Welcome back! Help me get back into this hobby

[hellothere123]

It’s been a while but I’m feeling the itch to get into retro gaming again.
I built an old style cabinet with ultimarc joysticks.
What I’d like now is to have a system that I can just plug into hdmi in my tv with 2 wireless controllers.
Simple enough but looking for advice. Do I get a raspberry Pi, just use my old desktop computer with a HDMI out to my tv? Or I have an old ps3 and Xbox 360. I was thinking of using those since they already have wireless controllers.
Thing is I’ve been out of the loop and not sure which way to go.
If I go with the old desktop can I even use wireless controllers? Or maybe just buy USB controllers with long cords.
So many questions. Thanks for your info

[Cynicaster]

It’s been a while but I’m feeling the itch to get into retro gaming again.
I built an old style cabinet with ultimarc joysticks.
What I’d like now is to have a system that I can just plug into hdmi in my tv with 2 wireless controllers.
Simple enough but looking for advice. Do I get a raspberry Pi, just use my old desktop computer with a HDMI out to my tv? Or I have an old ps3 and Xbox 360. I was thinking of using those since they already have wireless controllers.
Thing is I’ve been out of the loop and not sure which way to go.
If I go with the old desktop can I even use wireless controllers? Or maybe just buy USB controllers with long cords.
So many questions. Thanks for your info

I'm not a fan of Raspberry Pi for MAME but it seems to be pretty solid for console emulation. 

I'd lean toward a PC-based solution, given the choice.  For a "living room" type deal I'm using Launchbox/Bigbox and I love it.  Just the right balance between polish and usability.  Plus, it's set up to be portable, meaning you can install the whole deal on a USB stick or SD card, and move it from computer to computer.

For controllers, if you've already got PS3 controllers sitting around, look into a Mayflash PS3 dongle which makes it dead simple to connect PS3 controllers to your PC.  One dongle can handle 2 controllers.  This is what I'm using, actually, as I had some PS3 controllers collecting dust.

[KenToad]

I use the Mayflash ps3 dongle and, if it's the same as mine, it can handle 1 controller through Xinput and 4 controllers through Dinput with a switch on the side to select what you want. You'll never have to worry about controllers reordering, as the first one you activate is always first player. IMO, it's the most versatile setup and the Dpad is excellent for retro console games.

[mahuti]

I use Raspberry Pis, but if you aren't comfortable with Linux already I'd say stick with a PC. For most things it is going to be way simpler to use than a pi (unless you use a pre-built image.)

Hard to beat it for size though.

As for wireless... eh, I'd say get longer cords, but I think that a matter of personal taste. Any setup with Bluetooth  will work with wireless controllers. I'm not a fan though... I even prefer wired controllers on the PS4.

[Cynicaster]

I use the Mayflash ps3 dongle and, if it's the same as mine, it can handle 1 controller through Xinput and 4 controllers through Dinput with a switch on the side to select what you want. You'll never have to worry about controllers reordering, as the first one you activate is always first player. IMO, it's the most versatile setup and the Dpad is excellent for retro console games.

Yes mine has the XInput/DInput switch and I was aware that XInput only allowed one controller but if the DInput is 4 rather than 2 as I had thought, then even better.  Regardless, it's a great little product and there's something satisfying about putting some really nice cordless controllers to use that you already have on hand rather than stuffing them into a box full of dusty Rock Band instruments in the closet (or worse, a landfill). 

I use Raspberry Pis, but if you aren't comfortable with Linux already I'd say stick with a PC. For most things it is going to be way simpler to use than a pi (unless you use a pre-built image.)

Hard to beat it for size though.

As for wireless... eh, I'd say get longer cords, but I think that a matter of personal taste. Any setup with Bluetooth  will work with wireless controllers. I'm not a fan though... I even prefer wired controllers on the PS4.

Yes, there are definitely positives for the Pi.  Just recently I was playing around with mine (Pi 3B) and after spending a few hours trying to sort out some issues I was having with screen resolution and finally solving them, I was very impressed with how nice of a little retro console emulator it was. 

A key benefit of the PC route - at least for many people - is that there is usually some level of pre-existing understanding on how to use a PC that isn't there with Linux.  Not only that, but decades' worth of internet information to assist with setting up the emulators on PC.  The Pi community is growing but it's much newer and less fleshed out, and with Linux, doing something as simple as copying a file can feel daunting if you aren't familiar with the OS. 

To be fair, a PC-based system in no way guarantees you won't run into any frustrations and/or a learning curve with the software.  Especially if you're using an old-ish PC and Retroarch, there's a pretty good chance you're going to need to tinker under the hood to get smooth operation and games running at full speed.  For example, I spent a few hours trying to get Retroarch to run smoothly on my LG 4K TV.  It just didn't want to work right unless I forced the refresh rate to 30Hz, which caused other problems.  I moved the system over to an older 1080 TV and it runs like a champ. 

As for cordless controllers, I guess the thinking is that wireless inherently introduces lag.  For me, the cordless option is just too clean and convenient to pass up and I am perfectly OK with the level of lag I'm getting (i.e., I don't even notice it). 

   

[mahuti]

As for cordless controllers, I guess the thinking is that wireless inherently introduces lag.  For me, the cordless option is just too clean and convenient to pass up and I am perfectly OK with the level of lag I'm getting (i.e., I don't even notice it). 

For me, I like fighting games. And though I'm not THAT skilled, I do find that even the nearly unnoticeable lag that comes from wireless makes it hard for me to pull off the rediculously complex moves available in PS4 fighting games. Arcade fighting games don't really have the advanced levels of complexity as the console versions. For 99.99% of stuff, wireless is worth it.

The Pi community is growing but it's much newer and less fleshed out, and with Linux, doing something as simple as copying a file can feel daunting if you aren't familiar with the OS. 

As evidenced by our anemic raspberry pi board. Over the years, I've written an extensive cheat sheet on just about every topic on setting up a raspberry pi and pulling off some complex and interesting things. But... if one used a PC, a lot of the advanced front-ends available already just do all of  this out of the box. I'm a glutton for punishment though.    Originally, I got a Pi because it was cheap and my PCs were all old garbage anyway... what the Pi replaced wasn't any faster, so I didn't feel too bad. I couldn't run anything better than XP on the pcs, and windows was fighting me every step of the way.

The worst thing about working with RetroPie on a Pi is that it is really built to use a gamepad. It thinks in terms of gamepads. Trying to get it to NOT consider everything as player1, player2 gamepads is daunting. Coming from the old-school mameworld where we can just map whatever we want in the MAME interface, doesn't carry over to consoles emulators in RetroPie. So trying to mix console stuff and mame stuff in a cabinet really sucks (some people hate the idea of playing NES games or whatever on a cabinet anyway)

My opinion is that... unless you just freaking hate Windows, or you really wanna screw around all the time in a command-line... stick with a PC.