There are people that have never played Halo 1 and don’t know anything about the story or what happens. They absolutely should not google anything or know anything other than it’s a great FPS as they play it.

For as close as you can get to the original experience without paying too much:

1. Get a KongFeng GB Boy from Ebay. This is a knockoff Gameboy color with an IPS screen, although it is a slightly distorted aspect ratio. There are other alternatives, but this was popular a few years ago when I was beginning to look into this.

2. Get a knockoff reproduction of an original gameboy cartridge off ebay.

Combined this should run you about $50 or so, and give as close to the original experience as is reasonable today. If you have your own stuff, it’s even compatible with trading/battling with original hardware via a link cable.