/vr/ - Retro Games

I’ve been using these two for my setup, because its so small and portable I just take it to my friends house and we’ve been playing Final Fight and Caddilacs and Dinosaurs it’s really fun.

TAKE THE NUCPILL!

>>9576783
This thread reminds me of this one guy in a forum I used to visit that would go on tangents about how this new piece of hardware he discovered would solve all of our problems and would try to convince all of us. When asked about the technical aspects, his fallback argument would be "you're missing the point!".

Optiplex PCs are still better and cheaper since you can at least install any low profile GPU you want and be able to play both emulators and PC games with minimal problems. For the price that ThinkCentre goes for brand new, you can actually just build mini-ATX PC based around an i3 CPU and you can get whatever full sized GPU you can afford after and get better bang for your buck, Chuck.

>>9576783
>CRT filter
lmao

>>9576783
>reddit spacing
>"mogged"
typical.
Stop giving a shit what other people use and stop denying their benefits. There's a benefit to real hardware, fpga hardware, a thinkcetre, they all have their benefits and let people choose what they use. Please for the love of fucking fuck, talk about RETRO VIDEO GAMES.

>>9576783
Its good but no gpu is a bottleneck when upscaling.
Will probably pick one up when I find a good deal.

Oh and I knew about Lakka and Batocera but not Retrobat, whats the difference?

>>9576783
these boxes are what my company provides for us. i never thought of them more than just a workstation. where are you finding ones for $100? iirc the ones my company buys are a pretty penny, and i remember one of my colleagues had a lot of issues with his box, lots of BSoDs. Lenovo sent a rep to replace the whole mobo, and shit was still fucked. the whole time i was thinking "man imagine getting paid for all this, just replace the whole damn box"

>>9576783
just use ur phone bro

>>9576847
also forgot to mention that these boxes don't ship with a GPU, not sure if there are models that do, or if any GPU would even fit in there, so you're relying purely on the CPU... i imagine you'd start having trouble trying to emulate PS2/GC.

>>9576845
>bottleneck when upscaling
i think u mean uprendering

>>9576850
You keep saying this but a computer with no GPU wouldn't be able to display anything. iGPUs are still GPUs.
>>9576847
OP is being a bit disingenuous, the models in these pictures are closer to $200 a piece; only the prior gen models are $100 or less.

>>9576783
I have a small form factor Optiplex (smaller than a tower, but not as tiny as this ThinkCentre), and it works quite well for this purpose. However, >>9576825 >>9576845 and >>9576850 have a point in that the integrated GPU can be quite limiting. In my case it's just barely good enough to output in 4K, but it's too weak for using anything but lightweight shaders at that resolution, and it struggles to render at anything higher than 2x resolution on PS2 and GC/Wii games, and sometimes not even that. For this reason I ended up getting a GPU, though I was limited in my choices due to the small form factor, but I can say even a low-end GPU is a vast improvement.

tl;dr it can definitely work, but you have to temper your expectations a bit when it comes to graphical output. Still better than a memeberri pi or chinkbox though.

>>9576783
Poorfag cope general.

>>9576783
>proprietary power connector
>dedicated gpu
>no HDMI
>dsub
>$130 plus shipping

Close but no cigar OP. If you got a PS3 you could emulate PS2/PS1/PSP and all the majors up to CPS3. N64 isn't so great but everything else is good.

If I had one of these laying around or saw one in the garbage, for sure it's an alright option, but it's not worth spending $150 especially when for a bit more you could get a series S and for a lot less a Wii AND PS3 from craigslist (which would cover all your needs).

I'm guessing these are quiet? That would sure be a plus over a stock PC.

>>9576973
literally has everything to do with convinience and nothing to do with money. Also shame on you for being disrespectful to people with less money

>>9576783
>the ultimate form factor,
I don't need my emulation PC to be that small. I'd rather it be big enough I can at least swap out the SSD.

Also I bet that thing won't output 240p.

>>9576783
Nope.

>>9577010
Oh boy, the worst of ALL worlds!

>>9576979
But Ps3 or Xbox don’t have worthy frontends

>>9577004
I have nothing against people without money, but I do take aim at grapetards..

