Your "Retro Gaming" Hardware or Emulators?

[xanthrou]

Emulations are my secret weapons.

 

For MS-DOS and Win9x, I use DosBox-X, but sometimes FreeDOS. (the latter of which ain't an emulator, but rather a complete reimpementation of DOS)

For PlayStation 1, my go-to emulator is Mednafen, which is also my go-to emulator for NEC PC-FX.

To use games from every Commodore 8-bit machines, I use VICE.

Mesen is my NES/Famicom emulator, as it's 100% compatible with NES/Famicom, even supporting FDS and bootleg Dendy. It can even fake stereo sound.

I use Kega Fusion for Sega Genesis, CD and 32X.

MAME when I play arcade, mostly Neo-Geo MVS/AES.

reicast libretro as a weapon for Dreamcast emulation.

And lastly, Phoenix, for 3DO.

 

I don't use PCXS2 since I already have PS2, the slim model one, with FreeMcBoot software mod I added.

[Strider]

Specifically, I use the following emulators for classic consoles.

• 
  Atari 2600 - Stella
  


• 
  NES - NEStopia
  


• 
  SMS - NeoSMS
  


• 
  SNES - SNES9X x64
  


• 
  Genesis/SegaCD - Gens
  


• 
  TG-16 - PCE/Hugo
  


• 
  N64 - Project64
  


• 
  PS1 - ePSXe
  


• 
  Arcade- MAME
  

I really don't emulate anything later than the PS1/N64. ?

I was looking at Phoenix for the 3DO, mainly becasue it also does the Atari Jaguar, so killing two birds with one stone. I just have not done it because there are only a couple games on each system that I actually liked. haha

[EMwhite]

I've never heard of 1/2 of that stuff but I have an original GameGear in mint condition somewhere and a Sega Genesis that I bought in the 90s.  Kids have had each console along the way since GameCube but aside from William and Namco I've never been interested.

I do have a deep love for 80's Arcade and therefore have an original Atari Millipede cabinet that some maniac fitted with a 60:1 board and a Dell monitor (and two buttons and a joystick to play Scramble).

And I also have a Mame-ish system (it's actually a fully loaded and licensed Ultracade system) that I installed in an old Sega cabinet retooled with Williams clothing (see pic).  It has my favorite suite of games of all time: The Atari System 1 and 2 Marble Madness / Paperboy, and Williams Joust/Robotron/Stargate plus a rarity: Crazy Climber.  As I think I posted elsewhere in "General Retro Chat", elusive Excitebike and Kung Fu Master are on my bucket list though I enjoy the imagery Excitebike track on 'Switch" MarioCart that my kids play.  Nintendo has really kept it together over such a long span.  What a franchise!

[Strider]

50 minutes ago, EMwhite said:

I've never heard of 1/2 of that stuff but I have an original GameGear in mint condition somewhere and a Sega Genesis that I bought in the 90s.  Kids have had each console along the way since GameCube but aside from William and Namco I've never been interested.



I do have a deep love for 80's Arcade and therefore have an original Atari Millipede cabinet that some maniac fitted with a 60:1 board and a Dell monitor (and two buttons and a joystick to play Scramble).



And I also have a Mame-ish system (it's actually a fully loaded and licensed Ultracade system) that I installed in an old Sega cabinet retooled with Williams clothing (see pic).  It has my favorite suite of games of all time: The Atari System 1 and 2 Marble Madness / Paperboy, and Williams Joust/Robotron/Stargate plus a rarity: Crazy Climber.  As I think I posted elsewhere in "General Retro Chat", elusive Excitebike and Kung Fu Master are on my bucket list though I enjoy the imagery Excitebike track on 'Switch" MarioCart that my kids play.  Nintendo has really kept it together over such a long span.  What a franchise!

Now that's proper "retro" gaming! Nice setup you have there!

