OG Xbox VS. Raspberry Pi 3 for MAME?

[Silverfleet]

Recently, my wife wanted a new entertainment center/TV stand for our living room. Sadly, my HTPC (an older HP tower) that serves as my MAME emulator, doesn't fit in the new one. I have a modded Wii in there, but it can barely run MAME and what it does run, it runs terribly and unreliably. I'm looking at alternatives, and the OG Xbox and a Raspberry Pi 3 look like cheap alternatives (as in, under $75 all in) that should play most of the games I'd be playing on MAME. From what I see, they both have pros and cons.

 

OG Xbox Pros:

-I have a softmodded Xbox already

-Will fit in the new entertainment center (just barely)

 

OG Xbox Cons:

-Getting up there in age, support dwindling

-No HDMI

-Will have to buy a larger IDE HDD to replace the OEM one

-Not sure how well it even runs MAME

-A pain to set up

-No USB ports

 

RPI 3 Pros:

-Widely supported, and should run most classic games on MAME (and just about any other classic platform)

-It's likely cheaper than buying a HDD for the Xbox

-Has HDMI, Bluetooth, and Wireless

-Can fit about 20 of them in the entertainment center if I wanted to because they are tiny

 

RPI 3 Cons:

-Can't run as much as my HTPC did

-I've never set one up before

 

I'd just get a small form factor Win10 PC, but I would like to keep the budget as low as possible. I can feasibly have either one of these up and running for under $50-60. What say you AtariAge?

 

 

 

[Osgeld]

I have been told that mame on the OG xbox is pretty good, but the one I have on mine is only functional for the oldest of games

 

what I use is a old netbook, mame runs quite well on a 1.6ghz atom up until the 3d era

 

what about a thinner htpc case

Edited September 14, 2017 by Osgeld

[KeeperofLindblum]

Just based on previous history with all of these....

 

OG Xbox Modded - I have little experience with this. I had one quite some time ago, and I liked it then... but I can't remember it being insanely amazing. Granted, I was working with an older setup, and I hear CoinOPS is pretty fantastic. I think there's a thread voting for best emulation box, and Xbox wins out.

 

RaspPi 3 - I didn't have a Pi 3. I got a Pi 2. However, from my experience, the initial setup is pretty easy and straightforward. You get an image and put it on an SD card. Then you add roms. That part was pretty easy and straightforward... and then I tried adding a 360 controller. For whatever reason, this gave me a HUGE ordeal of issues, and I ended up just getting rid of mine. Everybody's experience with setup varies a bit. I imagine it's slightly better than setting up an Xbox, but it's not as simple as just a regular Windows PC would be.

 

Of the options you said, I'm voting RaspPi 3... However I just recently switched over to an "Emulation Box" setup, and I'm gonna have to realistically respond for the Windows HTPC.

 

I recently picked up a Dell Optiplex 390 for $80 (Intel Core i3, Intel Video, 4 GB RAM), and I've actually been able to do quite a bit. I've reliably tested NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, N64, PS1, Saturn, and GameCube. (Obviously with Windows there's a plethora of emulators, but those are the ones I personally have tried). Everything runs pretty well and only required a bit of setup here and there. The GameCube runs pretty well considering, but I did have to tweak settings. I can't completely comment on RaspPi 3, but I remember the Pi 2 couldn't really handle the N64 and never even tried Saturn. Gonna say definitely no GameCube though.

 

I can't comment on any other emulators on a cheap, budget PC, but in my opinion... It's the best way to go with RaspPi 3 being a close second.

[Flojomojo]

It sounds like you have a good handle on the pros and cons.

 

In addition to what you said, OG XBOX is bigger, noisier, harder to service. I have one in the house somewhere, but I don't think I'd have a fun time re-configuring it if anything went wrong. You have fewer alternatives for controls, and wifi is a pain. Analog HD AV is good, but not everything has the ports for it.

 

RetroPie is easy to setup and configure, is actively supported in the community, wifi, ethernet and bluetooth is good, and you can use just about any controller. If a Raspberry Pi 4 comes out, it will be $40 and probably run the same software.

 

Pi is more future-proof, flexible, and supported. The OG Xbox is still a nice thing, but I think Pi is the better choice.

 

Or a cheapass PC ...

[zzip]

Recently, my wife wanted a new entertainment center/TV stand for our living room. Sadly, my HTPC (an older HP tower) that serves as my MAME emulator, doesn't fit in the new one. I have a modded Wii in there, but it can barely run MAME and what it does run, it runs terribly and unreliably. I'm looking at alternatives, and the OG Xbox and a Raspberry Pi 3 look like cheap alternatives (as in, under $75 all in) that should play most of the games I'd be playing on MAME. From what I see, they both have pros and cons.

