Anyone built a retro emulation box? I'm planning to build

are there no /g/ods among us?

>>3390241
Just why
Connect your TV to your PC and enjoy.
>Could I do anything for lightguns and such?
Wiimotes.

>>3390812
yeah but what tv

>>3390241
A modded wii works well for me up to N64. I did make a retro emulator box but there are so many problems it was just easier to use the homebrew channel. It "just works" for the most part and I can spend lazy sundays on my sofa.

>pic
I just got one of these in the mail today.
It's pretty cool, playing some NES right now on it. It seems like there's some input lag though, hopefully it's just because I'm using a bluetooth controller.

>>3391039
one that shows a picture sounds like a good idea

>>3391054
Can someone please create a rar/tar of console forwarders for wii? looking for all the wad files is such a drag.

Also, whats the best controller controlled frontend for emulation?

>>3390241
TV or CRT monitor with HDMI-VGA converter, a few DualShock 3 controllers and an Pi 3, install RetroPi, load ROMs and BIOSes.

Great in the living room as an retro arcade, just a few DualShocks 3's on the table and the Pi hidden behind the TV.

>>3390241
It can't even emulate SNES properly.

>>3391945
It can, no problem with the Pi 3, don't know about older ones.

Tried up to PSX emulation, works fine.

>>3391924
this
mega comfy

>>3391948
Pi 3 can run Higan?
Because SNES9x is not "proper"

>>3391952
https://retropie.org.uk/
Dunno what you on about with "proper" but I never had any problems.

>>3390241
>Anyone built a retro emulation box?
I have.
>the modt CPU-intensive emulators
>pre-fth gen
Those aren't cpu intensive.
>What would be the best displays?
Depends if you want aperture grille (Sony) or shadow mask.
Sony's are ridiculously sharp, like CRT PC monitor + Fake scanlines sharp.
Shadow mask looks a lot better. That's what most arcade cabinets had. Either way just get yourself a SDTV that input component.
Don't get a PVM, unless you're an ant.

>>3391975
PVM would look like a few thousand inches for an ant...

>>3391957
http://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?title=Nintendo_SNES_Core_Compatibility
>Dunno what you on about with "proper"
It should run BSNES Accuracy core without slowdown. Can Pi 3 do it?

>>3391992
Just stay with a real SNES if you can't live having maybe one game in ten acting little weird at some part of the gameplay.

>>3391993
>Yeah, works great for me, no problems at all!
>Just stay with a real SNES
Ah, I see.

>>3391992
Yes

>>3391998
It does work great for me and the handful of SNES games I play, as I said, I never had any problems. Dunno about you if you're so picky you might run to some with some game.

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>>3390241
I used to have an xbox 1 for porn and emulation. Porn was fine emulation sucked.

Most emulators and especially mame introduce input/controller lag. You rarely ever get the original screen resolution as almost everything is 480p. Which makes the games look odd in comparison to the original (arcade) games. 8Bit games tend to run fine, and its hard next to impossible to tell the difference with these. However many 16bit games like fireshark are so badly emulated that its no fun anymore.
Also for many of the cave shooters you will need a powerful cpu if you want the full 60 fps.
Often with 16 bit games it feels like with emulation you get like 80% of what the real hardware is.

>>3392016
>You rarely ever get the original screen resolution as almost everything is 480p.
just fuck with the mame aspect ratio

>>3390241
>Could I do anything for lightguns and such?
Doubtful. There are a few solutions available, each with pros and cons.

1. Act-Labs
These guys released a USB, VGA gun in a couple of varieties over a decade ago, and sold a small number of units. Don't get an S-video model, they're worthless when you look at option 2.

Pros: Works on PC monitors. Thanks to VGA legacy support through DVI, you can probably get them running all the way up to Windows 10, although I've only tried up to 7.
Cons: Hardcoded screen flash, and the cursor only updates when you fire, so you can't play any posistional games.