If I only had the room for a cabinet... sadly, that's just not an option. I have wanted to build a full cabinet MAME system for a long time now, maybe someday, but for now I j ust don't have the space. ?

Those were the good old days I remember so fondly, I spent untold numbers of quarters in the arcades of the 80's and early 90's. I did repair/maintain a few cabinets back then for a couple local businesses. Dig Dug, Asteroids, Rampage, Pole Position, and a few others. I did have a Pac-Man machine setup for my dad in their garage in the early 90's, he loved that machine, but ended up selling it when they bought a new home. I think my mom didn't want it coming with them. haha

Good times! ?

[EMwhite]

The Sega cabinet (Ultracade that has Crazy Climber on the screen) used to be something called "Sega MVP baseball".  Sega used that 'platform' for Pengo and a few other titles;  It's not perfect for Robotron/Joust type games but having loved them so much, I opted to strip the old cabinet, get my hands on Williams Multi-game side-art, that repro Robotron marquee, makeshift control panel.  

A very peculiar and interesting feature of this Sega cabinet is the control panel which snaps out and can be easily swapped.  I've since purchased two additional (similar) panels which have diff configurations and affixed Xarcade keyboard interfaces which plug into Ultracade.  That one is my go-to because it has a trackball, spinner, general left right thrust fire buttons so can play many games.

I had the cabinet for a good 10 years before I finally got something running and as you can see, I still need a smoked plexiglass/lexan bezel to hide the fact that it's an HP monitor and not a proper Wells CRT.

What you do not see in that picture is 8 pinball machines.  Here is a look at one of my favorites on the 'other' side of that small room; the rest is out by our [little used] Pool table.

I worked all my life and put 4 kids through college (two get their masters degree later this year); still have a 12 year old but intend on retiring in 5 years so I can solder/weld/woodwork and restore vintage tech full time... if I live to see it the other side of retirement.  Meanwhile, a kid and makeshift engineer at heart, this (and this forum and related tech) is what drives me.

If you ever watched the Vintage Compute (VCF '19) interview of Ken Thompson (Bell Labs legend and Unix great), in the final minute of the interview, the moderator asks the crowd of mostly grey, bearded, and in many cases, balding participants "raise your hand" if your career trajectory was heavily influenced by what K&R and Thompson and Pike etc. did in the 70's; 95% of the hands went up.  I am one of those hands and would not be 'here' if I had not first used the original Commodore Pet in middle school, the 4032 in 9th grade Computer Math, and learned Pascal in AP Computer Science in 11th grade which lead me the AT&T 3B2 and Sun Microsystems in College.  And I would not have been interested in the first 8 bit computer I laid eyes on had it not been for Space Invaders and Asteroids within walking distance from where I grew up.  It's all connected... 



 

 

[Strider]

Well, I got the Pi Zero W up and running in a GPi Case, RetroPie installed, now I just have to set it all up like I want it to look. I had done a lot of research on the GPi Case, so I knew what I was getting, but I am still pleasantly surprised at the quality of the case. Dual power options is  nice (3AA battery or USB), and the buttons actually feel nice, and they are not super loud to press so that will make it easier on those around me. Overall, it's just a great case, I see why so many people like it.



 

 

On 3/14/2021 at 6:30 PM, EMwhite said:

*snip*

Like I said, I would absolutely LOVE to have the space for some proper arcade cabinets. You have a really nice collection going on there! I really like the Black Hole Pinball, I actually remember playing that a lot at a local bowling ally. Pinball was a favorite of mine years ago, I enjoyed playing those as much as the video games, sometimes more. I got the love of those from my father, who used to repair them when I was still in diapers. My father was a mechanical and electrical wiz, did that sort of work for most of his life, on top of being an MP in the guard for almost 30 years.

For me, my love of computers came from my uncle (who worked for McDonnell Douglas at that time), he got me my first (TI-99/4A back in 1981), and the rest is history. So between my dads love of tinkering/fixing and my uncles love of computers, I ended up getting a bit of both.

