u2019s about gaming, so let\u2019s get into that.<\/p>\n Retro gaming<\/p>\n The Laser Portable Gaming Projector handles its gaming through what it calls the \u201cGame Box\u201d app, which is functionally a launcher app for the various emulators that it relies on under the hood.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s simple and functional, but it also is quite slow in response whether you\u2019re using the supplied remote, included controllers, or even a third-party Bluetooth controller, which is the route I went down for most of this review, because the included controllers are quite poor.<\/p>\n What about the included games \u2013 can you play the classics like Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog or Street Fighter II from the included games set?<\/p>\n Laser is\u2026 I\u2019ll be charitable and say \u201ccheeky\u201d when it comes to the promotion of this projector, because its hype reel video for it<\/a> includes the line \u201c80 licensed games\u201d\u2026 and it\u2019s not, strictly speaking, lying there.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, it then goes on to show fare such as Metal Slug, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter II running on the projector\u2026 and none of those stellar titles are included. Far from it.<\/p>\n Instead, largely, it appears that whoever built the gaming projector for Laser in the first place struck up a licencing deal with PIKO <\/a>Interactive<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chances are, you\u2019ve never heard of PIKO Interactive, and don\u2019t recall them from the good old retro days.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a good reason for that; rather than being a classic gaming developer in its own right, PIKO Interactive instead has legitimately bought the rights to a number of classic gaming developers\u2019 titles, and released them across multiple formats.<\/p>\n On one hand, I love what PIKO Interactive does, because it\u2019s keeping the retro games flame alive without the whole pesky retro-speculators-driving-game-prices-up nonsense in play.<\/p>\n On the other hand\u2026 I can\u2019t ignore the fact that a lot of what PIKO Interactive has picked up\u2026 isn\u2019t very good, or hasn\u2019t aged well\u2026 or both.<\/p>\n The best example of this that I can give is that the Laser Portable Gaming Projector includes the full run of Wisdom Tree\u2019s output.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wisdom Tree was a developer of specifically Christian-themed games in the 1990s, producing unlicensed games for the NES and SNES, and sold through Christian bookstores.<\/p>\n I do not in any way wish to disparage anyone\u2019s faith, but the reality of the Wisdom Tree games is that they were awful back in the 1990s, and outside their light meme status, they haven\u2019t aged well at all.\u00a0<\/p>\n As an example, you get Super 3D Noah\u2019s Ark, a first-person shooter built on the Wolfenstein 3D engine, but without that game\u2019s notable Nazi themes or violence. Instead, as Noah, you wander around the ark, lightly sedating various creatures\u2026 and that\u2019s all. You\u2019d get more joy wandering around the house cleaning up after your pets, and likely better graphics.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fun trivial fact: The game that would become Super 3D Noah\u2019s Ark was originally going to be a licenced game based on Clive Barker\u2019s Hellraiser, back when Wisdom Tree was known as Color Dreams and before it decided to target the lucrative US Christian market.\u00a0<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a more profound 180 degree genre and theme shift for a game in development than that, I\u2019ve never come across it\u2026 but I digress.<\/p>\n There are some games that work well enough here, but the reality is that it\u2019s a case of finding the gems amongst the dross\u2026 and there\u2019s way more dross than gems here.\u00a0<\/p>\n I also have to give the Laser Portable Gaming Projector with ROM Emulator some local credit here, though I suspect I\u2019m the only reviewer on the planet who will have noticed this.\u00a0<\/p>\n A lot of the games that PIKO Interactive has included on here were originally programmed by Beam Software, also known as Melbourne House. This means that there\u2019s a number of original games here \u2013 The Way of The Exploding Fist being the most obvious \u2013 that are home-grown!<\/p>\n You may now, if you wish, chant \u201cAussie Aussie Aussie\u201d if you wish.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ll wait.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also kind of odd; PIKO Interactive has licenced these games elsewhere \u2013 I have a number of them on Everdrive cartridges \u2013 and there, they make considerable effort to scrub out the copyrights they don\u2019t own, which typically means they remove the lines indicating original platforms or that they were licenced by Nintendo or Sega for those consoles.<\/p>\n Yet on the Laser Portable Gaming Projector with ROM Emulator, those licence details are still there. I\u2019m not saying they\u2019re not properly licensed, but clearly somebody got lazy and just loaded up the regular ROMS into Laser\u2019s gaming projector when its factory image was being loaded up.\u00a0<\/p>\n They also did a sloppy job with game titles, too, with a quite a few typos and some games represented by names they no longer hold. The SNES-era Top Gear game got a name change to Top Racer when PIKO Interactive picked it up to avoid the ire of the BBC, but it\u2019s present under both names here!<\/p>\n Performance<\/p>\n Sadly, even once you get past strange naming and licensing conventions, you hit the problem that the basic emulation of titles is not particularly good.<\/p>\n There are a number of games in this list that I do have legally via the Evercade, so I can directly compare how they work as official PIKO Interactive software.\u00a0<\/p>\n The difference in response, audio lag and frame rates is highly noticeable, even though the Evercade platform itself isn\u2019t exactly a high-speed marvel.<\/p>\n Presentation is also highly variable, not helped in some cases by the fact that some games were originally for the GameBoy Advance platform with its much smaller screen, but the default is to try to present a 16:9 style image fairly badly blown up.\u00a0<\/p>\n You can adjust this in the emulator settings for the game to a more pixel accurate style, thankfully, but only if you notice that the option is there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Playing with the included games also isn\u2019t helped by emulators that are a little slow and sludgy when it comes time to access save states or exit out. More than once I found myself stuck in a game with the controller not recognising the START+SELECT key combination that should bring up the emulator menu, forced to fully power cycle the projector before I could change games.<\/p>\n I found myself in a curious reviewer\u2019s dilemma with regards to the projector. The included games are mostly on the mediocre side to be honest about it, but I did spend quite some time with them, because I\u2019m genuinely curious about all corners of the retro gaming scene, and there\u2019s always more to find where a diamond in the rough could be hiding.<\/p>\n Will the average gamer, or older gamer wanting a glimpse back into the titles of their youth persist as long as I did?\u00a0<\/p>\n I doubt it. Matters aren\u2019t helped by there being a lot of some specific game types in the set. You probably don\u2019t need multiple older soccer titles, or racing titles, or variants on Punch-Out to play, but you\u2019re getting them, like it or not.<\/p>\n The promise of the \u201cROM emulator\u201d in Laser\u2019s Portable Gaming Projector with ROM emulator is that you can use your \u201cown\u201d games on it, and here I have to once again point out that while Laser\u2019s own promotional material does indeed show Street Fighter II running on it, if that was filmed in Australia, then it is 100% illegal, even if somebody at Laser does still own an original Street Fighter II SNES cartridge.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s a pity, but the reality of Australian copyright law is even if you do own an original copy of a cartridge or disc game, you do not have the rights to create or use ROMs or disc images of those games.<\/p>\n Period.<\/p>\n Will this stop anyone? Probably not, and let\u2019s be realistic about this: as was the case with the GameSir Pocket Taco I recently reviewed<\/a>, most will merrily go on their way with pirated ROM files. What happens on your device probably won\u2019t be seen by anyone else.<\/p>\n
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The controllers aren\u2019t great to use. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/laser-gaming-projector-review-2026-10-jpg.webp\")
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