This is almost certainly not the issue, but check and make sure the time/date is set automatically. I’ve seen the issue above before when someone’s phone is set manually and the 1 minute difference causes the texts to display weird.

Maybe look into setting up a retro pi. If you get the correct hardware you can use a wireless controller. I’m not sure about the settings that could be messed with, so you’ll have to look into that, but otherwise it might be a good solution.