›
This forum is in permanent archive mode. Our new active community can be found here.

Emulation box

SquadronROESquadronROE
edited August 2011 in Everything Else
I know a lot of us love emulators, and I've been thinking about building a PC just to run various emulators (NES/SNES/GameCube) and kind of go alongside the MAME cabinet I'm currently building.

Currently I'm thinking of going with a low-end gaming PC build (decent mobo, 2GB RAM, low-grade dual-core AMD CPU, large HDD) since emulators don't normally take much horsepower. I'm wondering if this makes sense to anyone else, and what other sorts of stuff should I be looking at. For example, should I get a real 1080p TV for it, connected via HDMI (and needing a GPU with that output)? Or should I just go for a cheap flatscreen or, dare I say it, CRT?

Comments

  • ninjarabbininjarabbi
    I have been thinking of using a Big flatscreen CRT with an emulation pc. Old games look great on those TV's and light guns actually still work.
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    With the added bonus of big flatscreen CRTs being fairly cheap now, right? Do you know what sort of inputs they accept?
  • ninjarabbininjarabbi
    Typically composite, component, coax and s-video. Might need an addapter for the pc even if it has s-video because of shitty drivers. Comverter boxes are only like 20 some bucks anyway.
  • AprecheApreche
    Typically composite, component, coax and s-video. Might need an addapter for the pc even if it has s-video because of shitty drivers. Comverter boxes are only like 20 some bucks anyway.
    No, you can definitely get a video card with component output. It might not be the most powerful card, though. You can also definitely get a CRT with VGA input.
  • RymRym
    If you just want to emulate up through maybe the N64 or PSX, you can easily get away with a cheapo mini ITX with no dedicated video card. Just be sure you get onboard video that can do HDMI out. Cheap and quiet.
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    edited August 2011
    If you just want to emulate up through maybe the N64 or PSX, you can easily get away with a cheapo mini ITX with no dedicated video card. Just be sure you get onboard video that can do HDMI out. Cheap and quiet.
    I had a little nettop PC with an Atom CPU and on-board NVidia Ion graphics and it does fine on SNES but struggles immensely on Dreamcast Gamecube. That's why I wanted a real CPU and maybe a GPU. Also noise and the size of the thing doesn't matter as much to me, as it's gonna be in a dedicated gaming room with plenty of space.
    Post edited by SquadronROE on
  • AprecheApreche
    struggles immensely on Dreamcast.
    How are you doing Dreamcast emulation? What if you need the little LCD/memory card thingy?
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    D'oh. Not Dreamcast. Gamecube. Your question makes IMMENSELY more sense now that I don't have my systems confused.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2011
    I was about to say. Though the Dreamcast does occupy an odd area between PSX and PS2 generations in terms of emulation.
    For PS2, Gamecube, Xbox and especially Wii emulations you're going to want some real horsepower, gaming PC level perhaps.

    Given how easy the PS2 and Wii are to mod, you may be better off taking that route. Given how small they are you could probably build them into the case.

    If anyone in the UK needs an MCBoot memory card, I can make you one for the cost of the card and postage.
    If you have any method of running ELF files or know someone who can, installing MCBoot on a memory card is super easy.

    Kids these days with their soft-mods.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    Not that interested in emulating a PS2, XBox or Wii. I might just buy an older PS2 and mod it and the Wii/XBox isn't interesting to me at all.

    I'm gonna start piecing things together today/tonight to see how cheap of a PC I can build and what sort of horsepower the Gamecube would take.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    Trust me, modding a Wii to run Gamecube backups or ISOs from a hard drive will be far easier than running it on the PC.
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    I've got Dolphin running like a dream on my gaming PC, that wasn't difficult at all. But it's got some serious horsepower. Are you talking about in terms of resources needed or just generally being "fun" to get running?

    Also, the point of the Emulation PC is so that I don't have to continually hop back and forth between systems. With having an emulation PC I could just have 1 PC that has SNES/NES USB controllers, an XBox 360 controller for Gamecube and the only extra system I'd need is a PS2 if I ever want to pick that up. Separating the Gamecube onto a Wii would mean I'd need a PC for SNES/NES/Genesis/NeoGeo, Wii for Wii/GameCube, and possibly a PS2. Not to mention I'd need to mod the Wii, burn the games onto DVDs.

    I'm curious what you think the difficulty of getting a Gamecube emulator running on a PC would be, though? It seems to me that modding a Wii and going through the effort of burning games to DVD would be far more time intensive.
  • OmnutiaOmnutia
    edited August 2011
    It's mostly a compatibility and price thing. The Wii can run Wii and GC games from a USB hard drive as can the PS2 with PS2 games if organisation is a problem.
    A nettop will play up to PSX but making that jump to the PS2/GC generation means a whole lot more power.

    Pretty much any route you take that isn't the original hardware with the original games is going to have issues though, so it's down to weighing up what you want.

    Also, give the compatibility list a check over.

    Hmm.. someone running Pikmin 2 with a similar processor to me (Though how he overclocked a Pentium D without something catching fire, I know not.).
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • SquadronROESquadronROE
    Ahh, gotcha. I'll have to look over that list in more detail and look into modded Wii's to see how much/how hard modding is.
    Hmm.. someone running Pikmin 2 with a similar processor to me (Though how he overclocked a Pentium D without something catching fire, I know not.).
    Is it encased in a block of ice?
  • WindUpBirdWindUpBird
    Probably a thermoelectric cell cooler.
Sign In or Register to comment.