Why does my emulation machine need to be 20% the size of an N64 exactly

>>9576783
they're great for media/emulation boxes

you can find them on ebay for $120~ for one with an ssd, decent amount of ram and good cpu

problem is they still won't be as power efficient as a mister or rasperry pi, they use more than 4x the powerr consumption if that's a concern for you

i have one has a media server hooked up to my tv that I run plex with

>>9576905
you're being similarly disingenuous, or im just being ignorant. i assumed if we're on the topic of computers/vidya, anons will be able understand (given the context of the rest of my reply) that there is no DEDICATED gpu included with these... hence my last remark "you're relying purely on the CPU" -> that insinuates integrated graphics. i didn't think i'd need to explain the difference on this website but here we are

>>9577030
>being this casual

Why not go even further? Why not load your emulators onto a smart watch and stream to a TV?

What's the point of that? Best emulation station is just taking an older PC with VGA output and using linux or crt-emudriver to output a true 240p signal. Or if you want the easiest emulation solution for a lot of old games, a softmodded wii.

>>9577127
small form factor and low power

>>9577131
if that's your concern then use your phone

>>9577136
phones have shit emulators and software retard

>>9576783
What's a good frontend that doesn't look like a bloated pile of unnecessary eye candy? So many of them that I'm looking at look like the kind of thing that you load up once to show off to your normalfag friends then never touch again. I'd rather have something simple, functional and elegant, straight and to the point. Or can these frontends be configured to be simpler?

>>9577150
Retrobat is very plug and play, has the scrapper and can be configured to be simple with no bells and whistles

>>9577136
a phone doesn't have convenient outputs and inputs like USB/HDMI

>>9577152
Hmm, should've specified I was looking for something that would also be an OS all-in-one solution for my living room emulation PC. See, I'm currently using Lakka, which more or less fits my no-frills requirement, but unfortunately it exclusively runs RetroArch, which locks me out of a lot of standalones that work better (like Dolphin or PCSX2) or that it doesn't cover at all. I suppose I can install Windows and have it immediately load the frontend, but I was hoping to avoid doing that.

>>9576783
I've actually been contemplating these micro Windows PCs for a while now just to host LAN parties that I can tuck away fast but even there I would be very limited in games. For general low end gaming, a small form factor Optiplex would be a much wiser investment if you desire a solution with very good performance since you can install a GT730 or GT1030.

>>9577167
Batocera is an OS Linux based that can even do WiiU/Ps3 with the right specs but I’ve always had issues setting it up

>>9577167
You could go with linux and auto boot into steam and add the emulators to steam.
Like the people with the deck do.

You could add movieplayers and shit to steam too and access them all via controller.

>>9577173
Right, I tried that once (through a flash drive since I didn't want to overwrite my Lakka installation without trying it out first) and I couldn't get it to see my ROMs from the secondary hard drive even after pointing it to the specific directory. And again, it just looked bloated as fuck and would take a good while to actually boot into the main menu, though I won't discount the possibility that may have been due to the whole loading from a flash drive bit. In any case, maybe I didn't know what the fuck I was doing with it, or maybe I need to commit and actually install it, but it didn't impress me at first glance.

>"decent performance"

"Decent" sounds a lot like it can't do runahead and will have fucking input lag

>>9577192
The G5420T or 6100t variant have decent single thread performance.

>>9576783
>The inputlag is actually very not noticable for me at all.
It has to be lagless or it's trash.

>>9577143
yeah no shit but if power draw and smallness is your concern, there you go.
Otherwise just use an old computer with analogue output or a wii.

>>9577192
That depends entirely on the CPU, and unless they're really old models, micro PCs should have powerful enough CPUs to handle Run-ahead for most things except maybe Saturn.

>>9577221
>>9577192
Try it and see. People have been talking about input lag bs on this board as a deterent to emulation.

>>9577232
>yeah no shit
>still doesnt understand
kys

>>9577247
I understand you're a mong

>>9577254
show me a wii or other shit console that can run ps2, dreamcast and gamecube games that has bluetooth support you retard

read OP

>Don't use the box you like for playing games, use the box I like instead
Why, though? If someone prefers playing games on their phone/MiSTer/Chinese handheld/modded console/original hardware/PC why do you care?

>>9577150
RetroArch XMB

>>9577257
old PC

>>9577038
Power conservation matters for 24/7 servers. You will see a hit on the power bill running an old server or desktop like that. An RPi not so much.

A device that is on an hour or so a day will cause a marginal effect.

I used to run xeon servers at home. I scaled down to a nuc and virtualization. Then I scaled down again to a few RPis. I wouldn't suggest RPis for anything needing equivalent or greater than a modern laptop compute, because it isn't going to be enough. I would only use RPi for a low power always on solution.

