Vintage handhelds - worth it for the kids?

[ocb]

So, my 7 yr old got a 3DS for his birthday a few wee
He already has an oldish iPad.

My 4 yr old wants a 3DS as well for his birthday (next month)

I can't blame him - his brother and mum both have them now. The wife started it a couple of months back, the handheld console has bitten deep at mine.

I, on the other hand, never had a handheld gaming thingy. I'm too old!

Is it worthwhile getting some old 8bit Sega or Nintendo wotzit to show the kids where it all started from?

I'm a bit worried the older consoles with memory cards and disks are gonna be too fragile/finniky.

I have resurrected the wife's PSP and looking at getting emulation running on it - but I'm guessing it's not the same as the "real thing" (trying to compare to VAC gaming - I honestly have no frame of reference!).

 

[grobda]

an original gameboy / gameboy pocket with tetis and mario maybe, old colour consoles have murky screens and poor battery life.

 

[davey d]

My 4yr old son loves playing the sonic games on my PSP running a megadrive emulator

 

[Nes4life]

Old handhelds screens and battery life really suck. Buy a modern portable that can run the older games.

 

[ocb]

So - just an emulator (which one??) for the 3DS?
Or, stick to the PSP for "vintage" stuff?

I get a bit worried about all the faffing to do with dodgy firmware updates to jailbreak stuff.

Any recommendations on sites/forums for handheld emulation? I really don't want to brick my wife's PSP...