Turn your old stuff into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

[dumpster]

I'm no hacker - I wouldn't know where to begin.  But the world of hacking and modding has always really interested me.  I love the stuff that people make, not because they get paid but because they are passionate about what they are doing. I find it quite incredible that I'm finally working my way through Toy Commander, a Dreamcast game from 2000 that I really liked and never completed, but in 2019 on the Nintendo Switch in a higher resolution.  I find it quite unbelievable that Sony would remove the backward compatibility from the PS3, only for hackers to create a custom firmware that allows PS2 games to work, even on the consoles that never had that facility.  I've been fascinated to play the old pub quiz machines in the warmth of my own home, pumping in unlimited money and learning how the machine behaves when it doesn't want to pay out.  Back in the 1990s, I was blown away by the incredible achievement of the MAME emulator, and in 2019 it supports over 7000 individual games, many of which would be unavailable in any other way.  With old consoles and arcade machines falling victim to failing components, rotting plastics and so-called suicide batteries, it's fantastic that the history of video gaming is preserved in this way.

 

The barriers to entry are less than they have ever been before.  There was a time when you would need to invest in the most powerful computers to stand a chance at emulating the most basic of hardware (back in the early nineties I remember using a £1000 PC to emulate the 48k Spectrum), but today you can build an emulation box from a Raspberry Pi, or even chuck together a PC using parts from Ebay and get decent results. For me, the first time I kept a permanent emulation machine under the TV was with the Nintendo Wii.  Such a small footprint, wireless controllers, a classic pad layout that resembled a Snes joypad layout and perfect emulation of all the games I played in my teenage years was too much to resist.

 

And now, it's all starting to be used more than ever in my house.  In an era where Mario Kart on a mobile phone offers in-game purchases and a monthly subscription, it can be nice to just switch on the emulation machine and spend an hour playing Contra 3 to completion, finding a few more of the levels you missed in Super Mario World 30 years ago, or just firing up Spectrum Basic and seeing how much you remember.  Or enjoying those N64 games you never played at the time because you owned a Playstation.  As developers face accusations of making games deliberately tedious grinds to incentivise in-game purchases, it's nice to go back to simpler times, especially as these games can be every bit as fun as the new stuff.  Has there ever been a run-and-gun game better than Rapid Reload, Gunstar Heroes or Contra 3?  A better platformer than Mario Galaxy?  A purer challenge than Gameboy Tetris (which doesn't have the gameplay ruining powerups of Tetris Blast!)?  Is Ridge Racer 2 on the PSP still the best in the series, or does the PS1 version, upscaled to HD and 60fps via Retroarch win out?

 

Luckily, it's very easy to find out. We all have old consoles that clutter the garage or have been forgotten about in the loft.  You'd be surprised how many of these can be quickly and easily modded to play all sorts of retro titles.

 

Turn Your Wii into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

My first thread on the subject - The Wii is simple to mod, cheap to buy and a really lovely machine to play with. You'll be amazed at what it can do.

 

Turn your Wii-U into a Fantastic Emulation Machine.

But then Nintendo released the Wii-U, and you can turn that into a Fantastic Emulation Machine as well! You can mod the Wii that lives inside the Wii-U, and have all the benefits of the modded Wii, and all the benefits of the modded Wii-U as well. 

 

Turn your Original Xbox into a Fantastic Emulation Machine

The OG Xbox was a proper workhorse and homebrew people had a great time when it was finally hacked wide open.  There's still stuff going on today, including a great new front end for all the emulators. If it wasn't for the size of the console, the Xbox would be my emulation machine of choice, but the Wii is so much smaller that I prefer it even though the Xbox is that bit more powerful for emulators.

 

 

Turn your PS3 into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

The PS3 can become your all in one solution for Sony, allowing PS3 games, PS2 games, PS1 and even PSP games.  And yes you can play PS2 on a console that isnt normally backwards compatible. 

 

Turn your PS Classic into a Fantastic Emulation Machine

Stick your favourite PS1 games on it.  No-one ever liked Cool Boarders 2, so switch it out for the games you do like.  Also, replace the rubbish PAL conversions with their better USA counterparts and much more.

 

Turn your PSTV or PS Vita into a Fantastic Emulation Machine. 

It's great for emulation of everything up to 16 bit and of course it's phenomenal for PlayStation, PSP and Vita games. Whack a 128Gb Micro SD card, and tell Sony where they can stick their ridiculous, expensive and unreliable proprietary formats.  The Vita is an awesome, incredible machine - Sony just didn't want you to know that, so hackers did it all instead. Why restrict yourself to the Sony range of compatible PSP titles, when the Adrenaline emulator plays them all? Who needs a Playstation Classic when you can have a Handheld that does it better?

