Creating a Gaming Station - Need Advice

[Darth Wolf]

I have an old computer that I want to emulate from but have questions. I want to connect it to a Sony Trinitron 32" CRT. This is my first attempt to set up emulation.

My computer hardware:

AMD FX 8320 CPU
16 GB RAM
500 GB SSD
ATI 2Gb Video card (I think, no stamp on card that I can see)

I want to emulate these (Please let me know if anything on this list is not required)

Atari
-2600
-ST
-Lynx
Colecovision
Intellivision
MAME
NEC
NeoGeo
Nintendo
-Game Boy
-Game Boy Colour
-Visual Boy Advance
-DS
-NES
-SNES
-N64
-Game Cube
Panasonic 3DO
Sega
-Master System
-Genesis
-32X
-Dreamcast
TurboGrafix 16

I already have modded systems of Xbox and PS2 hooked up to the CRT. There is also an unmodded Wii.

I will emulate PS3 from my main system on a 55" LCD.

I have an Amiga Mini but not sure how to load games from USB also on the 55".

Also have a modded Xbox 360 and a modded Wii U. And a regular PS4 on the 55" tv.

My questions are:

1. Should I run Windows or Linux for the Retro system?

2. I have the premium version of Launchbox, is this a good platform for launching emulators? Or is there something better?

3. There are multiple emulators for the list above are some better than others? Does this change from Windows to Linux?

4. Any other advice from the experts out there?

 

[pix07]

1.For emulating games its dont matter which os you are using.

2.Launchbox also emulation station are good enough.

3.Good and easy solution its retroarch one fronted with cores to emulate everything.

4.Get retroarch from here: https://buildbot.libretro.com/stable/ choose any version which you like and run on your hardware.

Of course choose windows or linux with your cpu best choice will be build for x86_64

Unpack cores for that emulator and run it but you need gamepad to use retroarch.

Otherwise get any emulator which use keybord(if you dont have a gamepad).

Here wikipedia with all emulators and their features: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

Check also zophar: https://www.zophar.net/windos.html and https://www.zophar.net/linux.html

And here info about retroarch: https://qnnit.com/best-retroarch-cores/

For retroarch any usb or bluetooth gamepad will work but on windows you need driver for that on linux retroarch use sdl library to use it.

And there is other free fronted called quickplay: https://sourceforge.net/projects/quickplay/ but sadly not updated any more but will be not bad if you run emulators on old os like windows7.

And one more thing to analyze computer hardware get hwinfo on linux try cpu-x:

HWiNFO - Free System Information, Monitoring and Diagnostics

Free Hardware Analysis, Monitoring and Reporting. In-depth Hardware Information, Real-Time System Monitoring, Reporting & more

www.hwinfo.com

CPU-X

CPU-X is a Free software that gathers information on CPU, motherboard and more.

thetumultuousunicornofdarkness.github.io

You can also get emulators from official site here:

The Emulator Zone - Your Source for Emulation!

The Emulator Zone is your source for the latest emulators for classic video game consoles and home computers.

www.emulator-zone.com

For mame you need correct romset with parent roms for required mame version with bios pack.

On linux you will need correct binary package like .deb for ubuntu and debian based distros or .rpm for rocky linux and fedora if im remember well.

Bulid emulator from source code is not easy but possible if you dont have binary package.

Thats all for now.

 

[Darth Wolf]

1.For emulating games its dont matter which os you are using.

2.Launchbox also emulation station are good enough.

3.Good and easy solution its retroarch one fronted with cores to emulate everything.

4.Get retroarch from here: https://buildbot.libretro.com/stable/ choose any version which you like and run on your hardware.

Of course choose windows or linux with your cpu best choice will be build for x86_64

Unpack cores for that emulator and run it but you need gamepad to use retroarch.

Otherwise get any emulator which use keybord(if you dont have a gamepad).

Here wikipedia with all emulators and their features: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

Check also zophar: https://www.zophar.net/windos.html and https://www.zophar.net/linux.html

And here info about retroarch: https://qnnit.com/best-retroarch-cores/

For retroarch any usb or bluetooth gamepad will work but on windows you need driver for that on linux retroarch use sdl library to use it.

And there is other free fronted called quickplay: https://sourceforge.net/projects/quickplay/ but sadly not updated any more but will be not bad if you run emulators on old os like windows7.

And one more thing to analyze computer hardware get hwinfo on linux try cpu-x:

HWiNFO - Free System Information, Monitoring and Diagnostics

Free Hardware Analysis, Monitoring and Reporting. In-depth Hardware Information, Real-Time System Monitoring, Reporting & more

www.hwinfo.com

CPU-X

CPU-X is a Free software that gathers information on CPU, motherboard and more.

thetumultuousunicornofdarkness.github.io

You can also get emulators from official site here:

The Emulator Zone - Your Source for Emulation!

The Emulator Zone is your source for the latest emulators for classic video game consoles and home computers.

www.emulator-zone.com

For mame you need correct romset with parent roms for required mame version with bios pack.

On linux you will need correct binary package like .deb for ubuntu and debian based distros or .rpm for rocky linux and fedora if im remember well.

Bulid emulator from source code is not easy but possible if you dont have binary package.

Thats all for now.

Awesome stuff. Thank you so much! I was a bit overwhelmed with everything to consider. I like the idea of Retroarch.