Best Way To Emulate Games?
 

I was curious if anyone had any suggestions on what's the best way to emulate games on their TV. I want to get back into some classic gaming, but good carts are so damned expensive. I was thinking of just getting an older, cheap computer, hooking it up to my TV and using it strictly for emulators. Anyone have any better suggestions?

Wii Homebrew

if you have a Wii, obvs

Cart prices are ridiculous indeed. We have a local place here where I can generally get NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. for a reasonable price, but emulation on a PC is the way to go.

SNES - SNES9x, best emulator I have ever thought about using and ZSNes is pretty good as well.

NES - Nestopia is reliable

MAME - Awesome arcade stuff

Here, have at it.

PowerPak boyeee

That PowerPak looks awesome, but $135 for only NES? A bit out of my price range. And no Wii for this fella.

I've emulated in the past and had some fun, I just want to do it on my TV instead of my laptop.

hmm. Do you have any other gaming consoles at all

My emulators are

Arcade - FBA
Nes - FCEUX
Snes - Snes9x
Genesis - Gens
N64 - Project 64
Dos - DOSbox(naturally)

Build a good enough HTPC and you can emulate all the way up to PS2 and Gamecube.

I think "Here Comes the Pain" was only on PS2
joking

Nah, he was referring to the deep south version "Here The Pain Comes"

Or possibly "Home Theater PC," but you never know.

Yeah but for that price he could just buy the systems used and games with it.

Well, I would hope he'd use the HTPC for more than just emulation like playing movies or whatever.

Also housing all the games on one machine is far less cumbersome than 5 systems or so.

Building a HTPC for gaming kind of defeats the entire purpose, doesn't it?

Not to me. Sure he wants to buy a cheaper USED computer, but hey, maybe he could have the option of a little modern emulation with maybe some ability to play newer PC games, too. Just another option you ninnies.

And if anything, if he buys a laptop made in the past 3-4 years with a Core i-series chip and a discrete graphics card, he can probably run any emulator out there. Also, he never posted a budget.

A Wii and an old CRT television

My Ouya does the trick quite nicely. Running the Android version of MAME and a few system emus up to PS1 era (haven't actually tried running that one yet, no isos... and I actually still own a PS2 to run my discs on, so no need). Mostly roms I got I've had for years since I got into emulation nearly 2 decades ago.

Between xbmc and emulation, I'm glad I tossed the $100 at it that I did. There are some system games that aren't that bad either.

Yeah, but the joke was funny.

You can install emulators on the Ouya? I may get one for my son, if that's the case.

I made a NES PC that works rather well, but parts and assembly may not be what you wanna sign up for.

That or any small computer related deal. I'm about to use this mini android computer that sticks right into the HDMI port and see what I can work out with that.

If you have a PS2, you don't need a PS1 emulator. You can just play PS1 games on it. Unless you don't have any, in which case find some you're interested in at your local game shop. I'm sure they've got plenty of bargains on great PS1 games.

Any good gamecube emulators out there?

Only good one I know: https://dolphin-emu.org/

I know. It was more of commentary on not knowing the quality of emulation ability of the Ouya on PS1 or later systems because I havent used them- in part because I dont need to. I have quite a library of systems and games still, but the question was about emulators. I'm sure if voncouch wanted to go buy old systems off eBay or a pawn shop, he could do so.

The question at hand was a cheap gaming rig attachable to a tv for emulation. I was offerimg an out the box suggestion that is working for me as opposed to buying an old pc, finding a controller, and dicking around with intergrated sound or video cards to plug it to the tv. I dont know how "classic" he wanted to go, but I occasionally revisit things from 2600 era to the Sega Genesis and some MAMEable cabinet stuff I remember from my youth. The hundred I dropped on that little box, to me, was even worth it for the emulation alone.

Besides, its better to just find a PS1, because I've had to adjust the laser in my PS2 so many times I never bothered putting the screws back in when it stops reading certain discs (it will slide out of focus and stop reading one of the 3 PS2 types or not read PS1 black at all, and its a crap shoot). Its a pain in the ass when it needs fixed.

Did you decide on something?