Recommend me a good emulator box

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everblue

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AmiBayer
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I am looking for a setup that will allow me to run retro consoles, emulated, up to the 16bit era. Is there something which I can buy off the shelf, is small and runs such emulators at full speed with some fancy CRT effects? It has to be a small box so it can fit snugly under my living room TV, and connects through HDMI.

I imagine that the ideal would be something that is capable of running windows 7 but I am open to cheaper options.
 
Thanks guys, isn't the Raspberry a bit too underpowered for this sort of thing? Also, what about the Ouya?
 
The Pi is quite the powerhouse. Very underestimated but it's fine for emulation. Don't know much about the Ouya at all.

J
 
This is what I had in mind to play:

C64/Amiga
PC Engine
SNES
Megadrive
Neo Geo
 
I'm running the pi with emulation and it's pretty good at 8 bit, amiga emulation is poor but the St seems ok what little bit I've tried.
 
I'm running the pi with emulation and it's pretty good at 8 bit, amiga emulation is poor but the St seems ok what little bit I've tried.

Yeah I thing I need something a bit more powerful than a raspberry.

---------- Post added at 08:17 ---------- Previous post was at 08:16 ----------

sorry typo:oops: ITX PC

I found something called Gigabyte Brix, not exactly cheap though.
 
mITX? Mini-ITX that is. It's a PC that has a small form factor. Stick an i3 in an 1155 mITX motherboard and you'd have an emulation powerhouse!


I've wanted to build one for ages.
 
I would definitely use a Mini-itx based PC with an i3 CPU. It's built in graphics would probably be enough for 16bit emulation.

You can get some nice cases for this form factor too, that are really small.

I would definitely use Windows 7 for emulation. No other OS has near to the same level of emulation support.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
 
one day...one day i will set up a windows or linux distro that boots into an emulation selection aka chameleon.

ive been doing this for years and i still havent got around to it but yes a mini PC is the way to go.

even Amiga emulation isnt perfect in some instances but Winuae in windows is as good as it gets (very very good) . of course a quick PC helps...

with windows you have any and all emulation options.

The raspberry Pi isnt quick enough for 16bit emulation really , other than that how about FPGA set ups?
 
FPGA setups? Do you mean ArcadeFPGA? On paper, it should be good, but I don't think there are any cores for it other than an Amiga one?

Last option (if not a bit too stretched, and if possible) would be the following:

Samsung S4 + HDMI cable + wireless bluetooth joypad (is it possible to use an Xbox/Wiimote/PS3 controller?)

(I do need to get a new mobile phone, so in a way the above option, assuming it is possible, should make sense).
 
Is HDMI an absolute must have? Do you have component (ypbpr) connectors on your tv?

If you do, first generation xbox, modded and with coinops 5 is a very good solution for emulation. They can be had for like 30gbp readily modded and with a decent sized hard drive too so they´re very affordable and emulate those systems you listed very nicely indeed.
 
Yup, need HDMI, TV is hung on the wall, so only HDMI is accessible.
 
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