 

Turn Your PSP into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

And the crazy thing about the Vita is that many of the 16 Bit emulators are actually the PSP versions reskinned!  Yes, the PSP and PSP go make fantastic emulation devices as well, with the PSP Go especially looking like a very lovely piece of kit even in 2019.

 

 

Turn your PS2 into a one-box jukebox for all your games!

It may not have much of a homebrew scene but how cool would it be to set up your PlayStation 2 without having to unpack all the games because they're built in on a hard drive?

 

Turn your New Nintendo 3DS XL or New 2DS XL Into a fantastic Emulation Machine!

Seems that even the latest firmware has been exploited with some really cool features, such as FTP file transfer, the DSi OS for running DS games from your SD card, emulation of SNES, Megadrive, Gameboy, GameGear, and game injection to have individual titles of many formats run from a tile on the main menu.

 

 

 

Turn your Nintendo Switch into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

Ongoing, and pretty incredible, the Switch scene improves almost daily.  You need a pre-July 2018 model and it's not entirely as simple as the others (you need to keep a jig-kick on your keyring, and a USB cable with your console when you take it out, so that should you need to, you will be able to re-enter the emulation side of the machine by connecting the console to your phone and running an app.)  But - just wow.  All I ever wanted was my Dreamcast collection on a portable with decent controls and a big screen and now I have it.  They are working wonders with the Switch, and the original model has an easy, exploitable flaw that Nintendo can never patch.  The Switch is my gaming machine of choice now....

 

Turn Your Nvidia Shield TV into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

Nvidia's tiny little Android box comes with a decent control pad and there's a whole scene of people releasing Android versions of emulators that work well with the control pad. Ultra powerful compared to other android TV boxes and 4K upscaling, truly a powerhouse for the price.

 

 

Turn Your DS into a Fantastic Emulation Machine!

The abundance of flash cards for the DS in it's lifetime lead to lots of homebrew interest, and it's still going on.  There's lots of programs for emulation, making music, and doing things with the DS that I never thought possible.  And yes - Lemmings DS is a homebrew game that is the definitive way to play Lemmings, with touch controls. A real achievement.

 

Turn Your Old PC Parts into a Fantastic Emulation Machine

Our very own @Treble has been documenting his attempts at building a decent emulation PC from eBay parts, spending very little money.  His second thread is here:

 

Turn Your Raspberry Pi into a Fantastic Emulation Machine

Or how about building your own dedicated machine from the tiny Pi based boards?  Retropie is a bit more work to get started, but it's pretty outstanding and makes a wonderful under-the-tv all in one solution.

 

 

Turn Your Cat into a Fantastic Emulation Machine

Got a cat? Got a wired control pad with a smooth round end?  Got some KY Jelly?  Stick it up it's arse, and you'll be amazed how well it runs Symphony of the Night.

 

[Loik V credern]

I've just spent ages trying to load the first level of Duke Nukem Zero Hour. It crashes when the chopper rises in the training facility. Step 1: try RetroArch. It worked! But the frame rate is horrible, controls hard to configure. Back to Project 64 1.6. My first save for it was way back in 2012, also Duke Nukem. Step 2: mess with the settings in Project 64 even though I don't know what I am doing. Nothing changes. Step 3: download every other n64 emulator. None work. Step 4: google if others have same problem. A guy had an idea to use another emulator to move over a level select into Project 64 in a way he described as complicated. Step 5: look for cheats. That actually worked. Debut mode. But I'd messed with the settings so much its framerate was horrible. Step 6: re install Peoject 64 1.6 or look for newer version. Newer version..worked! It's slow to load, wouldn't recognise the controller for 10 minutes making me tyell in frustration and has now just crashed again. But it worked and now to ask myself if I really wanted to play the game or was it just because I literally couldn't. No I do, I do. The time travelling, Victorian setting, the bloody headshots. I loved it. It got 90% in magazines and i remember that because if it didn't I probably wouldn't have played it. 

 

I've been recently playing Extreme G 2, I really liked the original and can't understand why I skipped it given it was my aim to own every good n64 game and I'd go to my friend's house with a bag full of 50 games. A plastic supermarket bag, it was always ripping. Were you imagining a rucksack? I skateboard in and swing it around as the game cartridges fling out? 