2. A hacked G-con 2 (unofficial).

Pros: Works on standard CRT screens. There's apparently a way to get it working over VGA with a sync circuit for arcade monitors, but I haven't tried that set-up. As long as the screen is bright enough, will track just by holding the gun over the screen with a bit of jitter.
Cons: Requires minor mod work, you have to splice an RCA jack into the sync signal on S-video. Because it's S-video, you're stuck with 480i on a card that supports S-video. Still requires a screen flash if you want decent accuracy for your shots.

3. Aimtraks, EMS Top Gun, Wiimotes

Pros: Work on LCDs, don't require a flash, smooth tracking over the whole screen.
Cons: Absolutely garbage, high latency, and if you move your hand by an inch the calibration goes to shit so you're forced to use an on-screen cursor if you want to hit anything, making the whole point of a light gun moot.


There are also a couple of crazy, out there solutions like USB2GUN boards that cost 200 bucks, and hacking the decent LCD systems found in some arcade cabs.

>>3392016
I used a PS2, could easily emulate NES, SNES and GBA, also Genesis.

>>3392024
>>3392028
PS2 can output 240p, XBOX can not, however none of them are able to do the native capcom reslution, so for arcade emulation both systems suck.

>>3392056
>PS2 can output 240p
Are you a pleb? PS2 can output 480p and 576i, but homebrew apps can output up to 1080p, actually you can run anything at 1080p but the game is still rendered in 480p or 576i.

>>3392073
>Are you a pleb?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_2_games_with_alternate_display_modes#ref_11

>>3392084
Sure seems like you are

>actually you can run anything at 1080p but the game is still rendered in 480p or 576i.
Like I just said, it can output 1080p but none of the games actually render at 1080p resolution.

>>3392028
>could easily emulate NES, SNES and GBA
NES emulator is fine, SNES and GBA sucks though.

>>3392236
I mostly just played Super Bomberman, it ran great.

The thing is, do you want the thing to run at original resolutions?

>>3391857
Raspberry pi 3 with the retropie image. Controller is up to personal preference. It has Bluetooth so ps3 controllers are an option. I personally use 4 snes controllers. I use a usb powered hdmi to composite converter. Just set the display to ntsc on your raspberry pi and most games should look fine. You might need to adjust for over scan and stuff, but the aspect ratio should be right.

The front-end of retropie is very easy, you control it with your controller.

I put mine in a broken nes and wired the original power/reset switches to the pi and everything. Might be too overkill or sacrilege for your tastes, but there are a ton of raspberry pi aftermarket cases available, and most of the time they come with a super basic clear plastic case.

>>3391993
>one game in ten acting little weird
Try one in a 500

>>3392364
>i've never played on original hardware so don't notice emulation problems unless they're game breaking
Not something I'd brag about.

>>3390241
anyone can recommend a good raspberry kit for a starter? i like the idea but i don't know which kit is good for just assemble and start playing.
amazon links appreciated.

>>3392323
>I use a usb powered hdmi to composite converter
Why not use the composite jack on the pi?

>>3392481
Kits are good except they have shit controllers. This one for example should have everything you need: https://www.amazon.com/Raspberry-RetroPie-Emulation-Station-Supply/dp/B00ZJJBKZ6

I'd pay the ~$12 a piece for the Buffalo snes controllers, but that's just me. Also, I wouldn't worry about putting heat sinks on a raspberry pi.

It's easy as all fuck to set up. Just boot it for the first time with your controller plugged in, and it'll guide you through configuring your controller. Then, connect it to your router with an ethernet cable and turn in file sharing on your main laptop/ computer. From your main computer, you can open up the raspberry pi's rom folders. Just drag the roms from your computer into the appropriate raspberry pi folder and you're good to go. Took me like 20 minutes to set up.

>>3392505
Raspberry pi 3 model b did away with them, it's hdmi only.

