Three books I can happily recommend:

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs One of the many influences on Star Wars https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62

Gladiator by Philip Wylie Supposedly an influence on the creation of Superman and modern superheroes https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/42914

Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott Philosophical and mathematical and kinda touching all at once https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/201

And while not sci-fi, if you’re into superheroes, Scarlet Pimpernel and Zorro are fun early secret-identify stories:

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60

Mark of Zorro https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61620

I didn’t consider using newer Nintendo hardware to play these old games. They definitely have “that feel” to the controls. Any good websites to check out or keywords to search for to help figure this out?