Does anybody have a dedicated emulation (HTPC) box
- Thread starter racketboy
- Start date
Pearl Jammzz
Established Member
You have an XBox? use that.....
Pearl Jammzz
Established Member
well...I know a cheap fix for the PSX thing....you can buy a used PS1 for what? 25 bucks? go buy one of those and this little thing called "Codebreaker"....with that disc u can play backups, plays all of mine....u just have to swap. AND it only costs 10 dolla. but, if u can solder I would do the whole modchip thing.....
i built one using a Shuttle SK41G, its an SFF pc, very small, about the size of two Gamecubes. Here is the link http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=155 if you don't know what it is. If you want to get one, go to fatwallet.com, look for sk41g, right now it is around $210 + $40 rebate, which is a really good deal. It comes with a motherboard, PSU, and special heatsink. I put an old AMD T-Bird and a Kyro II videocard in there, it works great with every emulator and plays videos with no dropped frames.
There are some important things you should buy if you want to build a HTPC...get a USB controller or a PSX-USB adapter because the onboard sound doesn't have a gameport for old joysticks, check eBAY and look for Cyphergames for a good converter. A cordless keyboard and mouse is also useful, check eBAY, but do not bid on stuff from Justdeals unless you want to risk getting defective stuff. Audio cables are important too, and you need a converter to plug it into a headphone jack, get those at Radioshack.
If you plan on building one, I have some useful programs and frontends you could use.
There are some important things you should buy if you want to build a HTPC...get a USB controller or a PSX-USB adapter because the onboard sound doesn't have a gameport for old joysticks, check eBAY and look for Cyphergames for a good converter. A cordless keyboard and mouse is also useful, check eBAY, but do not bid on stuff from Justdeals unless you want to risk getting defective stuff. Audio cables are important too, and you need a converter to plug it into a headphone jack, get those at Radioshack.
If you plan on building one, I have some useful programs and frontends you could use.
Pearl Jammzz
Established Member
most of the XBox emus are ports of PC ones....they have all sorts and more on the way.....it plays them at full speed, the XBox is pretty damn powerful. and there is an adaptor I seen that lets u use ps, dc, saturn, and even gamecube controllers I believe. It was pretty sweet, for SNES, the s-type would work great, for genny/32x/SCD the satrun would work wonders........definatly worth checkin out if none of you have...
I use a program called joystickdriver.exe to use my playstation controller as a mouse, search for it on google and maybe you'll find it. Theres another program called JoyToKey http://www.levelsix.com/downloads.shtml that should do the same thing, but I never tested it out.
You should install Windows XP if you want your desktop to look better. To change skins, you should go here http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?libr...y=22&SkinID=271 and download a program called WinStyles and whatever theme you want from the site. It's shareware, so some of the programs might have a reminder message every time the program is loaded.
One problem with Windows XP is that you can't change the resolution to 640x480, which usually looks better on a TV. If you want to change resolutions, you need a freeware program called RapidRes, it'll fix that problem.
For an emu/game frontend, I use @ruantec Emu-Selector. It's a simple program, I don't think it's any more useful than putting shortcuts on the desktop though.
For a winamp 2 skin that matches the theme I showed you, you can download this http://classic.winamp.com/skins/detail.jht...ponentId=122459 , it fits pretty well.
If you plan on making a Tivo pc, you might as well get an All-in-wonder Radeon 7500. Get an AIW 8500 if you plan on playing the latest games on the computer. These small pcs only have 1 AGP and 1 PCI slot, and Radeons supposedly have the best TV-out quality, so there really isn't a better option than this.
You should install Windows XP if you want your desktop to look better. To change skins, you should go here http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?libr...y=22&SkinID=271 and download a program called WinStyles and whatever theme you want from the site. It's shareware, so some of the programs might have a reminder message every time the program is loaded.
One problem with Windows XP is that you can't change the resolution to 640x480, which usually looks better on a TV. If you want to change resolutions, you need a freeware program called RapidRes, it'll fix that problem.
For an emu/game frontend, I use @ruantec Emu-Selector. It's a simple program, I don't think it's any more useful than putting shortcuts on the desktop though.
For a winamp 2 skin that matches the theme I showed you, you can download this http://classic.winamp.com/skins/detail.jht...ponentId=122459 , it fits pretty well.
If you plan on making a Tivo pc, you might as well get an All-in-wonder Radeon 7500. Get an AIW 8500 if you plan on playing the latest games on the computer. These small pcs only have 1 AGP and 1 PCI slot, and Radeons supposedly have the best TV-out quality, so there really isn't a better option than this.
An alternative to that is to patch the uxtheme.dll yourself, or use this application to do it for you. This is just to allow you to apply unauthorized themes. I don't think it's as convienient or extensive as winstyles, but you won't get any shareware alerts. Oh and you can get visual styles almost everywhere including www.themexp.org.
Good luck with your box racketboy, and be sure to take pictures so we could see
Pffftt....
I can do all of that on my Dreamcast for less money and with a decent controller AND the option of using Saturn controllers with the adaptor.
Booo to Xbox! [/b][/quote]
hehe -- nice try
I have a DC too and I love it to tears, but I ain't gonna rely on it to play Genesis or SNES games yet.
Plus 32X, SCD, PSX, and most arcade games won't run at all on it.
I do love Nester though
An alternative to that is to patch the uxtheme.dll yourself, or use this application to do it for you. This is just to allow you to apply unauthorized themes. I don't think it's as convienient or extensive as winstyles, but you won't get any shareware alerts. Oh and you can get visual styles almost everywhere including www.themexp.org.
Good luck with your box racketboy, and be sure to take pictures so we could see
wow thanks for the tip
I'm waiting on getting my money back from my UPS-damaged PC before I buy replacement parts.
After that, I'll be sure to share my results.
Update:
Some things have come up and my finances aren't looking quite as generous.
So.... I'm kinda thinking more about the XBox idea. Sure, I'd lose out on some features, but I'm doing some research.
BJammzz or anybody else is welcome to share more XBox details.
I'm hoping the system price goes down to $150 or so in the near future. (quite possible)
What's the best place to get chips? What chip is good? Also consider that I have had bad luck with soldering (Saturn).
What other features would a modded XBox w/ a 120GB HD offer me other than emulation?
What interfaces are good? Are they easily skinnable?
Is there a good program for organizing Divx movies (maybe with DVD covers), by chance?
Some things have come up and my finances aren't looking quite as generous.
So.... I'm kinda thinking more about the XBox idea. Sure, I'd lose out on some features, but I'm doing some research.
BJammzz or anybody else is welcome to share more XBox details.
I'm hoping the system price goes down to $150 or so in the near future. (quite possible)
What's the best place to get chips? What chip is good? Also consider that I have had bad luck with soldering (Saturn).
What other features would a modded XBox w/ a 120GB HD offer me other than emulation?
What interfaces are good? Are they easily skinnable?
Is there a good program for organizing Divx movies (maybe with DVD covers), by chance?
