Re-purposing older PCs and turning them into EMU hubs

[casterofdreams]

Or "refurbishing," either way.

So I finally built a beast of a machine (won't list specs unless you really want me to) and I have a older laptop where I don't really want to get rid of. So I have the restore discs and factory restored the thing so it as good as new (cosmetically it ain't bad, after 3-4 years of owning it).

The laptop is an HP dv7-1245dx ("7" noting 17" screen) with these specs:

-Windows Vista Home Premium
-4 GB of RAM
-ATI Radeon HD 3200 with 1918 shared total memory
-320 GB hard drive
-AMD Turion X2 64-bit @ 2.10 GHz

So it isn't bad really. Pretty serviceable honestly.

So my goal is to turn this thing into a giant gaming hub that will run emulators exclusively.

Think it's a cool idea? I kind of want to do this as a bit of a hobby. I have experience and the know-how to deal with PCs on both the hardware and software fronts, so why not. I want to get random PCs that people consider junk and restore them and turn them into these gaming hubs.

Any tips or general comments?

[hashiriya1]

I think a lot of people do this. I have a 5-year-old bottom-of-the-barrel laptop which I use exclusively for MAME. I am not really a fan of console emulation, so I use it only for MAME. It sits in the corner with its own monitor and USB joystick. It is nothing special, but it does the job. When I am feeling motivated, I hook it up to my plasma. I think your laptop is overqualified for the job. You could sell it and buy a crappier computer for emulation and still have money left over.

[jfrost]

House it in a tabletop arcade cab. I've wanted to do that for so long...

[fastbilly1]

Like the other said, it is a wonderful idea. Just dont go too overboard with dedicated pcs, or you will end up like me - at one point I had six pcs specifically for emulating different consoles. That said, I have a mamecab and I have an old 600mhz K6 that I use as a Neogeo occasionally.

[casterofdreams]

Like the other said, it is a wonderful idea. Just dont go too overboard with dedicated pcs, or you will end up like me - at one point I had six pcs specifically for emulating different consoles. That said, I have a mamecab and I have an old 600mhz K6 that I use as a Neogeo occasionally.

Wow I can only imagine the horror that was having all of those PCs hooked up and all.

The way I have mine personally is that I emulate systems that had carts: Snes, GBA, GBC, N64, Atari Lynx, and a couple more. I would do PS1 and Saturn but not a fan of dealing with iso images. I think with the setup I have I can go up to N64, but getting into the 6th generation, save for the GBA, is where it'll fold.

[avrame]

Just started doing this with a new PC I bought, fun little project. I bought a Zotac ZBox (which is basically a netbook in the form of a mac mini), and I'm in the process of installing Maximus Arcade along with a handfull of emulators. I also planned to use this nettop as my downloading computer. Using GotoMyPC.com, i remote in, schedule my TV/Anime downloads, and a couple of CDs downloads onZune. I do it fromwork if I am having a slow day. Fun project overall.

[AmishSamurai]

This is an eventual project of mine as well. I have a laptop with a busted screen, some older ones I have access to, and an old computer running Windows 98 I can do something with. Was thinking of having one for MAME/Console emulation, and one for old-school computer emulation.

[nightrnr]

I have an old Celeron (566) PC running Win98 that I use for some light emulation (SNES, NeoGeo, GEN), but was also stoked about playing low-res PC games on my TV (I still use old tube Television sets).

Master of Magic was especially enjoyable (once I finally got everything configured right) playing it all comfortable laying back on a bean bag. Too bad HoMMIII is a little too detailed to enjoy in the same way.

Playing Diablo II in front of the TV is pretty sweet as well.

And as long as the text isn't too small, there's a bunch of classic RPGs that work very well for me. (Eye of the Beholder trilogy, Elder Scrolls 1-3, and a million others I can't think of right now).

Haven't tried any RTS games on that PC besides the 1st Warcraft, but I'd imagine they'd need to be pretty low-res too.

Then there's all the old style Doom type games (Heretic and Shadow Warrior, Oh Yes!)

There's almost always a good use for an old PC. My only real worry is the aging power supply (as mine has a different fit/screw placement, it's actually a bit harder to replace).

[RiverBoa999]

I just picked up a Motion Computing M1400 Tablet PC. I plan on running some older stuff on it and keeping Windows XP. I'd love to have it for adventure games. A touchscreen for point-and-clicks is awesome stuff.

[fastbilly1]

Like the other said, it is a wonderful idea. Just dont go too overboard with dedicated pcs, or you will end up like me - at one point I had six pcs specifically for emulating different consoles. That said, I have a mamecab and I have an old 600mhz K6 that I use as a Neogeo occasionally.

Wow I can only imagine the horror that was having all of those PCs hooked up and all.

The way I have mine personally is that I emulate systems that had carts: Snes, GBA, GBC, N64, Atari Lynx, and a couple more. I would do PS1 and Saturn but not a fan of dealing with iso images. I think with the setup I have I can go up to N64, but getting into the 6th generation, save for the GBA, is where it'll fold.

It wasnt really that bad. They all had either arcade sticks, snes, or PSX controllers, and four of them ran off of the same power supply. Turn on one, all four turned on. It was just beastly looking at it.