Retro Video Game System (1 Viewer)

[Lemonzest]

I want to get one of these systems with a bunch of old retro games built into it for some younger family members (under 10 years old). I haven't kept up with the tech. What is the best system to get?

Extra points if there is a save feature!

Thanks in advance!

 

[greenchip]

Deleted

 

[Josh Kifer]

@Grimace built me mine and it works great.

 

[buzzmonkey]

If you want something legal, NES Classic, SNES Classic, Sega Genesis Mini, etc are your best bets.
If you have a Nintendo Switch a lot of older games are available with their online service.

If you want to build something yourself, you can buy a RaspberryPi kit and make one. However you'll have to program it and find a way to collect the game ROMs (sotware files that contain the game data). However, playing unpurchased ROMS is almost certain to be illegal where you live for the vast majority of games, so keep that in mind. The pre-programmed systems you can find online are basically just this.

 

[TheDuke]

Get a portable emulator off eBay or Amazon.

It'll get more use if they don't have to be tethered to a tv. Ie. Use it in the car on trips, throw in a backpack and go to a friend's house, etc.

These are all from China. They've improved in quality in recent years.

 

[johnjohn]

send jeff bezos 99 bucks for a harddrive of everything (games). connect to your windows pc. Actually skip bezos and go to aliexpress.

 

[jr8719]

@mattross1313?

 

[Lemonzest]

Thanks for all the feedback. I am definitely just looking for something that works out of the box and can stay at home for use with a TV.

 

[Thisfiendis138]

SNES Classic ftw

 

[Pinkdan]

I built a raspberry pi emulator set up but I don’t have many games. If someone has the motherload and wants to help me out with the roms plz let me know. @Grimace ?

If you want a guide to build one lemme know @Lemonzest

 

[Grimace]

I built a raspberry pi emulator set up but I don’t have many games. If someone has the motherload and wants to help me out with the roms plz let me know. @Grimace ?

If you want a guide to build one lemme know @Lemonzest

The problem I’ve run into is that the computers used to be $50-60 and now they are $250-300 plus. At the end of the day a system for 450-500 that plays almost 5600 games is still pretty decent but more pricy than most people want to spend.

 

[Lemonzest]

I built a raspberry pi emulator set up but I don’t have many games. If someone has the motherload and wants to help me out with the roms plz let me know. @Grimace ?

If you want a guide to build one lemme know @Lemonzest

I am not handy at all and really not interested in putting the time in to build something. I want to buy something off the shelf that is plug and play. Respect to those that have the ability, time and willingness to do that!

 

[links_slayer]

I built a raspberry pi emulator set up but I don’t have many games. If someone has the motherload and wants to help me out with the roms plz let me know. @Grimace ?

If you want a guide to build one lemme know @Lemonzest

have you looked at vimm.net? that's where i, err...my friend...downloaded a ton of them.

 

[ekricket]

I want to get one of these systems with a bunch of old retro games built into it for some younger family members (under 10 years old).

Are you punishing them for something? Are these Amish kids or something? Cause otherwise that stuff is going to entertain them about an hour

 

[greenchip]

Deleted

 

[warewulf]

Most old PC's and laptops (maybe even an old chromebook) would handle this just fine. If it's a laptop, you can usually connect an external screen, etc.

If you don't have a spare PC, rasberry pi is probably going to be the least expensive route.

 

[Grimace]

An old pc and launchbox as a front end looks good. Or retroarch. The Pi’s are crazy expensive right now. 3-5 times what they were pre Covid.

 

[warewulf]

An old pc and launchbox as a front end looks good. Or retroarch. The Pi’s are crazy expensive right now. 3-5 times what they were pre Covid.

Retroarch would be a good choice. Here's an article suggesting some other Linux distros to checkout:

https://itsfoss.com/retro-gaming-console-linux-distros/

 

[tabletalker7]

If you really want to bring the true experience of retro gaming to the next generation, why not build a MAME cabinet?

 

[Kid_Eastwood]

I want to get one of these systems with a bunch of old retro games built into it for some younger family members (under 10 years old). I haven't kept up with the tech. What is the best system to get?

Extra points if there is a save feature!

Thanks in advance!

If you want to stay on the legal route, what you can do is :
- Buy an Odroid or Raspberry
- Install Recalbox
- Legally buy roms (SEGA Genesis classic collection on Steam or NeoGeo Classics on Humble Bunble)

The SEGA classics have about 60 great Genesis games with clear roms that can be used in any emulator and the NeoGeo have also the roms in clear with the BIOS that can also be played in an emulator.

If you have PS1 discs, you can easily dump them (using ImgBurn for instance) yourself and now, there is a method to extract the PS1 bios from the PS3 bios publicly available from Sony's website.

Lots of possibilities even if you want to stay in the legal zone.

As Myself I wanted to also cover PS2, I decided to go with an ASRock DeskMini with a Ryzen 5 5600G. It's much more expensive though.

 

[Lemonzest]

If you want to stay on the legal route, what you can do is :
- Buy an Odroid or Raspberry
- Install Recalbox
- Legally buy roms (SEGA Genesis classic collection on Steam or NeoGeo Classics on Humble Bunble)

The SEGA classics have about 60 great Genesis games with clear roms that can be used in any emulator and the NeoGeo have also the roms in clear with the BIOS that can also be played in an emulator.

If you have PS1 discs, you can easily dump them (using ImgBurn for instance) yourself and now, there is a method to extract the PS1 bios from the PS3 bios publicly available from Sony's website.

Lots of possibilities even if you want to stay in the legal zone.

As Myself I wanted to also cover PS2, I decided to go with an ASRock DeskMini with a Ryzen 5 5600G. It's much more expensive though.

I ended up just getting a NES Classic which is keeping us occupied for the moment. Maybe when that novelty wears off we can branch out. I am just not interested in a project and would rather buy something off the shelf or from a builder.