Setting up an emulator

Howdy folks, I been here and there on Emuparadise from here and there playing roms and other good suff. To make this post short and sweet, I have a couple questions and hopefully someone can point me in the right direction. While I have played classic games on here and there, I have always wanted a console that could play classic games on my tv with the controllers. I have a kid who is growing up and I want him to see some of the NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, Gameboy/Color/Advance and so on games I grew up with instead of him jumping straight into the PS4 and other new tech I didn't have growing up. I seen people selling some consoles that already more or less have what I want, but I have always to build my own little emulator. Those consoles such as Retroback or RetroEngine Sigma are great and all, but aren't the "whole" package of what I would want. I'm not asking to run every single console or game known to man, the consoles I mentioned above are some of the ones I would want. If I wanted to build my own little console for that, what would I need? I have searched here and there, but never found a good answer to my question.

Apologies if I have posted this in the wrong section, I just wasn't where I could ask this. I for one have never built my own my computer, so not savvy when it comes to these things, so hopefully someone points me in the right direction. Thanks again folks, and apologies again if this was posted in the wrong section.

RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi or PC into a retro-gaming machine [URL="https://retropie.org.uk/docs/"][URL="https://retropie.org.uk/docs/"][URL="https://retropie.org.uk/docs/[/URL]

There are different types of emulators like SNES, NES etc. You make sure which emulator, you want to know the system of setting.

I had a Netbook with 1.6GHz@4cores Intel Atom processor, 1GB RAM and Intel GMA graphics chipset that ran everything up to PS1 with no problems. Get an XBOX 360 Wired controller or 2, connect it to your TV, and launch your emulator for nearly everything you're looking for.

As for the PS2, my @6 year old 3GHz@4core AMD A-8 APU with 8GB RAM will run some PS2 games well but not others, you will save a ton of money on that by simply buying a PS2 and figuring out how to softmod it, for which you can find instructions here. Softmod means installing software that will enable the system to play games burned onto a DVD, HDD, or other back-ups.

I have used several platforms

But will just go through what works well

PC obviously
Can run almost anything

Xbox Original console (Softmodded, easy enough to do but can seem complicated, I also use PSX/PS2 pads via a converter, great for everything up to PSX)

Wii console (also works with PSX/PS2 pads but I also have GC pads anyway) played everything up to N64 never did try PSX though, bonus is the GC compat any a bunch of officially emulated games on top of the unofficial emulators

3DS (softmod, can be complex to mod and you need to take care when doing so) great for most things SNES/Megadrive and under, plus NDS via flashkit (obviously a portable option)

Vita/Playstation TV (Playstation TV is basically a Vita for your TV you use PS3 or PS4 pads with it) current mods let you play Retroarch emulators and PSX PSP and Vita games


I may use those but for costs they may not be the options for you

Xbox's are cheap enough to find but upgrading the HDD is a must as they come stock with only 8GB drives but you have the bonus of playing original Xbox games a lot are also on PS2 but the Xbox almost always had the better versions of the those multi system games as well as emulators up to PSX emulation

Wii consoles again very cheap and very very easy to mod but you will want to buy a large USB drive and the hardware has more limits than an xbox on the upside it has GC and Wii games playable as well as lightgun games from older systems work very well with Wii-Motes, also if you do not have GC pads USB pads work fine also (can not confirm wireless pads myself though)

Playstation TV the best option in general but although you may be able to find the system cheap the memory cards are very much not cheap and with no cheap alternatives as the design of those are exclusive to Sony (Modding is also very easy even updating to the correct firmware is a doddle just make sure you do not do an update online the normal way otherwise the firmware will be too high to use the current mod)


PS2 emulation will only happen on the PC though for now, though a chipped/soft modded PS3 could be an option, but I personally do not know much about that I kept my PS3 legal and up to date so no soft mod option for me and do not want it chipped either (PS4 is not a backwards compatible console so no PS3/PS2/PSX games via PSN will work on it, those just work on PS3)