 

OG Xbox Pros:

-I have a softmodded Xbox already

-Will fit in the new entertainment center (just barely)

 

OG Xbox Cons:

-Getting up there in age, support dwindling

-No HDMI

-Will have to buy a larger IDE HDD to replace the OEM one

-Not sure how well it even runs MAME

-A pain to set up

-No USB ports

 

RPI 3 Pros:

-Widely supported, and should run most classic games on MAME (and just about any other classic platform)

-It's likely cheaper than buying a HDD for the Xbox

-Has HDMI, Bluetooth, and Wireless

-Can fit about 20 of them in the entertainment center if I wanted to because they are tiny

 

RPI 3 Cons:

-Can't run as much as my HTPC did

-I've never set one up before

 

I'd just get a small form factor Win10 PC, but I would like to keep the budget as low as possible. I can feasibly have either one of these up and running for under $50-60. What say you AtariAge?

 

 

 

 

I'd say RPi 3 because I'm guessing there's more community support for what you are trying to do than there is for the OG Xbox, but could be wrong about that.

 

Setting a Pi as an emulation machine is very easy because there are people who have done the hard work for you. You just need to download something like Retropi, put it on a microSD, add your rooms, put it in the Pi and boot.

[mr_me]

...

-I've never set one up before

...

 

To some this would be a pro. It's always nice repurposing old equipment you have. The Raspberry Pi would be so much more energy efficient and quiet. I would think they both have lots of community support. Someone does maintain current builds of Mame for raspberry pi; not sure about xbox. Some might say that's not important.

 

From a pure performance point of view which one would be able to run more games?

[boxpressed]

I've never set up a Pi, but Coinops 8 on the OG Xbox is great. You can buy a new 250 GB IDE HDD for $20 shipped off eBay. It does take some effort to FTP all the files you need from your PC to the Xbox, though. Nothing too difficult, just time consuming.

 

Buy four wireless controllers and then play some Turtles in Time or The Simpsons beat 'em ups.

[Flojomojo]

To some this would be a pro. It's always nice repurposing old equipment you have. The Raspberry Pi would be so much more energy efficient and quiet. I would think they both have lots of community support. Someone does maintain current builds of Mame for raspberry pi; not sure about xbox. Some might say that's not important.

 

From a pure performance point of view which one would be able to run more games?

Xbox runs Xbox games perfectly, which Pi cant do, so theres that. If youre into 2001 era software, thats something.

[Osgeld]

360 runs all but 1 game in my OG xbox library just fine, and that one game is a douche need for speed meets fast n furious vomit fest, though its about 100x harder to mod, which is why in the end I didnt bother and sold it

 

I have a pi3, it does fairly decent, a bare bones mini ITX machine would outrun it ... but a bare bones ITX machine doesnt fit in a Jaguar shell, or has coleco chameleon logos

 

pi3

jag shell

16 gig sd card

128 gig ssd converted to usb converted to jag cart

meh wireless controller

all setup and ready to go

 

sell you that for ~225 + postage and give me about a month to finish its minor details lol

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/262422-case-mods/?p=3700362

Edited September 15, 2017 by Osgeld

[mr_me]

From what I've read the original Xbox Pentium III cpu is much faster than a Pi 3. However the GPU and ram in the Pi 3 helps make performance more comparable for mame. It seems like the old Xbox might be capable of running more Mame emulators. Doesn't matter if your interest is in golden era arcade games or consoles up to snes/genesis. But the Pi does it so much more efficiently.

 

Anyone know what Mame version is running on old xbox? Should be a better choice of emulators with a Pi.

Edited September 15, 2017 by mr_me

[Osgeld]

ya but theres only 64 meg of ram on the xbox

[Silverfleet]

So, I'm definitely leaning toward the RPI 3. One question for those that have experience with them:

 

I have a Hori "Virtua Fighter 5 Fight Stick" for the Xbox 360 that I was using with the HTPC and MAME. Is the RPI compatible with something like that? I've read that people have used PS3 and 360 controllers with it, so I'm hoping it does.

[Osgeld]

if it works with the pc it should not be an issue getting it working with the pi, heck I have even used an android / ios gamepad that only shows up as a mouse on the pc work just fine on the pi

[mr_me]

Carefull, just because it's USB doesn't necessarily mean its an HID game controller. Such a device might require a driver to work on Windows; and there may or may not be drivers for other operating systems.

 

Edit: Looks like Retropie might come with a driver.

Edited September 16, 2017 by mr_me

[R.Cade]

The XBOX is much faster at getting from game to game (if you're OCD), much easier to plug in a bunch of controllers and go, and almost all the old-school emulation is covered. It's like having one giant multi-cart. I wish it did 240p, but it won't. I tried the Wii for that and RetroArch is a nightmare... never again.

 

My experience with the RPi (I tried with the original, and the 2) was that it took a lot of time to set up, wouldn't load ROMs from my network shares, getting in and out of games was slow, and my controllers were hard to configure (and the config got lost or was not working in every emulator). Finally, my SD card corrupted itself and I had to start all over. Others have a better experience...

 

I prefer XBOX, personally, but agree the hardware *is* getting old and unreliable- I have had to do repairs. Drives go bad, motherboards go bad, etc. However, I have 4-5 spares I paid from $0-20 for sitting in the closet with the clock caps removed...

