Emulation Station? Old Thin Client...

[the86d]

Anyone running an emulation station for old NES ROMs or equivalent?

Noticed that Nintendo retros are going on the market with 30 built-in games for about $60USD:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/14/12187296/nintendo-nes-classic-edition-announced-price-games

Thought an emulation station should work well for my daughter, after slapping XP on (one-trick-pony and an unused 80GB SSD) a dual-core thin client easily purchased from eBay for only like $60... i.e.:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-10BV000EUS-Ultra-Small-Thin-Clinet-Celeron-847-1-1GHz-2GB-1GB-800116829-/361218136052?hash=item541a4757f4:g:FwIAAOSwr7ZW2~3K

jNES is free. (I need to look for a donation link for it...)

I got some old USB-corded controllers sitting around (I never used), and I have some wireless USB controllers in my cart for like $13-$15 on eBay.

Anyone else running something similar for their kids to enjoy the games that we had such as NES and later?

[UEDan]

I built an Mini arcade machine around Q2 of this year. Plays arcade and console games as well.

I would not re-purpose a thin client. Does that thing even have a SATA connector available? And can you even wipe the proprietary OS? I know you can with some older Wyse clients. Lenovo, dunno.
Stick with an older C2D Small Form Factor PC. And XP is dead. Go at least Windows 7 or 10. Forget 8.

If you REALLY want a small footprint device to emulate use a Raspberry Pi 3 with RetroPie(https://retropie.org.uk/)i. There is a learning curve to get it setup but tutorials are available online.
Microcenter usually as best pricing and readily available stock.

Emulators. If you're sticking with a pc build:

http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/

I don't remember using Jnes, but it rings a bell.
Nesticle works great. Except the icon are testicles.
NESten works good too.
NES emulation was almost perfect 10 years ago. Finding something that works won't be an issue.

Controller. I've heard awful things about new NES USB controllers like these:

https://www.amazon.com/Classic-USB-NES-Controller-PC/dp/B002YVD3KM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468575832&sr=8-1&keywords=NES+controller

A retrofit is on the higher end/Geekier side of things.

http://www.retrousb.com/index.php?cPath=21&osCsid=b7a419930d4fcf18b82e33fe70937069

Then again I used a wireless Xbox360 Controller for my Retro Console gaming needs =)

Frontend
With a PC build you loose the fun factor and illusion when you have to grab a mouse and keyboard to switch a game(Exit fullscreen, file, load rom, fullscreen) I'm using Hyperspin on my Arcade machine. PITA to setup but worth it. No Keyboard and mouse to change games.

Have fun!

[Mute]

I haven't setup a proprietary station, but I've been using MAME forever and can play pretty much everything that's available for those older platforms. How well one of thee will work depends on the game. Most run without problem but a small number need a better CPU to run smoothly and the emulation isn't always perfect on some of the ROMs.

[j-shot]

Just a ROM cart

[the86d]

I built an Mini arcade machine around Q2 of this year. Plays arcade and console games as well.

I would not re-purpose a thin client. Does that thing even have a SATA connector available? And can you even wipe the proprietary OS? I know you can with some older Wyse clients. Lenovo, dunno.
Stick with an older C2D Small Form Factor PC. And XP is dead. Go at least Windows 7 or 10. Forget 8.

If you REALLY want a small footprint device to emulate use a Raspberry Pi 3 with RetroPie(https://retropie.org.uk/)i. There is a learning curve to get it setup but tutorials are available online.
Microcenter usually as best pricing and readily available stock.

Emulators. If you're sticking with a pc build:

http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/

I don't remember using Jnes, but it rings a bell.
Nesticle works great. Except the icon are testicles.
NESten works good too.
NES emulation was almost perfect 10 years ago. Finding something that works won't be an issue.

Frontend
With a PC build you loose the fun factor and illusion when you have to grab a mouse and keyboard to switch a game(Exit fullscreen, file, load rom, fullscreen) I'm using Hyperspin on my Arcade machine. PITA to setup but worth it. No Keyboard and mouse to change games.

Have fun!

Not sure about SATA ports, I should look that up for one I am using as my main Linux box now (my 19" rackmount Linux board died, so I was testing on my) single-core Wyse that has a dead audio jack, but I mounted a 256GB SSD in it and powered it off of USB (after some soldering), and plugged it into one of the onboard SATA ports, added some RAM and it hasn't given me a glitch, low power and one (well, like a three) trick pony for a CLI Slackware box.

Since my thread was started, I actually started running an emulator from an old signage player now, as it has an HDMI out port w/audio. Mini PC about the size of a thin client, Bluetooth mini-keyboard for MPCs I got a while back, dual core, Win7 box, but all I had sitting around is a PS2-looking USB controller. The controller and the signage player were about never used, so I put them to good use. All four of us (yes, even the kids) have been having a blast on the full-screen HDTV emulator. It actually works pretty well.

I got everything I need to start going toward Ridley in Metroid, but it's everyone else's turn now.

I remember super-gluing aluminum foil to the pads on the bottom of my NES MAX's rubber contact-pads after they wore out, and it worked VERY WELL, and this is before help/suggestions were offered via the Internet.
The extra buttons mapped to Turbo on newer ergonomic controllers is a nice bonus, and the buttons don't cause hand/thumb-aching like the old NES and NES Max controllers did.

On to some Bluetooth controllers... One shipping from this state, and others... from China.

Anyone know if multiple Bluetooth controllers will work off of one Bluetooth dongle at the same time?
["Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)" is what Slackware tells me it is, and it's labeled "CSR 4.0".]

Is there lag on a Raspberry pie?
Maybe it's time for me to jump on that train too.

[OutlawStar]

If you're looking into universal wireless controllers, you can use the new Xbox and PS4 controllers for most PCs. A third option is the Steam controller; connect up to 4 controllers with a single dongle. The steam controller seems to be getting pretty positive reviews.

For emulators i've had good luck with fcweux nes, and Snes9x (SNES) and visualboy advance for gameboy advance. Project64 for N64, and ePSXe for PS1. There are a couple PS2 emulators mostly working also.

With the Raspberry pi3, its silent, an ultra-compact form factor with more than enough horsepower for NES and SNES, as well as most mobile platforms including the newer ones.. Probably has power to run up to a gamecube now. The latest iteration cannot do 4k video however, it maxes out at 1080p.

Theres a couple avenues you can go with; either the XBMC, or noobs, or one of the pre-programmed operating systems, and microsoft has even made an operating system for it. All of them are free. There are a few tutorials and best configurations for running an emulator platform. However buying the pi, power cable (if you don't have one, its USB micro with 2A rating), and a cheap box will probably run you $60 on amazon. This is usually a hurdle for some considering some can scrape together old PC parts for a media center PC capable of running emulators and streaming 4k video.

[the86d]

Are there performance differences that others have seen with using multiple controllers w/ Bluetooth transceivers (mini-dongles vs. full sized sticks), or anything?

Are some Bluetooth transceiver-dongles better than others?