>>9576783
Dell's micro PCs are better
>HDMI+DP (and even VGA on some models making it maga flexable)
>Has more USB ports
>Standard barrel power connector, much cheaper to replace if need be
>Firmware has more options
>Cheaper by a few bucks

>>9577285
>nuc
I've never understood why people buy these when you can buy a used laptop for less, and has the same processing power along with effectively a built in UPS.
Old laptops are great server boxes.

>>9577331
Laptops can have thermal throttling when running under sustained load due to cramped space with subpar cooling that results in poor performance

Nuc or mini pcs typically perform better in this regard.

>>9577268
>>9577285

these are $100~$140 for an i5 7500 you're both fucking retards arguing that old pc's or a shit laptop is better while they consume more power and are larger, fucking low iq mongaloids

>>9576783
im looking for rca outputs, not hdmi

>>9577361
old computer is free

>>9577331
I downgraded from a 4 year old Xeon. Running a virtualization platform, virtual machines, one wants a thick memory bandwidth and a thick peripheral bus. There is a significant difference between each steps between Server/Desktop/Laptop. Laptops are so thin on memory and peripheral bus bandwidth, it simply wouldn't do. So instead, I went with the cheapest individual computing platform, took virtual machine outta the equation and it works. Next round is probably gonna be a NUC again x86 is still better get up and go than ARM.

>>9577331
I am going to be concise with this. I want to contain the applications I use at home. I don't use google or amazon cloud products. I am using very common/popular linux server applications. The latest server has the latest virtualization acceleration features, the latest desktop has some of those features, the latest laptop has mostly older features.

>>9577361
If you are playing retro games for an hour or two every day, who cares about power consumption.

>>9577010
If you're an european:
Old ATI GPU -> Ultimate SCART Adapter -> CRT TV of your choice.

>>9577409
>missing the point
power consumption is only one of the factors, you're comparing alternatives like having a mid tower "old pc" versus a $100 compact pc that's low power and small form factor

>>9576783
misters better

>>9577030
you're ignorant

>>9577361
You only need to get the T series CPUs from Intel, they run at 35W and are efficient for what they offer and don't cost more than the regular versions. This solves the efficiency problem somewhat but yeah, if you NEED to go for max efficiency in a consumer platform, a Raspberry Pi does much better here.

>>9577545
Yea but pi4's are over $100 right now, it's retarded and these outperform them by leaps and bounds

>>9577573
PCs have always won on the performance front even if you get a potato box with a Core 2 Quad and when prices were normal including a fan and comparable SD card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRKmlwA5law

>>9576783
.... my shitty little mini work PC?

>>9576783
>Not FPGA memeshit
opinion discarded
you have no idea what you are talking about

>>9577010
>chinese av converter box
HOLY LOL
L A G

>>9576783
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=Dell+Optiplex&_sacat=0&_sop=15&Brand=Dell&Series=Dell%2520Optiplex&LH_ItemCondition=2000%7C2010&rt=nc&RAM%2520Size=8%2520GB%7C16%2520GB&_dcat=179

>>9576783
These are cute, but not as portable as I'd like. I remember bringing a netbook over to friends house for MAME and it was fine. Didn't even need to plug it in to an outlet.

>>9577750
WHAOOO Did a double check and even these shits are a bit pricier now but still way better for gaming and emulation than the micro PCs being discussed in this thread. These can play Crysis at 1080p and moderate settings with a GT1030 on an optiplex. Wouldn't look past playing Black Ops II on them though.

>>9577010
I have that backpack, it rules

>>9576783
Deprecated by modern sub 200 dollar Android phones. Plays PS2/GC/Wii at full speed.

>>9577990
In a few years yes. But not yet.

>The inputlag is actually very not noticable for me at all.
Haven't tried it but you're not very discerning and/or not familiar with the old games

>>9577705
>didn't do his research before commenting
Neither of those boxes are going to create lag. They were checked before adding to the image.

>>9576783
How many bowls of rice did china pay you for that shillpost?

>>9578457
Retarded comment.
Using a (2nd hand) tiny office pc is a solid choice for emulation. Much better than all this pi4 or whatever garbage.
And cheaper than a mister or real hardware8xvjw

>>9577990
too much input lag.

>>9578591
To add to this, if you guys know anybody that works IT for a small to medium size MSP, ask them if they collect recycling for their clients - if they do there's a very high chance you can get one of these suckers for free, they're a hugely popular form factor for office PCs and right around now is when people will be upgrading, and businesses almost never give a shit about hanging onto old PC hardware once they're upgrading. I have like 5 of them laying around, I found 2 in my desk drawer that I had forgotten about the other day.