 

I think I was a snob, before magazines i played any game, we rented them and cost didn't matter. We could no longer rent and cost did matter and 2 magazines i religiously bought every month gave ratings to games and I began looking at otherwise fun games suspiciously, as though their fun was tainted by a lack of quality and you're at school too every day, grades being enforced you think it matters. I am enjoying XG2 now sort of lamenting I didn't play it then, as though there were strong impressions to be made by this game that didn't occur. Now the sci fi racer is dead, but then it was like 3 years after Wipeout and 2097, it was a year after F Zero X and Star Wars Pod Racer. And Extreme G wasn't as good as any of those. 

 

The tracks are superb, the music a mixture of repetitive and atmospheric. Music culture influencesd games then, its whole aesthetic is industrial, but not the dry dull harbour in a fps kind of way, it's purples and muddy greens, it's swampy and underground. Genuinely underground. That really changed dramatically in the 00s, if you look at THPS as the prime example; as a teenager you can't really grasp the ruinous nature of capitalism in terms of always justifying creativity through expansion and profit. You just see the essence of something be stretched and trodden on. I played THPS 4 disappointed but mostly confused. It was a long time ago yet typifies the state things are still in. 

 

But yeah anyway I think I skipped XG2 because of its reviews, something like 6.7. Which is like a 90s classic late night film rotten tomatoes score. It looks great, looks at those bikes and those weapons, stop being so moody. I'm more impressed now than I would be then. I appreciate the graphics that attempt to create an effect with clearly limitations on the scale to do that. More money, resources, budget,  time, memory, storage, power mostly mean bigger worlds don't they, not necessarily fine details, the little things that pop out. I like the white birds that fly off, contrasting against the muddy greens, I like the basic approximation of a forest, how jarring it is, I like the track twisting like it's entering itself. I've been thinking more about genres and cultures when I watch stand up that's not funny to me but which offers like a different vibe to it. 

 

My one remaining ambition is to make a game, and I've thought about this a lot. I've thought; it'd have to be completely brilliant. But thinking of ideas is not the same as working within design programs, you want to tackle something tangible that's actually there. Now I think that obviously if you're putting stuff on paper you're gonna write: 30 crafts to a race and hundreds of tracks. Because you think those are easy ways to improve it. But the developers then were just working within strict schedules right and if you think; can you not just try to do more with the racing formula of cups and 4-10 races points based tournaments. But did they have time to even look at that. Maybe they did, I dunno. Rare were one of the few developers allowed time and they did it. But even just Rock and Roll Racing, buying parts, planet hopping, buying new vehicles, the sense of progression in that. Really I'm still a child in getting excited by what's next. The game withholds that, and you expect. The third act in a film, the last few episodes of a tv season, the penultimate track in an album. Doesn't always follow.

 

I also recently played Snowboard Kids 2. The first few tracks are lazy badly designed copies of the first game, everything is off. But then suddenly there's a track in space and it's wild and brilliant as if the developers were just too bored to do much with those early tracks. You can jaded, bored, disinterested, seen it all before. But structuring something so you wonder what's next, I don't think that goes away. In Snowboard Kids 2 it's the never hinting at it, the original had you boarding on grass, sand, but space made less sense. With 100 tracks it lessens the sudden leap. Only so many themes. 

 

I also voided XG3 on Gamecube for fucking some reason. Maybe I tied it to the decline of Acclaim, things were never the same between me and them after level 3 of Turok 2. XG3 and XGRA was all white and slick and generally the sci fi racer has never been the same since. Just playing Beetle Adventure Racing, those mountains, those corners, the impression made, it's convincing, I feel like yes I am racing on a beach and yes I did just leap into a volcano. There's real scale there. Those designers really were good. There's an art to track design and I don't think I've ever read an article, interview, forum thread recognising it. Imagine you're a designer just given a track to design, the thought that goes into seems alien, like er what does it need where do you begin. The racing genre is like a lost speciality. Clearly there's a difference between recreating reality, real places you drive through and condensing places into corners and bridges, jumps to create the impression of being really there. Where did this post begin, how have I ended here, I can't remember. 

[mwaawm]

Booted up my wii for the first time in a couple of years and the configurable usb prefer seems to have disappeared...the homebrew browser is still there but fails to load...and seem to be missing lots if other channels...suspect the SD card may have developed a fault am going it's that and not some system killing update...

[dumpster]

8 hours ago, mwaawm said:

Booted up my wii for the first time in a couple of years and the configurable usb prefer seems to have disappeared...the homebrew browser is still there but fails to load...and seem to be missing lots if other channels...suspect the SD card may have developed a fault am going it's that and not some system killing update...

Just remod it. So a system update from Nintendo then start over, it's quick and easy and probably more up to date than what you have. See the Wii thread.

[disperse and recoagulate]

Seen this?

