I'm seeing an awesome trend in using FPGA for creating/mimicking/upscaling retro games consoles and also creating new ones, particularly on the subreddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fpgagaming/
There're these projects which're also worth checking out:
http://www.mike-stirling.com/2010/09/zx-spectrum-on-altera-de1-teaser/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1835143999/zx-spectrum-next/description
I'm not sure how well I'd fare getting into it though, what about yourselves?
I made an FPGA based MicroBee over a decade ago. It is a complete Z80 system including video graphics, PS/2 Keyboard Interface and sound generation.
I also made the equivalent using an mbed ARM with a AVR32 at a fraction of the cost but with added SDCard, USB and wireless support.
Read more about it here - NXP mbed Design Challenge
Both items are available through element14.
Here's another low cost RETRO platform that just consists of a ARM processor, LCD and piezo buzzer.
