Building a Arcade Console for 2018
Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:16 pm
I'm rounding out my Home Theatre Gaming selection. I've got some HDRetrovision cables for my Genesis and Saturn, got an Analogue NT Mini on the way for NES (also pre-ordered the SNES one) and my Dremacast going from VGA to HDMI. Got a few other newer consoles that I'll work into the rotation. I feel like my biggest gap is arcade stuff. I'd like to be able to play game that didn't get a console port (or a very good one). But I'd like to be able to have a MAME (and possibly Neo Geo) experience as close to a console as possible.
Goals of Arcade Console:
* Be a stand-alone box that controllers plug into. No worries of building controllers, let alone with a system built into the controller
* Be a simple boot-up process just like it was an arcade cabinet that you can select games from.
* Minimize noise and energy consumption
* Neo Geo support?
2 Variations to Discuss....
Low-cost Raspberry Pi
* Are the only interfaces essentially RetroPie skins?
* Are there certain limitations of the generation of arcade games this could handle
* Are there any higher-end cases (in black) that would looks as good as a home theatre PC/Apple TV?
* Having 4 USB ports would be nice
* This unit for Slice media player looks nice, but seems to be full product for different purpose https://liliputing.com/2015/03/raspberr ... pping.html
Low-profile/fanless Windows (or maybe OSX) Based
* Nice to have something that could like a minimalistic console such as an ASUS Vivo PC https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywo ... 9p38_e_p38 or old Mac Mini (possibly running Windows via Bootcamp)
* What's the slickest current MAME front-ends nowadays? Looking for something that isn't too "geeky" looking, but modern and minimalistic, but subtle artwork/screenshots would be nice.
* Don't want an OS UI showing, just a full-screen UI that is TV friendly and used with only a controller to make it like a console. In years past, I always admired Maximus Arcade's software. Any newer ones that are just as good, if not better/
Hardware Considerations
* Minimal CPU for wide range of games?
* SSD recommended
* RAM suggestions?
Controllers
* Standard USB joysticks
* Support for Bluetooth controllers?
* How easy is it to have good standard configurations for different games with different controllers? 6-button joysticks (plus start button - and maybe a credit button?) would probably be the "standard configuration", but what about switching occasionally to something like an 8bitdo Bluetooth game pad? Would want to avoid having to do a bunch of manual controller button configuration
Ease of Setup?
* While I do have a history of being a tech geek, I'd prefer to reduce how much time I'm going to spend setting the thing up.
* How do this compare between a Windows and a RetroPi setup?
* This includes not only the initial setup of the system software, but also any scraping/collection of game content to match the ROMs.
Game/File Maintenance
* So unlike some people, I would only want to start with some games that I know I would want to play sometime soon so it's not a seemingly infinite list of game names to scroll through.
* I would occasionally want to add in some new gems as I hear recommendations, but I wouldn't want to have to unplug the machine from my home theatre setup to add games. What's the best way to add -- either by network transfer or USB stick?
Video Output/Aspect Ratios
* Output via HDMI to a modern TV. Should lag be a worry?
* Would the system be smart enough to keep the aspect ratio accurate for a game while making the best use of screen space on a TV?
* Any other considerations I am overlooking?
Links to review:
I found this project that gave some ideas, but didn't really cover all the details
http://www.geekometry.com/2014/09/proje ... ving-room/
http://www.geekometry.com/2017/10/proje ... ro-gaming/
Goals of Arcade Console:
* Be a stand-alone box that controllers plug into. No worries of building controllers, let alone with a system built into the controller
* Be a simple boot-up process just like it was an arcade cabinet that you can select games from.
* Minimize noise and energy consumption
* Neo Geo support?
2 Variations to Discuss....
Low-cost Raspberry Pi
* Are the only interfaces essentially RetroPie skins?
* Are there certain limitations of the generation of arcade games this could handle
* Are there any higher-end cases (in black) that would looks as good as a home theatre PC/Apple TV?
* Having 4 USB ports would be nice
* This unit for Slice media player looks nice, but seems to be full product for different purpose https://liliputing.com/2015/03/raspberr ... pping.html
Low-profile/fanless Windows (or maybe OSX) Based
* Nice to have something that could like a minimalistic console such as an ASUS Vivo PC https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywo ... 9p38_e_p38 or old Mac Mini (possibly running Windows via Bootcamp)
* What's the slickest current MAME front-ends nowadays? Looking for something that isn't too "geeky" looking, but modern and minimalistic, but subtle artwork/screenshots would be nice.
* Don't want an OS UI showing, just a full-screen UI that is TV friendly and used with only a controller to make it like a console. In years past, I always admired Maximus Arcade's software. Any newer ones that are just as good, if not better/
Hardware Considerations
* Minimal CPU for wide range of games?
* SSD recommended
* RAM suggestions?
Controllers
* Standard USB joysticks
* Support for Bluetooth controllers?
* How easy is it to have good standard configurations for different games with different controllers? 6-button joysticks (plus start button - and maybe a credit button?) would probably be the "standard configuration", but what about switching occasionally to something like an 8bitdo Bluetooth game pad? Would want to avoid having to do a bunch of manual controller button configuration
Ease of Setup?
* While I do have a history of being a tech geek, I'd prefer to reduce how much time I'm going to spend setting the thing up.
* How do this compare between a Windows and a RetroPi setup?
* This includes not only the initial setup of the system software, but also any scraping/collection of game content to match the ROMs.
Game/File Maintenance
* So unlike some people, I would only want to start with some games that I know I would want to play sometime soon so it's not a seemingly infinite list of game names to scroll through.
* I would occasionally want to add in some new gems as I hear recommendations, but I wouldn't want to have to unplug the machine from my home theatre setup to add games. What's the best way to add -- either by network transfer or USB stick?
Video Output/Aspect Ratios
* Output via HDMI to a modern TV. Should lag be a worry?
* Would the system be smart enough to keep the aspect ratio accurate for a game while making the best use of screen space on a TV?
* Any other considerations I am overlooking?
Links to review:
I found this project that gave some ideas, but didn't really cover all the details
http://www.geekometry.com/2014/09/proje ... ving-room/
http://www.geekometry.com/2017/10/proje ... ro-gaming/