[Razengan]

It'd be cool to have a new modern retro system that embraces the spirit of the early "computer consoles" like the Commodore 64 while adding all modern conveniences:

• Everybody has the same system (devs need to target only 1 environment)

• Boot straight into a programming environment

• Limited OUTPUT that enhances creativity without the internal limitations that hinder creativity: Like a limited numbers of colors, but no bitplane crap or having to do sprite multiplexing etc

• Online, ungated app store where anybody can publish, like itch.io

• Reasonable upgradability (not so much as to defeat point #1)

[snvzz]

Software-only fantasy consoles are an interesting concept, covered by a sister comment.

There are also hardware-based efforts, like BoxLambda[0], Agon[1], MEGA65[2], Uzebox[3], F256[4].

0. https://epsilon537.github.io/boxlambda/

1. https://www.thebyteattic.com/p/agon.html

2. https://mega65.org/

3. https://uzebox.org/

4. https://wildbitscomputing.com/

[Uncorrelated]

Seems like you’re describing something like Pico-8: https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php

There are also open-source versions of the concept, like TIC-80.

The only thing missing is upgradability.