Oh well, the back of my nes looks way less frankenstein'd with composite hookups sticking out the back than it would with an hdmi port

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>>3392510
Actually it does have it!
You just have to make sure you get a cable with the ground on #2.
I was a retard and got a cable on ebay without checking, and it turns out the ground is on #1 so now I have to fuck with it to make it work.

>>3392525
That would've been nice to know. The hdmi to composite converter wasn't cheap, and eats up another usb slot to power it up (I have a powered usb hub so it doesn't really matter but still)

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>>3392546
Yeah I recommend getting the cable anyway, it's like 3 dollars on ebay and will save you some needless wiring.

>>3392508
That kit has 2 knocks against it - one is the shit controllers like you mentioned.

The other thing is that it comes with a class 4 micro SD card. If your gonna shell out the bucks for a kit, be sure to get a class 10 micro SD, it'll make a world of difference.

Honestly, I'd avoid a kit. Microcenter sells rpi3s with a shitty case for $40, I'm sure other stores and online does as well. Then get a class 10 SD card, some buffalo snes controllers, and just use a cell phone charger you already own for power. That'll put you at about $80 for the whole thing, which is cheaper than that shitty kit.

>>3392556
https://www.amazon.com/CanaKit-Raspberry-Complete-Starter-Kit/dp/B01C6Q2GSY/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1469809403&sr=1-6&keywords=raspberry+pi+3

what about this kit? doesnt have controllers but it seems good for the price

Electronics is a stupid hobby. It's basically doing assembly line work that has probably been automated by now. What a waste of time.

>>3390241
Run the ASIO Variant of GroovyMAME
It has extremely low audio latency

>>3392565
Yeah that one looks legit. You might need to rewrite the SD card - it comes with an OS installed which I'm guessing is raspian. You'll want retropie as your OS instead. Just look up some guides and you should be fine, I was astonished at how easy making an emulator machine was using the pi, it's by far the easiest project I've ever done with a pi

>>3392620
>it comes with an OS installed which I'm guessing is raspian. You'll want retropie as your OS instead
for the record, retropi is a preconfigured variant of raspbian. It still makes sense to use it, as you don't have to bother with setting everything up. It's nice to know what's going on under the hood though

>it's by far the easiest project I've ever done with a pi
got a new pi here, gonna be fun to mess with that little fucker

>>3392630
please document here with us your setup!

>>3392637
likely not gonna do emulation, so it won't be that useful to people. I want to mess with linux' guts a bit, get a nice little lightweight server going that I don't have to power down all the time.

Installing retropi is not much of a documentation worth anyway, as far as I understand. The raspi does not have a conventional harddisk, but it has standardized hardware. So there is not much to install. You grab a drive image, put it on a micro sd card, put it in the pi and you're done. Like putting a readily installed windows harddisk in a computer. There's no install procedure or anything. At most it takes a little bit of work to set up the micro sd card, because it needs your roms too, but that's it.

>>3392637
Different anon here. I pretty much outlined what to do to get started in this post: >>3392508

All that's left to do aside from this would be getting bios for mame, disc-based systems (I use ps1 and turbografix 16 on mine, I'm sure other disc systems are setup in a similar way), and gameboy advance. These can be transferred from your main computer to your pi remotely, just find the right bios file online, then copy/paste it into your bios folder.

>>3392449
Yeah, if you're that autistic that you notice shit that's not even noticeable to someone who's just enjoying the game, like he said, stay to original hardware, emulation is not for you.

>>3392696
>b-b-but muh autism
Your low standards don't change the facts. I don't fault you for emulating. Just for bullshitting.

>>3392027
You can't ever completely disable windows 10 telemetry.
Microsoft is actively pushing towards making this ever harder to do as well - see the recent group policy change (which really insidiously simply ignores user settings altogether, without notifying the user in any way) for example, and they will surely keep breaking things in the future.
Even if you yourself are not concerned about the data collection, you still expose information about your friends and family via Microsoft's aggressive data collection methods.
You should not use, support or endorse this operating system.

