the console pc

[pzler]

I have been dreaming about my own arcade machine for some time now. But for the moment it's simply not going to happen. I don't have the space, time or the money for a project that big, but I can do something else.

I have an old Pentium 4 PC that I plan to connect to my TV. It will be controlled with usb gamepads.
The machine will be used mostly for gaming, sort of like a console. My collection of old games and consoles will be moved out of the living room and outside the reach of children who like to use disks as a frisbee, pull the tape out of cassettes and use cartridges as building blocks 

I know this is a bit lame compared to most of the projects on this site but it is the best i can get at the moment. Maybe someday this PC can be placed in a nice arcade housing.

In order to use this in the way I want it to work I need the following:

Front end
Has to be easy to navigate with a gamepad only
Easy to setup (because I'm a bit stupid)
Completely hide windows xp during regular use (not necessary for setting up and adding games)
support a range of emulators and pc games.

PC to TV connection
It looks like I will need some sort of adapter for this. I've seen a few and they are a bit pricey but otherwise this should be easy.

usb gamepads
I allready have one but I don't like it to much. I want at least 2 for multiplayer reasons. Most important about them are that the cord is long enough or that they are wireless

Emulators
Need to be controlled with the gamepads.
Work in full screen mode
Need to support the save game functions in games that can be saved or have a save game function of it's own (save state)
I want to emulate the following: Old arcade games (mame), NES, SNES, SEGA master system and Mega drive. Others might be added but nothing more modern then 16 bit consoles.

No difficult hardware hacking is required for all of this. the most import thing for me is to find a good front end and emulators and get all the software working correctly.

Ill keep anyone that is interested up to date. but mostly I'm allways on the lookout for good feedback and suggestions.

[drventure]

First off welcome aboard!

As for your questions....

Front end
Mala. Couldn't be simpler.

PC to TV connection
Many video cards have Analog video out in addition to the standard VGA out. If you've got an HDMI TV, you'll want a card with HDMI out, but those are also pretty plentiful. Just about any modern video card will be ok for most emulator games. You may have issues if you go with a cheap card and want to play Virtual pinball, or some other more modern 3d games, but that's about it.

usb gamepads
I really like the Logitec Chillstream controllers, but there are plenty to choose from here. You may even want to go USB wireless.

Emulators
At this point, I've only really setup Mame, so I couldn't speak to the other emulators, but I've tried a few and they all seem relatively straightforward.
One thing to do here is read the Excellent UncleT's Mala how to
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=unclet%20mala%20how%20to&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CDYQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmalafe.net%2Ffiles%2Fdownload%2FMalaEmuSetup-v1.3.doc&ei=1GHCTpyaAejg2QWD5vTjDg&usg=AFQjCNHSK55Sqf30qmzp12iw4smZ4KnGLA&cad=rja

It's a fantastic guide to getting mala and tons of emulators all going.

[pzler]

thank you. I'm now using the guide to setup a few emulators (not all of them)

the games I will play are all very old. so the video card shouldn't be a problem.

[404]

welcome to the forums

I'm sort of in the same boat as you when it comes to this. While i'm almost done with my mini project here, i can't see myself building the bartop that i really want. Just don't have the tools or skills. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

If for whatever reason your p4 unit doesn't cut it for the things you want, consider the zotac zbox line of computers. There are some that are as little as $150USD.

[pzler]

so far I have Mame and Mala installed. I used uncleT's how to but ran into some problems. The file is a bit outdated and most of the links given are now dead. Another thing I ran into was that I downloaded the wrong version of Mame. took me a while before I figured out what was wrong.

now I'm going to add a few more emulators. Hope this will go a bit easier

[Donkbaca]

I like gameex for the front end- simple to set up and easily customizable.  It will tell you which emulators work best with it, its cake.

Might be hard to find a HDMI vid card for a P4, you can easily find one with s-video for super cheap though (under a hundred bucks)

as for game pads - Wireless xbox 360 pads are the best.  Get a wireless receiver shipped from china off ebay for under ten bucks.

[madmatt]

Donkbaca,

You buy a cheap vid card with a DVI out like this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1069667&CatId=696) and then buy an adapter DVI to HDMI  like this
(http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1711305&CatId=3667).

Just help out...

MM

Out

[Vigo]

If you are looking to play only SNES games and earlier, I recommend you just pick up a couple SNES controllers and one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/SNES-Controller-Adapter-USB-Super-NES/dp/B002IXZ5DE

I've used it and love it. As long as you can get a hold of SNES gamepads, It's a cheap price and authentic feeling. The cord length of the gamepads plus the length of the converter cord should give you enough cord room.

[mgb]

I definitely agree with choosing Mala for a simple front end.
some emulators that I like for console emulation are:
for Sega Master System and Genesis - "Fusion"
for NES I have tried both Virtualnes and Nestopia but I don't remember which I preferred, I seem to remmber one of them crashing on me but it's been a little bit since I've used them.
for snes - "zsnes"
for Atari 2600 - "Stella"
and then for Intellivision there is "Nostalgia"

[NiN^_^NiN]

I had a similar setup a while ago and although i did prefer a snes controller I found the best option (for me at least) was to get a usb game pad that was like the ps1 pre dualshock the extra two buttons allowed me to create saves and restore them all from the pad and exit you will have to see how well it works for you. I remember I had to edit the zsnes file to allow exactly how i wanted it to setup cause the gui wouldn't allow what I wanted to use for exit etc.

[Vigo]

I actually did something similiar with my SNES mod. Players 1 and 2 were real snes gamepads, and 3 and 4 were dualshock style wireless pads. I used the shoulder buttons on the dual shocks for functions. I had save state, load state, fast forward and exit.

I tackled the emulator 'not reading gamepad for exit' issue a different way though. I had Mala launch joy2key on game startup, and set joy2key to register the gamepad button push as the ESC key.

[pzler]

I finally have some time again to work on this. I'm really looking forward to having this all hooked up and running. Al the retro gaming goodness without the clutter and the hassle of switching cartridges.

I really like that snes gamepad adapter. I think I will go that route.
setting up mala is going well so far. But I'm currently using fceux for the nes and it's been a real headache so far. So I'm probably trying something else soon.

thanks for the tips

[menace]

Here's what I did what seems like a million years ago--it was very popular for awhile, till I needed the controls for something else--then I hacked it up...worked great though

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=21297.0

[pzler]

I just updated my drivers. Suddenly most of the problems I had with fceux are solved