 

 

[Gigga]

I thought about starting a new thread for this but it seems to fit here.

I want to choose a system for playing retro games, mostly SNES/MD and MAME stuff. I bought a PS Classic for this but never managed to get it working and didn't want to spend more money on the "correct" memory stick for it.

I've got a PSP on Custom Firmware, I have a Wii U, I've got an original Xbox with a mod chip, there's a Wii somewhere if I can find the cables and I have a Switch.

I do like the idea of something that's handheld, but with the option of playing it on the TV - so the Wii U is seeming like a decent option but how much hassle is that going to be, compared to the PS Classic or just pulling my Xbox out of storage? Has the scene moved on much on the original xbox? Could I get a nicer front end and stuff?

 

[PikaStu]

The WiiU was fairly straight forward to set up. It’s really nice having the option to use the TV or the screen on the controller. The d-pad is nice for retro stuff too, unlike the Xbox OG IMO. 
One game I’ve never managed to emulate correctly on anything other than Xbox is Pilotwings 64 though. Getting that working on WiiU would be the best thing ever!

[AlexM]

That's a lot of potential options there Gaz, though with the 'handheld and on TV' criteria it boils down to the Wii U or Switch. 

 

Do you have a v1 Switch, i.e. hackable? I find this most convenient with a portable RCM loader and Android, and it can easily be dropped into a Switch dock for TV play.

 

The Wii U can be used 'portably', but only within a short distance of the base unit. There are emulator options, however I found the console cumbersome, and have recently moved it to the loft as it just wasn't being used. 

[Gigga]

I think the switch is hackable, it's XAJ70002 serial code but it's likely on a recent firmware.

Reading the guides it seems like quite a complicated process to actually hack it.

I want to set up the Wii U for wii bowling anyway so I'll see how easy that looks for hacking.

 

[AlexM]

The firmware is irrelevant with the Switch, as the flaw is with the Tegra chip. “Mr.Rabbit GameTV” has excellent guides on YouTube (I am not affiliated, I just find them useful), easy to follow. 
 

You could install Android and skip ‘EmuMMC’, then there’s no ban risk as you’re running a completely different operating system. 
 

Wii U is simpler to hack, although I got lost with the mishmash of different guides and emulators for the console. Wii, GameCube and eShop games are easy enough to add though. 

[dumpster]

Most of the guides online use jargon that makes things look like gibberish.  The Switch is super-easy to mod but the guide will tell you that if your serial number is 12345 then you install custom bootstrap 5 with an RCM Jig and your brain says "what the hell does that mean?"

 

But the reality is that you're just following instructions and pretty much all of them are downloading files, unzipping them and putting them on an SD card.  As long as you follow the steps and make sure you're following the instructions to the letter, it's all straightforward.  

 

The Switch  makes an incredible emulation machine.  What you really should do is follow the instructions for backing up your nand and also any save game files.  This is the one area of the Switch that I don't like namely that (if you don't have an online sub) your save games are stored on the console and if you do ever go back to retail you lose anything you didn't back up. But the Switch is powerful enough to do MAME etc.

 

If you want to use your old consoles, Xbox is great but it's big and has wired controllers.  Also it only has a 8Gb hard drive (although it's easy to stick a big one in).  But if you're not interested in MAME and are happy with variable PS1 and N64 I love the Wii. Its small, cheap, plays GameCube and Wii as well as everything up to 16 bit all from a hard drive.  If you want more grunt, the Wii-U is great too and then you'd have better PS1 and mAme.

 

[buizel]

On 14/04/2021 at 17:55, dumpster said:

Most of the guides online use jargon that makes things look like gibberish.  The Switch is super-easy to mod but the guide will tell you that if your serial number is 12345 then you install custom bootstrap 5 with an RCM Jig and your brain says "what the hell does that mean?"

 

But the reality is that you're just following instructions and pretty much all of them are downloading files, unzipping them and putting them on an SD card.  As long as you follow the steps and make sure you're following the instructions to the letter, it's all straightforward.  

 

The Switch  makes an incredible emulation machine.  What you really should do is follow the instructions for backing up your nand and also any save game files.  This is the one area of the Switch that I don't like namely that (if you don't have an online sub) your save games are stored on the console and if you do ever go back to retail you lose anything you didn't back up. But the Switch is powerful enough to do MAME etc.

 

If you want to use your old consoles, Xbox is great but it's big and has wired controllers.  Also it only has a 8Gb hard drive (although it's easy to stick a big one in).  But if you're not interested in MAME and are happy with variable PS1 and N64 I love the Wii. Its small, cheap, plays GameCube and Wii as well as everything up to 16 bit all from a hard drive.  If you want more grunt, the Wii-U is great too and then you'd have better PS1 and mAme.