>>3392449
>i'm a professional NEET and have no life, i can notice when a sprite is the wrong shade in 2000 differen SNES titles
Not something I'd brag about.

Legit question: can't a cheap chinese android tv box do that just fine? Just add bluetooth controllers and bam?

>>3393335
Yeah, it could.
But a Pi could do the same and automatically boot into a way nicer controller oriented UI, way quicker and easier.

Unless don't know how and you're just too scared to mess around with the Pi, don't worry, it's easy.

>>3393329
Projecting pretty hard there sport. You've already established that your inexperienced, never played on real hardware and don't care if a game is glitchy as long as you can play it for free. Also that you've only every emulated a few games and only for the SNES. It boggles the mind why you think anyone would even want to hear your opinion.

>>3393487
When did I talk about my hardware or what games I play? Wew lad, sure is stale bait in here.
Go to the gaming station thread and check out a few pics of my setups if you're bored instead.

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>ctrl-f
>soft15khz
>crt_emudriver
>0 results
wtf /vr/?

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Okay, gimme a full rundown.
For those that know, how much better is the ODROID C2 compared to the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B?
People on /g/ keep memeing it and I have seen the benefits of going with an ODROID, but there has to be some sort of catch to this. Is it less open-ended than the Pi? Is there any inherent issues with it? I actually do want to know, as I wanna put Lakka on either of them and use it as an emulation box

>>3393673
There's no need to give you a full rundown, want the specs then google.

It is better in specs, but more expensive while the Pi 3 does the job fine, making the ODROID C2 a useless purchase for the purpose of a retro arcade.

>>3393579
what is pic related?

>pre-5th gen
>cpu intensive

No anon. Other than BSnes, none of that shit is CPU intensive. For pre-5th gen platorms you can use ANYTHING to emulate. Anything. Hell even 5th gen is mostly trivial at this point save for the most low-powered and cheap devices.

>>3392525
Ground is always pin 1, only Apple and MS would do something retarded like that to sell more of their shit.

>>3393673
With ODROID you have better PSP and Dreamcast emulation and access to android, for the price that is pretty nice, but what stopped me from buying it its that they only give 2 weeks warranty and even if the thing breaks while in warranty you have to pay to ship it back.

>>3393765
It's a JPAC

>>3393496
Your ignorance of the facts did all the talking for you champ.

why not just use your normal computer

>>3394621
some people don't have it in their living room, and don't want it in their living room. And when they want to play, they usually don' want to deal with all the "computer" bits, like maintenance, explore, mouse and all that stuff.
The alternative is a small zero-conf computer that you can hide in the living room, boot up and operate with your controller, and focus on the games

>>3394628
All you need is a HDMI cable and an USB extension/hub.
Provided you don't have a large house with distances over 50'.

>>3393673
as it seems, your best bet is the raspberry pi3, its well suppoerted, it has warranty and it has a lot of emubox projects attached to it.

the ODROID is a good runner up, more if you get the XU4, their most powerful model, thanks to its linux and android native support, it has a wider range of emulatable systems, but it doesnt have that much support, and its not that cheap.

then there's the X86 new boards, based on intel atom x5-8xxx chipsets, the Latte panda and the upboard, thanks to the x86 standard, it can take on and support even more systems, even low tier gamecube/wii games, thanks to the chipsets being Dx12 compatible if your board has Win10 installed, look up teclast pro x98 dolphin to check it out.
their problem, however, it's that theres almost no support for being so new, and you shouldnt expect a very high performance, not to mention the speed throttling issues that some people mention, at least with the latte. their prices are on the same range of the ODROIDs.

>>3394646
neither will fix the rest mentioned. If it works for you, cool. Might still help you to learn and respect other people's mindsets

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OP I'm thinking of the same thing. Right now I have a SNES/N64 both with everdrives a PS2 with MCboot, Wii with HBC and a Dreamcast. And on the handheld side N3ds w/ CFW, PSP w/ CFW, DSlite with R4 and a SP-101 with ezflash. Problem is that i rarely have time to play and right now they are just gathering dust and taking up space. So the plan is to sell most of it and just use the Wii.

