Sounds like a deck is perfect for you, I’d recommend the refurbished 512 led (got one for mom, she’s loving it, and hasn’t had a single problem), or the smallest LCD and a large memory card.
Emulation is a breeze, and it’s a pretty powerful gaming PC in it’s own right. I rarely push it, but I’ve run Witcher 3, which was as good as my 5 year old "gaming"laptop, and baldurs gate 3 runs decently. I’ve seen my buddy run ‘no man’s sky’ at what looked like buttery 60fps, though he didn’t have the overlay turned on. I’d recommend a cheap Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and a kickstand unless you’re going to play it hooked up to the TV, then you’ll need a pass through power cable and usbc-> TV input adapter (HDMI), or the dock that they sell, but I haven’t had reason to try one.