Jrecee wrote:I'm weary of any homebrew console stuff after Nintendo's bullshit, not to mention I've never been particularly good at getting that stuff to work. Also, I'll probably use this mostly for arcade games. Not sure if that makes a difference, but most the homebrew type stuff I see tends to be focused on nes/snes/etc.
Only reason that stuff gets emulated first and well is because it is easier to do then mame. That said: you could get an old xbox. Those are pretty easy to softmod and they'll run a slew of arcade stuff. Not all, but most.
nickfil wrote:Do you think if you maxed that guy out in the options when it came down to video/ram/chipset that it would run most stuff on steam? like l4d, TF2, The wticher, stalker etc?
This has always been what has kept me out of pc gaming. I always want to get a rig, but i'm never sure it is what i would need/want. I would hate to get one of these dells and then have it not able to play the games i want it to.
I'm not even close to being the person to ask. I haven't bought or played a pc game in years, unless you count roms and spider solitaire.
I'd imagine their small form alone makes them a bit limiting as to what you can shove into them. Honestly, I'd never consider one of those for any serious computing, you're just paying for the size, and I've never been so hard up for space around my desk that I'd really need to save that 3" of width. In a living room it's a bit different which is why I'm considering one for this.
I personally LOVE the XBOX as a media player device with the open source XBMC the codec support is awesome. Furthermore it's network support is great. Unlike the 360 and PS3, it supports several modes for network managing, including samba for basic windows network protocol.
As opposed to the asinine and ridiculousily annoying to use UPNP network client setup both the 360 and PS3 uses. Anyone who has attempted to set up a UPNP server comes with the necessity for some special software (as opposed to simple network tools all computers have) and it just gets really annoying in a lot of aspects. Anyways that's a whole different discussion.
Lastly the emulation on the XBOX is really great! It's like having a PC with a super fast boot speed and all the hardware built in (well kind of, modding the console is the only hard part). But considering you can pick one up for like 50 bucks or less, it turns out super cheap!
Down side is that support for controllers other then the XBOX controller fucking SUCKS. You can get specialized converter boxes built specifically for the XBOX (that act as remappers)... and still some of the emulators don't like them. But USB dongle support is bad... I don't know why, it's not like the homebrewers couldn't code that in, but they never bother.
lordofduct wrote:Down side is that support for controllers other then the XBOX controller fucking SUCKS. You can get specialized converter boxes built specifically for the XBOX (that act as remappers)... and still some of the emulators don't like them. But USB dongle support is bad... I don't know why, it's not like the homebrewers couldn't code that in, but they never bother.
I also hate this. The best thing I have found that works with everything is the xbox version of the Street Fighter 15th anniversary pad. Basically a Saturn pad but slightly bigger. It has a nice dpad though and works pretty well for most anything except some PS1 games.
Jrecee: If you only plan on playing classics then a modded xbox is probably the way to go. My PC is in the same room and I keep it hooked up for superior PS1 and N64 emulation, but I never really use it on the tv for much more than that.
lordofduct wrote:Down side is that support for controllers other then the XBOX controller fucking SUCKS. You can get specialized converter boxes built specifically for the XBOX (that act as remappers)... and still some of the emulators don't like them. But USB dongle support is bad... I don't know why, it's not like the homebrewers couldn't code that in, but they never bother.
I also hate this. The best thing I have found that works with everything is the xbox version of the Street Fighter 15th anniversary pad. Basically a Saturn pad but slightly bigger. It has a nice dpad though and works pretty well for most anything except some PS1 games.
Jrecee: If you only plan on playing classics then a modded xbox is probably the way to go. My PC is in the same room and I keep it hooked up for superior PS1 and N64 emulation, but I never really use it on the tv for much more than that.
How would I go about "modding" an xbox. Does it require opening it up or anything complicated? I've never owned one so I don't really know anything about its interface.
lordofduct wrote:Down side is that support for controllers other then the XBOX controller fucking SUCKS. You can get specialized converter boxes built specifically for the XBOX (that act as remappers)... and still some of the emulators don't like them. But USB dongle support is bad... I don't know why, it's not like the homebrewers couldn't code that in, but they never bother.
I also hate this. The best thing I have found that works with everything is the xbox version of the Street Fighter 15th anniversary pad. Basically a Saturn pad but slightly bigger. It has a nice dpad though and works pretty well for most anything except some PS1 games.
Jrecee: If you only plan on playing classics then a modded xbox is probably the way to go. My PC is in the same room and I keep it hooked up for superior PS1 and N64 emulation, but I never really use it on the tv for much more than that.
How would I go about "modding" an xbox. Does it require opening it up or anything complicated? I've never owned one so I don't really know anything about its interface.
There are softmods and hardmods. Soft modding doesn't require cracking open the case or anything and comes in several different methods.
hardmods require a chip and cracking open the case. It's more hardware driven, but comes with a number of added features to the XBOX.
googling can shine light on it. Most notable xbox-scene.com is probably the place you should start.
Definitely need to use a pc, since I also make games that I would like to play on tv. Also, a pc gives me the greatest number of options for emulators and stuff.
The PC to TV thing I have is probably not the best solution. The best connection it has is component which looks fuzzy. The desktop icons were unreadable. The game I tried was alright, but I'm guessing hdmi or dvi is going to give me much better quality.
Which means I can't use the old pc I have, it's too outdated. I need a new computer to do this, however, most budget models I've seen don't have a dvi port or hdmi, and my tv doesn't have vga.
The cheapest pc I've found that has hdmi or dvi is over $500, add in the cables I'd need as well as controllers and I'd be at near $600. So basically. . . this has to wait.
If thats the case: Watch slickdeals, grab one of the insane deals that goes through for a desktop with an open pciexpress slot and just buy a hdmi card from Newegg.
There were some great boxes for this that went through about a month ago for $200 a pop. Heck they had a quadcore Gateway on there a couple days ago for $300. The HDMI card will run you $30 - $50 for a low end.
I'll keep my eyes on that. I would kind of like to get one of those small form computers like the ones dell has, I'm guessing it's just as easy to put a new video card into these?
Right now the dells start at $270 but I'm probably going to wait until windows 7 is standard before I do anything about it.
I was going to do an article series on this, making an emulation computer. Using the MSI Wind nettop 100 as the formfactor. However the VGA only out with no upgrades is a hinderance.
Though if you had a suitable case, or have built with custom cases before, the Zotac IONITX-D is a much better board and it does HDMI out thanks to its ION chipset. You will be hard pressed to find a better motherboard in that powerusage range (full load is something like 30 watts for the whole computer).
Oh I should say this, the Zotac is a 1.6ghz dual core with a geforce 9400m. So itll play Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty 4 (though at low settings). Ive been eyeing them since they were released since I want to build four of them into a lanparty block. All computers already updated, networked together, with all games patched, ready to go just need mouse/keyboard and monitor.