>>9577192
Name a game you've played where input lag has hampered you. I'll wait.
>inb4 fighting game you didn't play

>>9578591
>ur retarded cause ur not poor

>>9578838
almost every music/rhythm game is effected by input lag Its not just fighting games

>>9576783
I seeiously don't understand the appeal at all. Why not just build a real PC?

>>9577430
who cares if it's small, are you walking around with it?
>y-y-you keep m-missing the point!!!
shut up faggot

>>9577430
Power consumption is irrelevant with this kind of device. You're plugging it in and only using it for a few hours a day.

I hate to use the Z word but sometimes it really does seem like they have a preoccupation with retro gaming things being smaller than they need to be. Where that comes from idk.

>>9576850
Please stop and fucking think for a second if you actually know jack shit about anything that's going to come out of your stupid mouth.

>>9576783
>FPGA memeshit
Oh good lord you're dumb. When it comes to FPGA memeshit, you're the meme.

>>9576783
Why does this place never mention repro carts?

If actual hardware is best and prices are all too stupid high, what so bad about repro carts

>>9579747
You mean Flash Carts? Or do you mean single game reproductions?

>>9579689
>another retard that can't read

>>9579804
Explain again please.

>>9579747
Repro carts can be cool, but be carefull of cheap chink carts. If the connector is too thick for instance it can damage the cart slot of your console

>>9579747
Because buying a repro cart (as opposed to a flash cart) is silly.

>>9579909
I never liked the idea of Repro Carts. I have a few Pirate Carts for the Famicom, but they're old. They're not like today's chinese crap. I have some oddball Turtles 3 in a Turtles 2 Cart. And I'm pretty sure my Super C isn't legitimate either.

>>9576921
All great, but sadly, unlike the pi, I can't just plug it to my PVM. I guess I could fuck around with converters, but what would even be the point? Great if you have a 31Khz monitor though.

>>9576783
>integrated graphics
lol on AOL

>>9576783
>not mini console scalped bullshit
And yet I still buy these things because they're cool and fun to hack.

>>9576783
is this good enough to emulate ps2?

>>9580351
Should be for the most part. It may not be able to render at higher than 2x resolution in some cases due to the weak integrated GPU, though.

>>9580351
Get a real PC. Not some SBC Raspberry Pi want to be.

>>9580351
yes

>>9579261
Some people want a full, complete, finished fully-built computer hardware solution that plugs into the living room TV for less than $200. A Mini PC checks just about every box for so little money. No dedicated GPU? True, but you don't need that for most emulators, including ones that run 3D games. PS2 games will play on integrated graphics. Want to install Kodi and watch all your downloaded .mkv's? Pipe the PC into your receiver and you get full surround sound. Youtube? Rot your brain! It works!
I love these little PCs. They're not as much fun to build, but sometimes you want a tiny box that's silent, costs almost nothing, and just does shit.

>>9580351
I'd get something bigger, you want a gpu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxfVp7N87eE

>>9576783
>FPGA memeshit
I bet you don't even know what that is

>>9579903
Good info, thanks

>>9579909
Flash carts have a bunch of games that I don't want though. I only use those to see what's worth buying later

The Xbox SeS is the best emulation machine for the money. $300 and you get almost perfect emulation for everything up to the Wii. And you can play modern games too if you for some reason want to.

>>9578049
wrong

>>9580564
>almost perfect emulation
>for Gran Turismo

>>9580564
Can you do widescreen and upscaled textures for GT4?

>>9580645
The box on the left is a bespoke colorspace converter made by an ebay vendor that is effectively zero lag.
The one on the right is the most popular choice for a budget friendly VGA2AV box and is also extremely low lag.

>>9580538
Then don't put them on the flash cart?

>>9580538
>I only use those to see what's worth buying later
BTW this is retarded.

>>9577167
retropie is unironically the only thing I know that gets close to that.
Custom scripts are built in for non-Retroarch emulators like Dolphin and Redream. Even has a web browser and kodi, but no steam besides steamplay (yuck!)
Now if they somehow made it work for x64 it would be the ultimate HTPC all in one.

Even with linux, it seems like there's no real dedicated HTPC solutions for x64. Plasma Big screen is about as close as it gets but that's still an ARM based distro.