>>3394685
The rest isn't a problem in the first place.
If you can't handle a normal computer you're not going to enjoy a Raspberry Pi or similar systems. That's the crowd Retron 5s are made for and they aren't welcome on this board.

>>3394716
>The rest isn't a problem in the first place.
To (You). Why is that so hard for you to grasp?

>can't handle
it has nothing to do with people being unable to handle it, but unwilling.

If you don't understand other people that is entirely your problem, and you're not in the position to comment on their use cases.

>>3394728
Unwilling to do what? Setting up a computer so that you can control it from your living room as opposed to setting up a separate computer for your living room?

I just use my old Phenom II x4 + Radion 5770 for my livingroom/emulation/gaming/browsing PC with a wireless mouse and keyboard.
Fits right behind my livingroom TV, can't even see it unless you walk to the side of the screen.
WAY better off then any other solution I've tried, since its just a Win 7 desktop with font size set to ~175% there is no limitations.
All the best emulators, can stream Steam, movies, etc, etc.
IMO better off just using an old PC or laptop.

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I keep getting this "error panic vfs unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(179.2)" and I have no idea what to do, Ive asked around and get no response, just the standard "did you follow the guide, thread closed"

Help if any?

>>3394840
follow the guide, again (to make sure you didn't make a mistake first time around), pay close attention to every number used, don't rush it. The pi is standardized hardware, you can't have an odd version or odd hardware combo. So the only variable is indeed ... you. People make mistakes, so just do what's necessary to make sure it's not you.

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>>3390812
There are high quality PC light guns like the Ultimarc Aimtrack that work the same way as Wiimotes, although you might end up spending somewhere around $100 for it. A wiimote is a nice cheap option and you can hack it into a gun shell if you have the know how. Many old light guns are cheap because most people can't use them anymore.

>>3394846
I have looked at the guide over and over and over again, I made some progress when I discovered there may be an issue with the cmnd line by removing it, got a different error.

I am running a Pi 3, and there is no solutions online to the issue, some said it was due to the SD card, its not, some said change the 2 to a 6, thats not it. I am out of ideas.

>>3394860
>>There are high quality PC light guns like the Ultimarc Aimtrack that work the same way as Wiimotes
Aimtraks being high quality is the biggest joke around. They're buggy, the software is unreliable, and they're based on flawed tracking methods. There's really no difference between them and a Wiimote aside from minor ease of use and a better choice of housing.

It's absolutely insulting how many posts you'll see online that say they're "great" from retards hacking together a shoddy LCD based MAME cabinet that they'll use all of once with it.

If you absolutely can't get a CRT, then honestly, just give up on light guns. There's no home solution that works for LCD.

>>3394865
>some said it was due to the SD card, its not
how do you know it's not the SD card?

>>3394871
Because I have tried 4 different micro SD cards, and its all the same error, other people have reported that error but there are no clear fixes.

>>3394882
guess you're fucked then, better luck next time
got slackware running on mine today, shit's cool

>>3394865
have u tried lakka?
i like it better than retropi

>>3394907
Link? I havent heard of Lakka anon, but I would be very willing to give it a try since I am having this VFS error, I just feel burnt out after trying to fix this all day and have no leads.

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It was a corrupted file anons.

I couldnt get it to install because of a corrupted file, I fixed it by simply, redownloading the god damn img file and it works perfectly.

WHY IS IT THE MOST SIMPLEST OF SHIT SLIPS MY MIND AND I GO FOR THE MOST COMPLEX ANSWER FIRST!

>>3394909
lakka.tv

it's a linux distro with retroarch, it needs practically no configuration compared to retropi

>>3394931
>I fixed it by simply, redownloading the god damn img file and it works perfectly
So you decided to skip parts of redoing it? You only have yourself to blame. Also, checksums, use them.