 

My metric for PS1 games is the x-files fmv video game. And for N64 it's starcraft 64.

 

From my experience those are the trickiest to run, only the Android emulator seems to run then near flawlessly. So maybe the ultimate emulation station would be the Nvidia Shield/pro; with usb, n Bluetooth, streaming n media/android capability in one box.. Probably the best thing out there. Though I like my good ol' Wii .

 

Most 'hacking' involves being able to read thoroughly, and putting files in an SD card/media thing. Then again I broke multiple Xboxes trying to expand the hard drive on it sooo....

[disperse and recoagulate]

On 14/04/2021 at 17:55, dumpster said:

Most of the guides online use jargon that makes things look like gibberish.  The Switch is super-easy to mod but the guide will tell you that if your serial number is 12345 then you install custom bootstrap 5 with an RCM Jig and your brain says "what the hell does that mean?"

 

But the reality is that you're just following instructions and pretty much all of them are downloading files, unzipping them and putting them on an SD card.  As long as you follow the steps and make sure you're following the instructions to the letter, it's all straightforward.  

Yeah. I looked into it briefly and got overwhelmed so just paid someone to do it (was an SX core so made sense for the guy soldering it to set it all up) but have now read up on it, retrospectively, and could have definitely managed. Messing about with Tinfoil et al has been lots of fun too.

[AceGrace]

Not sure if this is the correct thread but.....

 

I've just picked up an older  MSI Trident 3 PC (The one that is the same size as a PS4/Xbox One) It has a Core I5 7400, 16gb RAM and Nvidia GTX 1060 3gb in it.

 

Is this good enough for high end emulation? What can I reasonably expect to emulate up to? PS2, Dreamcast?

 

 I have a more powerful PC (Radeon 6700 XT 12gb with Ryzen 7 5800X) but the Trident has the form factor for under the TV.

 

[dumpster]

11 hours ago, AceGrace said:

Not sure if this is the correct thread but.....

 

I've just picked up an older  MSI Trident 3 PC (The one that is the same size as a PS4/Xbox One) It has a Core I5 7400, 16gb RAM and Nvidia GTX 1060 3gb in it.

 

Is this good enough for high end emulation? What can I reasonably expect to emulate up to? PS2, Dreamcast?

 

 I have a more powerful PC (Radeon 6700 XT 12gb with Ryzen 7 5800X) but the Trident has the form factor for under the TV.

 

That's more than enough for any emulation up to PS3 era I reckon.

 

[AceGrace]

Cool. Would that include WiiU?  Switch?

[dumpster]

1 hour ago, AceGrace said:

Cool. Would that include WiiU?  Switch?

Don't know but my PC is very old and runs Dolphin pretty well.  Yours is a higher spec so give it a go.

[AceGrace]

I'll give it a try. Thanks.

[SMD]

I had a go with search but didn't have much luck - are there any up to date recommendations for which emulators are best on PC for various consoles? I missed out on the Analogue machines and can't be arsed faffing about with my retro consoles at the mo.

[SteveH]

Before I start reading the guide in the first post, is there any advantage to have a B/C fat PS3 that still has Linux enabled on it?

I seem to recall at the time, that having Linux was beneficial to hacking the PS3 in any meaningful way. But I'm guessing things have moved on now? Cheers

[MrSpiggott]

I've rescued a load of broken junk that was going to be thrown into a scrap bin with the intention of repairing it and turning it all into a minature cabinet, but I need a bit of advice.

 

 

It's an Advantech ARK-1122 passively cooled micro PC with a dual core Atom N2800 @1.86Ghz.

The screen's an 11" 800x600 restive touch LCD mounted on a temporary rotating stand.

I've currently got Mame2003 running through RetroArch, primarily because I had all the files from when I loaded Mame onto an original Xbox many years ago.  What I need to know is, what's the performance hit of running a newer Mame version with improved emulation? Is it worth me going to the effort of locating everything?  I want to eventually build a cabinet surround, once I learn how to use a saw. 😃

 

 

[Kryptonian]

On 21/08/2022 at 18:30, MrSpiggott said:

once I learn how to use a saw.

 

Skipping the tech stuff and focusing on this bit - a jigsaw will help you loads!

[MrSpiggott]

1 hour ago, Kryptonian said:

 

Skipping the tech stuff and focusing on this bit - a jigsaw will help you loads!

...there go my fingers. 😀
Got to figure out how to make the screen rotate neatly like a Taito egret 2 mini.