About tinkering, if you'd be interested at some point in the future, maybe also test something like a more general Linux system with either Kodi or RetroPie? Also maybe, if you have the money, to throw in a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 as the hardware? Think it'd give a nice console-like device.
Comment on My SuperPretendo5
SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 2 days agoIt had Batocera on it :)
Batocera is wonderful, until you want to mix and match it with PC games or steam stuff. Then it makes your life more difficult than you’d expect.
Weirdly, I find some of the standalone emulators legitimately work better in Windows that Bato.
Dolphin, PCSX2, PPSSPP etc are much nicer.
One neat thing is being able to run multiple instances of same emulator, slightly differently.
For example, Dolphin doesn’t allow you to enable / disable Vsync per game.
Which means, you can have some games upscaled (but with screen tearing) or native resolution (but no screen tear)…but not both within same emulator.
In Windows, I just create c:/dolphin1 and c:/dolphin 2, and set each game as needed.
TL: DR: i’m using win 8.1 for the OS, stripped to the bone, and replaced Explorer.exe with Playnite. I genuinely think it’s a touch faster than Batocera and more maliable to PC stuff.
Auster@thebrainbin.org 1 day ago
SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 1 day ago
So! I have a pi4 acting as my Jellyfin, Radarr, Sonarr etc server. (I’m actually debating adding Immich and Synchthing, as well as home CCTV to it’s list of duties).
IME, emulation on the pi is weirdly hit or miss. For example, Dreamcast (Redream) is pretty good! N64 tanks it. Zero chance for PS2 etc… but then it plays Half life and Doom 3 just fine.
I lucked out when I got it - for what you pay for a Pi now, you’d get a lot more out of a NUC or a thinclient. Case in point: a barebones pi5 costs around $150 AUD near me. Literally just the board - no case, no power supply.
For a $150, you could replicate the machine I got, which is orders of magnitude more powerful, with 120gb SSD, power supply etc. And only slightly more power hungry than the pi.
I love my Pi, but that thing is like a box full of cats. Something about the Argon 40 case messes with it. You breath too hard near it, it drops wifi. It spontaneously decided “no RealVNC access for you - come back one year”.
I really need to strip it back to parts and start again, but that’s a job I keep putting off, because it works well enough for what it does.
Wouldn’t want to game on it tho; I actually think even the Google Chromecast outperforms for some stuff.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
You should be able to do all that in Bazzite. I know nothing about batocera but it doesn’t sound like it even compares.
SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Bazzite is just for steam, right? Would that mean it plays Windows based games via Proton layer? Proton blows on Batocera. Shame, because Bato was pretty nice.
I strongly dislike Windows, but it was the only way I could cobble together something for this use case that just works
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Bazzite is an OS that is similar to SteamOS, but no it’s not “just for Steam.”
It’s a full Linux distro that is built for gaming, but not only gaming. It is very well integrated with Proton. You don’t need to use Steam to launch games, but it makes it easier.
SuspciousCarrot78@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Proton must have come along in leaps and bounds since I last used it in that case.
What front end does Bazzite use? I understood it to have Steam baked in; most of my games are from other sources, like GoG.
I think once Steam kills support for Win 10 (probs in a year or two, based on history) the smart move is going to be something like Bazzite.