>>9580428
I suppose that sorta makes sense, although I feel like when you're putting that much money down you might as well just go for a regular build. Guess it really just depends on your setup though.

>>9580428
>fully-built computer hardware solution
For me, it does not check that box.

>>9580645
left is wakabavideo, formerly known as linuxbot3000, and he makes 240p compatible video converters, retard

source: i own one

>>9579747
>Why does this place never mention repro carts?
Because you've been here less than 24 hours and only clicked on threads with chinkshit emulation devices in the pic?

>>9576783
$15 at Walmart does exactly what I need it to do with no fuss

>>9580865
Yep if the game has a widescreen patch. It’s basically just pcsx2 made for the Xbox series s and x. Upscaling works fine but you’re not gonna get higher than 1440p unless you have the series X.

>>9581947
so with GT4 you have to load a special fileset. I don't think it would be possible on an xbox but I haven't tried it

https://store.minisforum.com/products/elitemini-hx90g?variant=43244394578165

Enough CPU to emulate everything up to, and including PS3 and Switch at 120FPS.
Enough GPU to output it at 4k.

>>9583745
>AyyMD
Maybe if you use Linux.

>>9576793
These are not NUCs retard. NUC is an Intel standard.

>>9580454
>Barebone with Motherboard *No CPU/RAM/SSD(Any Storage at all)
Not worth it for a 4th Gen. I got a 6th Gen with 8GB DDR4 and 250GB SSD for $99

>>9581916
I have the Google TV with Chrome Cast and thought about doing some emulating on it but I dont want to hang a dongle with all different stuff plugged into it. Also Google gimped the fuck out of it.

>>9583745
I got a similar system from minisforum
Can handle anything you throw at it and is quite compact, fits nicely under the tv.
So much more capable than a pi4 or whatever.

And should you ever get bored of it you'll still have a decent winn11 pc.
They aren't the cheapest solution, but compact form was important to me and I dont have money issues.

>>9576783
Don't forget you can actually steam stream to it from your rig with almost zero latency.
I've been using micro PCs as my Home Cinema for more than a decade.

>>9584661
Is there a video on how to get set up? I’ve never used a media server application before.

>>9584714
I meant Steam game streaming, for that you just need to install Steam in both machines and have them log in with the same account, you can run game son 1 PC while fully controlling them with the other.

>>9576783
I have a similar small form factor computer around the house and I've had this idea of turning it into a fake arcade cab. Tiny PC + small , lightweight monitor + some sort of an arcade stick (either using USB or grabbing somehing retro with an adapter) and going for the Vigolix design. At the moment I'd be more comfortable cutting plywood than finding (or building?) a half-decent arcade stick. Don't know shit about them and I'm kinda overwhelmed when it comes to choosing one on the cheap.

>>9584783
Oh I see

I just use my Series X for emulating old games.

>>9576783
I have a couple of those thin clients, but I think one has a dead AMD chiplet which drives the graphics; wonder if it is repairable. Is there a good legit way to get a legacy OS like LTSB?

>>9576783
>memeshit
Why are there so many cringelords on here?

>>9586823
Video games went mainstream. The General Public is cringe.

>>9580351
>>9580361
>>9580394
Perfectly? No. Almost? Yes.
The games are perfectly playable but you'll get frame drops because these CPUs are bottom of the bottom and PS2/GC/Wii and such have dynarec overhead. Every now and then the CPU will have a sudden rush of extra load because some new chunk of vector code just appeared and while your desktop Ryzen5 or whatever will eat it up, these just don't have the grunt. They were only ever meant to run RDP after all, it's only thanks to economies of scale that they put all that unnecessary hardware in there.
There's a guy on youtube that shills these as emulation boxes and either he does it deliberately or he's got a talent for timing blatant frame dips right when he says "at full speed."

>>9581916

GoySlopStick

>>9576783
These mini computers probably get on fire if you play something above 5th gen on them

i'd say even an old thinkpad with linux does the job if you don't care about vrr for arcade games

>>9586820
Show the back of your go, I thought about getting one over my flimsy 50 analog stick replaced cracked front plate 1000 but they always look gross

>>9576783
ITT a kike has bought a lot of 200 ThinkCentre machines and is shilling them as emulation devices as he dumps them on ebay for 10x what he paid

Expect jewtube videos in a few days about

>THINKCENTRE? ---BEST--- BUDGET EMULATION DEVICE?!?! (LESS THAN $199 FOR ~THIS?!?!?!?!?!?!)
>CLICK NOW FOR MORE INFO