I have dabbled in game emulation in the past, mainly for old NES type games and such. I recently have been talking to some friends about this and they mention that there are now ways to emulate a variety of games on one device with only a few emulators. MAME and SCUMM are two that have been mentioned. It looks like there are also several front-ends such as RetroArch and LaunchBox as well.
My main use for this would be older games like the original Sierra Kings Quest games and similar, NES games, Game Boy original games, some arcade games, and such. It wouldn't be a single purpose type of emulation scenario. I would want multiple platforms to all run on this unit.
This is also more of a hobby to me than a full-time deal. I work on electronics for a living and come across gamers who that is pretty much all they do. I want something simple that doesn't take forever to setup and manage. I am sure I can make this work but wanted to ask for some advice from those who have already figured it out. I also want to do this all on ONE computer if that is possible and not have to have multiple devices sitting around. I work on computers so often end up with parts from junk units sitting around. I usually try to refurbish what is worth messing with end up with "Frankenstein" computers. The "Frankenstein" computer in question is an HP 23 inch all in one. I personally hate these things as most all in ones are basically a piece of junk. This one came to me with a fried motherboard and the rest of the unit was mint to I hated to just send it off for recycling. I ended up finding a replacement motherboard with the CPU listed at the link below already on the board for cheap.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-4170T+@+3.20GHz
It is basically this computer when you get right down to it but is a "Frankenstein" build of it since the original board was AMD A10 based. The Core i3 runs circles around what came in it.
The unit doesn't have dedicated graphics and I would be relying on the onboard GPU included with this processor. I know this probably wouldn't be a good unit for the latest and greatest games but am mainly interested in retro games, so would think this unit would be more than capable. It is outfitted with 8GB of RAM as I am sure that matters but could bump it up to 12GB if that would be of help. Again, this unit seems like it would be overkill but I don't know as I am new to this.
I also have an HP Envy Laptop that is basically physically falling to pieces but is equipped with this CPU: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=intel+core+i7-4700mq+@+2.40ghz This is a more powerful unit for sure but I would have to use it on an external monitor with a mouse and keyboard since it is falling apart. It would basically be setup like a small desktop because the actual frame of the unit is broken (known problem) and the screen is about to fall off the thing.
I have PLENTY of cheaper units lake AMD A6-A8 models as well as Intel Pentium/Celeron models that have been left behind. Think cheap Wal-Mart computers. Again, I hate these things and consider them junk but they were left behind and I figure they might be more than enough for retro gaming. I also have some older Core 2 Duo era units. I am sure there is some overhead to the emulation process but what is a good way to get started for someone who wants to emulate games mainly from year 2000 and older?
Thank you,
Conor
My main use for this would be older games like the original Sierra Kings Quest games and similar, NES games, Game Boy original games, some arcade games, and such. It wouldn't be a single purpose type of emulation scenario. I would want multiple platforms to all run on this unit.
This is also more of a hobby to me than a full-time deal. I work on electronics for a living and come across gamers who that is pretty much all they do. I want something simple that doesn't take forever to setup and manage. I am sure I can make this work but wanted to ask for some advice from those who have already figured it out. I also want to do this all on ONE computer if that is possible and not have to have multiple devices sitting around. I work on computers so often end up with parts from junk units sitting around. I usually try to refurbish what is worth messing with end up with "Frankenstein" computers. The "Frankenstein" computer in question is an HP 23 inch all in one. I personally hate these things as most all in ones are basically a piece of junk. This one came to me with a fried motherboard and the rest of the unit was mint to I hated to just send it off for recycling. I ended up finding a replacement motherboard with the CPU listed at the link below already on the board for cheap.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i3-4170T+@+3.20GHz
It is basically this computer when you get right down to it but is a "Frankenstein" build of it since the original board was AMD A10 based. The Core i3 runs circles around what came in it.
The unit doesn't have dedicated graphics and I would be relying on the onboard GPU included with this processor. I know this probably wouldn't be a good unit for the latest and greatest games but am mainly interested in retro games, so would think this unit would be more than capable. It is outfitted with 8GB of RAM as I am sure that matters but could bump it up to 12GB if that would be of help. Again, this unit seems like it would be overkill but I don't know as I am new to this.
I also have an HP Envy Laptop that is basically physically falling to pieces but is equipped with this CPU: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=intel+core+i7-4700mq+@+2.40ghz This is a more powerful unit for sure but I would have to use it on an external monitor with a mouse and keyboard since it is falling apart. It would basically be setup like a small desktop because the actual frame of the unit is broken (known problem) and the screen is about to fall off the thing.
I have PLENTY of cheaper units lake AMD A6-A8 models as well as Intel Pentium/Celeron models that have been left behind. Think cheap Wal-Mart computers. Again, I hate these things and consider them junk but they were left behind and I figure they might be more than enough for retro gaming. I also have some older Core 2 Duo era units. I am sure there is some overhead to the emulation process but what is a good way to get started for someone who wants to emulate games mainly from year 2000 and older?
Thank you,
Conor