Nintendo Switch. Steam Deck might also have timer controls built in but I do not remember.
Technically, all consoles do if you set a timer yourself and then tell your kid when time is up.
Ya the Switch has fairly good reporting on play time by total time and time of day… They have a parent mobile app for managing it.
Keep the batteries at or below 20%
Give them a Nomad, even with full batteries it only lasts like 5 minutes.
Harsh.
But the Nomad was friggin cool, so it probably balances out.
Hiding all the USB-C chargers in the house might be difficult.
This is retrogaming, if it’s got usb-c (or any form of rechargeable battery) then it’s too new!
Would say everyone running emulators would disagree. Particularly steam deck users.
True, I assumed the 20% battery comment meant that you’re handing them a game boy!
The Switch is “okay”. You can set a daily limit and an end time. As well as allowing or blocking titles. You can’t set more granular sessions times, or even a start time. And “bedtime” cannot be earlier than 4pm. It’s all a bit limited compared to Xbox from example, but it’s okay. You control the times from a mobile app.
It seems like Family Link on Android might be what you are looking for
I think devices that use something like Emulation Station can only limit certain games and menu options but that still leave devices like the Retroid Pocket 3+. Anything that runs PC games should have it’s own suite of parental features or work arounds.
That’s interesting, thank you. Would it make more sense to buy a $50 android phone (free upgrade) and use a razer kishi (I already have) and set up this family link rather than buying a $100+ retroid device?
I’d say it depends what you want to play and what you can get. It might not be a bad move considering you could use it with other devices if you want
Having the parental controls to limit someone’s play session is a newer concept. Most older systems like PS2, PSP, and PS3 just have age restrictions on the games, where a parent needs to unlock the system to play. (At which point you could just start a timer)
You might be able to leverage that.
Otherwise the oldest system I am aware of that has this feature is PlayStation Vita according to its manual.
iPhones and iPads are not technically consoles but they do have very robust parental controls.
Yeah I love the guided access on iphone. I can lock down everything and just enable a game for however many minutes I want to give. The closest to that on Android I find is Samsung kids mode, which doesn’t give me as much control as iphones. I might end up giving her an android phone with a kishi controller with parental control setup.
How techy are you and what level of handheld are you willing to get them? Retropie comes with a built in shutdown timer and you can set up cron jobs remotely to shut down after a time or even at certain times. Down side: You need to know how to set them up AND you are not going to get a machine that runs the latest and greatest.
You could go all out and get them a steam deck and set up crons but that’s strictly local to the machine.