Lakka or Retropie?

>>3394931
That isn't a rifle you posted, it's a shotgun. You should feel embarrassed.

>>3390812
No, no, no!

A PC is a SERIOUS PRODUCTIVITY MACHINE!

Only degenerates use PCs for dicking around like a little child!

Mature people consume entertainment in a devoutly living-room-style paradigm! You get the fuck in there, fall back onto the couch, relax inensely, you do that shit in a too-the-fucking-point, intense, sensational manner!

You do not want no dumbshit desktop icons distracting you from reinvigorating! You do not want no protracted loading screen yanking your attention away! You do not want no fucktarded instand messages or whatever it is you kids have these days along those line. You do not want massive fucking turbulance blaring at you, preaching of the productivity power under the hood! You do not want no virii, spyware, adware or whatever tripping your system up and making it fucking freese like a sillyasses mac!

You want a machine that, boom, gets its shit together and hauls ass with the digital jumpy-jumpy zone when it's fucking supposed to! Cause you know that you need that blast of decadence as efficiently as possible cause you've got duties to get to afterwards!

Grow the fuck up!!

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>>3394860
Sounds like a waste, I'd rather have a real PC lightgun.

>>3396693
I want to pick up one of the arcade inspired versions one day, the ray gun feels pretty meh in the hand.

http://pcpartpicker.com/list/hRGRkT
complete itx emulation station for the price of a flashcart or two. Pi BTFO

>>3396894
Drop the Wifi shit.
Buying a 250GB HDD seems stupid. Either get one with more capacity, SDD or reuse one in your possession.

>>3396894
>http://pcpartpicker.com/list/hRGRkT

it's better than the pi, but it's also nearly 4x the price.

Also
>Can't output 240p to CRT

right in the fucking garbage

>>3396909b
I like wifi, less cables. it will never game online.
250g should be plenty to hold every game I could ever want. The only HDD I have is an old 5400rpm 2.5 out of a laptop with over 9000 hours of use. This was as cost centric as I could build one. At higher price points I would just build an a6 mATX

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/eighty_D/saved/LDLV3C
crossfire capable, atom-15, emudriver compatable card, way overkill for retro but should run a few pc games okay as well.

I cant get the roms or emulator to show up on my Retropie with Dreamcast or PSP games, and Sega CD games wont play, yes I have the Bio's.

Not sure what the issue is.

Is this thread still laboring under the misconception real, absolute position light guns can't be used with emulators?

I reiterate WTF /vr/?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jO4OMkRdvQ

>>3397123
are you putting them in the right directory? as .zip files? put the extracted files there too lol

im setting up my arcade machine with a retropie thing after i lost he windows hard drive and the mobo was killing the usb board.

>>3397169
of course I am setting them up in the right files, it just wont display.

But I just had a cmnd line issue that I had to resolve by deleting the cmnd line.

My experiences with the Pi are that this thing seems pretty unstable for the most part.

http://www.recalbox.com

>>3394698
sauce on that comic?

>>3391924
Dual shock 3s aren't stable for most Pi 3 users. Are you using onboard Bluetooth or a dongle?

>>3392001
He's autistic and doesn't like that you have fun anon

>>3392510
You're a fucking idiot and are obviously lying about your pi-in-nes thing. If you did anything like hooking up buttons to a pi you would know it has a composite jack. For God's sake, the pi 3 has the exact same layout as the last two iterations.

But it's okay, sempai, I forgive you. If you're telling the truth, pics, if not, let's talk about how you plan to do it.

>>3392556
Don't use a cell phone charger, pick up a 2+A charger, like for tablets. New pis use more power, especially with lots of controllers and over clocking.

>>3398432
>using mommys old phone that has a 0.5A charger

>>3398428
Confirmed for never having used a pi

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>>3390807

>>3398420
newest update fixes issue