[Osgeld]

the sd card problem is an issue unless you make sure you actually shut down the OS before killing power or put the SD card in read only mode

 

on my coleco chameleon I have a startup and shutdown circuit and script external to the pi that does soft start and shutdown on a button press (one of the failures of the design IMO) the OS sd card in read only mode and the roms loaded on a USB msata SSD (which even a mechanical sata hard drive over usb 2.0 kicks the shit out of the SD card in terms of read write speed)

 

given the extra bump in horsepower, and the always continuing bettering of retropie and using anything better than a SD card makes a pi3 an attractive option at the time of this post

 

THAT being said yea its linux yea you got junky ass text menu setup scripts, yea you can bork an SD card by farting too close to it and yea even the fastest SD card is SLOWER than a slow hard drive over slow usb in the pi are some of the possible con's ... but its not that big of a deal

[boxpressed]

Also, the OG Xbox will need quality component video cables unless you want to go with S-Video. Quality component cables from Microsoft or Monster are about $50.

[Osgeld]

and the best you can get from it is 1080i (with emulators, most games wont go that far)

[mr_me]

720p over component is really the only option with xbox. 1080i and s-video will get you 30hz video with x-box. S-video was great but it doesn't do 480p and the xbox doesn't do 240p. 240p is only important for CRTs; raspberry pi does do 240p. If you go xbox your next TV should have component inputs.

[Silverfleet]

I took the plunge and went with the RPI3 today! Picked up one of those kits that has the case, power supply, etc. I plan on setting it up tomorrow.

 

From what I'm reading, it might be easier to set this little guy up than softmodding a Wii. That's super easy, so hopefully I will have some games up and running in no time.

[Silverfleet]

So, I finally had some time to mess with the Raspberry Pi, and I have to say that I am very impressed. I definitely made the right decision.

 

 

So far, I have the following up and going:

 

-Atari 2600
-Atari 7800
-NES
-SNES
-Game Boy/Game Boy Color
-Game Boy Advance
-N64 (sort of)
-Sega SG1000
-Sega Master System
-Sega Genesis
-Sega 32X
-Sega Game Gear
-Turbografx 16/PC Engine

 

And most importantly...

-MAME

 

I'm most impressed with how it handles MAME. My PC was a real PITA to get working with MAME, between the display settings, GUI, getting a frontend to work (I never could really) and other annoyances. The RPI just works from the start. You flash the SD card, transfer over your ROMS over a network, and it figures out the rest. Only hiccup was that I had to get a proper MAME 2003 rom set. My existing set was ancient and from all sorts of releases, and most of it was glitchy and/or not compatible with MAME 2003. With the proper matched set, it works really well with a lot of games. Since that's the main reason I bought the thing, I'm very happy with it.

 

There are a couple things I don't like though. I can't figure out a way to plug in external media (like a thumb drive) and load it up with roms. I also haven't seen a Colecovision emulator, which I really would like to have. I can still do those with a modded Wii, so it's not the end of the world.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Silverfleet

[Osgeld]

There's a couple options for external media in retopie

 

You have to setup a couple folders for it to work then by default if you insert a usb stick it will scan those folders and import them to your sd card

 

Or the way I have mine setup is it just treats the usb as the default rom folders and when you unplug it it goes back to scanning the sd card

 

https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Running-ROMs-from-a-USB-drive

Edited September 29, 2017 by Osgeld

[mr_me]

Retropie comes with two coleco vision emulators but they are not installed by default. Go back into the Retropie setup script and "manage optional packages" to install them.

 

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Colecovision

https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Updating-RetroPie

[Jess Ragan]

Huh. Looks like you already made your choice. The classic Xbox actually isn't bad at all for emulation... I've got MAME but I tend to stick with HyperVision for all my arcade gaming needs. I'd say most of the games run as well or better than they do on a PSTV running Final Burn Alpha. It's got a better interface too, although maybe it's a little too ostentatious for its own good. There are a lot of video files used to give it a slick look, and of course that gobbles up a lot of hard drive space.

 

I don't know about the Raspy Pi. I've had friends swear by the thing but I'm not sold on it. Yet, anyway. Maybe in the future I'll break down and get one.

[Silverfleet]

I'm a few weeks in with this thing, and I like it. I've been mainly using it to play MAME games, and the compatibility is pretty good. It doesn't like 3D games, but it does all the classics as well as most 2D shooters and fighters very well. I really like that it recognizes a variety of different controllers and joysticks. I've tested a few of them, and have been using a Xbox 360 Street Fighter IV Fight Pad the most. Looks like this:

 

No lag or latency issues whatsoever on either TV I've tested it on.

 

I already have a few modded Wiis kicking around, and I still think those do console games better. The interface is easier to deal with, and access to saved states, controller configuration and more is seamless and easy. At some point, I'll get around to finding a IDE HDD for my softmodded OG XBOX and give that a shot, but the Retropie is pretty awesome!

Edited October 16, 2017 by Silverfleet