I have 4 kids as well! The 3 oldest are grown, moved out, and have their own lives. The youngest (19), is still at home. One of them was a technology nut like me, spent some time in the Air Force doing data security.

I agree, it is indeed all connected. One thing leads to another. I enjoy technology, I enjoy building, repairing, learning, and generally just having fun in so many aspects of it. Far more than I actually have time to actually do these days. Still, it's how I like to relax on my days off and how I like to spend my downtime when the family is not doing much, or when I am not camping.

:)

[iGregory]

Right now I have a raspberry pi 3 running Retro Pie for arcade, a couple NES games, and a couple 64 games.  I have two old usb game pads that I got at the thrift store that I use to play games on, but I am working on a proper arcade control panel.  Right now, the Pi is connected to a 52 in TV that is mounted on the wall in my games room, and when get all the buttons wired up and into the control panel, I'll mount that right under the TV.

After that, my next project is to 'make' a Commodor Pet inspired cabinet for an old PC that I have.  I have installed LUbuntu on the PC and I have a couple emulators on it -- DOSBox, CommandX16, VICE (for C64 stuff).

I think maybe I should post some pics or videos of the progress...

Greg

[DrTypo]

I use many emulators like Altirra (Atari 8 bits), DosBox, Steem SSE (Atari ST), Hatari (Atari ST,TT,Falcon), WinUAE (Amiga), WinVICE, MAME and few others.

For real hardware, I have an Atari Falcon and a Jaguar.



I'm still writing homebrew games for the Jaguar.

Hopefully, one day the Commander X16 will join them!

[Strider]

On 4/18/2021 at 9:52 PM, iGregory said:

Right now I have a raspberry pi 3 running Retro Pie for arcade, a couple NES games, and a couple 64 games.  I have two old usb game pads that I got at the thrift store that I use to play games on, but I am working on a proper arcade control panel.  Right now, the Pi is connected to a 52 in TV that is mounted on the wall in my games room, and when get all the buttons wired up and into the control panel, I'll mount that right under the TV.



After that, my next project is to 'make' a Commodor Pet inspired cabinet for an old PC that I have.  I have installed LUbuntu on the PC and I have a couple emulators on it -- DOSBox, CommandX16, VICE (for C64 stuff).



I think maybe I should post some pics or videos of the progress...



Greg

Nice! That sounds like a cool project. Would not mind seeing it. :)

6 hours ago, DrTypo said:

I use many emulators like Altirra (Atari 8 bits), DosBox, Steem SSE (Atari ST), Hatari (Atari ST,TT,Falcon), WinUAE (Amiga), WinVICE, MAME and few others.



For real hardware, I have an Atari Falcon and a Jaguar.



I'm still writing homebrew games for the Jaguar.



Hopefully, one day the Commander X16 will join them!

I never owned a Falcon, friends did, cool system. :)

The Jaguar, highly underrated system in my humble opinion. I loved mine back then. It had so much potential... I played many  hours of Hard Drivin', Club Drive, Cannon Fodder, Tempest  2000, Doom, Wolf 3D, Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story, and many others.

I often thought about tracking down a dead unit to gut and put a Pi in. I really liked the case and aesthetic of the Jaguar and think it would make a cool home for a RetroPie build.

Good times.

[evlthecat]

Anyone looking to score an Amstrad Portable Computer PPC640?  They have on auction at "shop goodwill dot com".  It is damaged not sure how bad.

Have several other systems there too:  TRS-80 1's and CoCo 2; IBM 5150 Computer W/Keyboard; an Atari 130XE, Commodore 64; Commodore SX-64 Executive etc..

Just throwing the idea out there in case you don't know about the Goodwill store and are looking for hardware..

This one threw me.. Never knew it existed..

@Strider if you consider this a hijack of the thread, let me know and I will open it up under another topic.