How new for it to still be retro?

[Kupoppo]

Moderators, feel free to move this, I apologize if this is in the incorrect area.

So more of an opinion post, but I'm trying to figure out where to draw the line for emulation on my build.  This is not an accuracy build.  In general I think I've got a ballpark of late 80's/early 90's in mind, but that's not really set in stone.  I definitely don't want to go too modern, and anything analogue (here's looking at you PS1, N64) is pretty much out.  Here's my inclusion list below, very curious to hear some feedback/critiques

For sure:
    MAME (obviously)
    Atari (so retro I'd feel bad if I didn't have a few games included)
    NES (no specific games in mind but I like the era)
    SNES (was originally debating this hotly with myself until I saw someone's build of one and it looked GREAT)
    Sega Genesis (Can’t have SNES without Sega )
    Neo Geo (such an arcade system, seems like this is almost a must)

Probably:
    Hyper Neo Geo 64 (A bit more advanced than I’m probably looking for, but seems fairly made-for-arcade)
    Neo Geo CD (Ditto to above)

Maybe:
    Turbografx 16 (thinking about this due to the “wow what’s that” factor)
    Atari Jaguar (ditto to above)
    Sega CD (still fairly oldschool)
    Sega Saturn (obscure, and it was/is my favorite console..)
    Sega Dreamcast (So new, but so many arcade games on it)
    3D0 (Obscure, but perhaps not arcade-oriented?)


Also factoring in with me is I have young, but responsible little gamerlettes who to them “old” means PS2.  Being able to show pieces of my childhood in such a neat format to me is a lot of the appeal here.  That’s also part of the reasoning behind including so modern with Sega – they live in a period when a major competitor and part of gaming’s past is no longer even on the scene.

I’m curious – how many of these would you feel like would “ruin” the arcade feel, and how many of these do you think I could get away with? 

[sharpfork]

I have a 27" CRT TV in my horizontal cab and have a mix of emulated and real consoles.

For me, the key for the console side is having authentic gamepads when possible.  The key for the arcade side is having my cab look arcade only but be able to convert to console mode when I want.  For emus this means plugging in converted gamepads.  The other thing to consider is being able to sit back a bit from the cabinet.  I have a couch about 8' back from my cabinets which makes for very traditional feeling 80s/90s gameplay.
I also enjoy playing the systems you listed as not wanting to include.  Hell, I even play x360 on the old 4:3 CRT.

[Kupoppo]

See, I've got another old clunker CRT in that room that will have actual AV switching to most of the "newer" consoles and some of the olders that are excluded, as well as a few like NES/SNES and all the Sega's listed... this is more for the authentic console experience.  Largely I did this for A) display reasons and B) controller authenticity.  I just don't like the way an arcade machine looks if you're not using the actual joystick/buttons, turns it into more of a display device, which can be done much cheaper.

Thinking to preserve the "arcade" feel but to include many of the systems I'm mentioning I'm going to end up spending countless hours auditing my list of games I include and don't include.  One thing is for sure, I'm about dying to play Secret of Mana on an arcade machine 

[BadMouth]

For my main setup, I cut it off at the dreamcast and only included top rated games for it.
When you get into the consoles with optical drives, space disappears fast.

I didn't think Hyper Neo Geo 64 emulation had progressed to a decent status yet.
Is there an emulator out there I don't know about?

[Kupoppo]

There may well not be.  I saw some people talking about it and kind of threw it on there as a "try this out and see" for later notice

And yeah, even on the likes of SNES/NES I'm thinking I'm probably going to have to audit my game list pretty extensively.  I love Final Fantasy 1 for NES, but I'm not entirely certain it's the best fit for my arcade cabinet

Any good dreamcast recommendations other than the bigname fighters?

[harveybirdman]

Thumbs way up from me for Turbo Grafx 16.

If you are a SHMUPer it's a must have.

Bad Mouth is right about the space though,  I mean maybe you have TB's of space and it doesn't matter.  But PSX and PC Engine CD Rom's take up a ton of space on my hard disk.

Also I just finished making Ootake play nice with Mala and its not just as simple as pointing your front end to the games and executable.  If memory serves while EPSXE and Fusion may easily support playing .BIN or .ISO files but with some disc based console emulators like Ootake you'll need to mount images with a program such as Daemon tools.  It can be a bit frustrating for mere mortals such as myself.

[paigeoliver]

My thoughts.

Atari doesn't actually have ALL THAT MUCH to offer once you take the arcade ports out of the mix.
Nes, yes very popular.
SNES suffers on most control panels on games that used all 6 buttons, because the shoulder buttons often had a directional function that just doesn't map well onto a flat surface button bank.
Genesis doesn't really suffer from the SNES problem since it didn't have shoulder buttons.
Neo Geo. No reason to include a Neo Geo console emulator when you already have the Neo Geo games in mame, they are the same thing.

Neo Geo Hyper 64. You aren't missing anything here and this is in mame anyway,
Neo Geo CD. There isn't really anything unique to this system that isn't already an arcade Neo Geo title.

Your maybe categories all basically suffer from controls that translate poorly to a panel or just not having much worthwhile on the system that wasn't on other systems.

[Kupoppo]

Hmm..  I hadn't really gotten that deep into the game collections to really compare the various Neo Geo's with MAME's offerings, but I'm not surprised to hear you say that.  Obviously yes - take a genuine arcade version over a console version essentially every time.

SNES, yes, it had shoulder buttons, but so so many of the games I'm actually interested in for it that won't be a gigantic consideration for me.  Back when SNES emulation was new, I actually mapped my keyboard to the same pattern most panels have and it wasn't that bad to get used to (or they weren't even used) for most games.

Still..  especially for some of the sega systems, you have a very good point.  It sounds like I'm either going to have to severely limit my game selection, not include those consoles at all, or as averse as I am to the idea, include a few USB ports to plug controllers in.

[kixfan]

you lost me after mame!   

Joking aside, consoles require the original controller.   Also you lose the whole 'feel' of the game cause you never played these games on an arcade machine.   For me, the feel of the controller, holding the cart in your hand, even the artwork brings back memories.  It would not be the same on an arcade system.   With that being said, it's your machine, put what you like on it.   

[Paul Olson]

I have always just had MAME on there. The console games were made for the handheld controllers. Now that I am using an LCD TV for my setup, I have added in a few NES/SNES games to sit back and play with a controller. I bought the USB versions of both of those controllers, but I think I will end up using an xbox 360 controller since it is wireless.

[Kupoppo]

Well I was waffling on the idea of an opinion post, especially since games are really the one thing I DO have an extensive background in, but this is definitely a perspective shift.  There are still a few games I DO want arcade-style from console offering, but I think my time/money would be better spent elsewhere in restoring all the old systems I have.  Believe it or not I actually have a physical copy of almost all of the systems (except the Neo Geo 3 and the 3D0), so getting a nice presentation on the actual TV with the actual controllers seems like a better fit.  So easy to get carried away on this arcade machine and lose perspective

Can't wait to start the construction, I get tax return to start building this Friday!  Maybe once everything is said and done and I post my project pictures I'll include my shrine to retro console gaming I'm also working on