solidus

Exactly. Plus the used market is flooded with old PC parts. You can use Aliexpress/Ebay and build a small PC for a few hundred bucks. Mine has parts from around 2011 and runs everything up to PS1/N64 flawlessly. I have a 2011 era i7 cpu and a pretty crappy Radeon GPU just for a bit of an up scaling boost for 3d consoles.

I really, really hope everyones answer to this is 'of course not!'. Please people do not go into debt for this stuff

I only have experience with the Anbernic and Miyoo handhelds.. and I would say they are a no brainer if you do not mind emulation and want something portable. As for a stationary console though... I dont really have hands on experience. For me, the best route was always to build a very cheap, small form factor PC and just run retroarch.

Yep you can modify them. This is the emu in case youre interested. https://retropie.org.uk/docs/FinalBurn-Neo/ Its a fork of Finalburn Alpha. Its considered to be more accurate than MAME for many games especially neogeo.. so I tend to use it alot.

Hey all, not sure if this was mentioned anywhere... but is using FBneo via retroarch OK for this? I tend to play all my arcade games with that and use MAME for special cases

I dont really want to know what that is lol

Been playing this game non stop for the past few days. I think it may be my first time ever honestly.. as I cant recall playing it before. It has a surprising amount of strategy if you are trying to bust high scores. Its a ton of fun trying to set guys up under rocks... also deceivingly difficult. I think Ill be enjoying this one for a while.

This is interesting. I wonder how input lag is with the streaming... Ive tried some streaming stuff before and I noticed lag. I imagine things like fighters and shooters where response is crucial may be problematic... Ive played Doom 2016 using a shadow PC and it was really laggy and hard to enjoy

So much awesome info..thanks! Im assuming those sticks have no gates and have a full 360 degree movement right? I assume thats what I want for shmups in particular where I dont need to hit specific directions like I would to do combos in a fighter, and instead want smooth movement in all directions and everywhere in between.. basically like a controller analog stick

Whats interesting is that, the arcades I played as a kid are quite different from the games I am into now. Im in the US, and Im not sure if that has much to do with it, but the arcades near me were filled with fighters and beat em ups. I grew up playing Street Fighter, Ninja Turtles, Simpsons, Mortal Kombat, etc. Nowadays I am much more into shmups, run n guns, etc. My favorite 'arcade' game these days is likely Metal Slug, 1942, Gradius, etc. Funnily enough, I have never actually played much of these games on an actual arcade, simply because I never saw them... so I have no frame of reference Its not to say that I wont ever play fighters or beat em ups, its just that my current motivation for an arcade stick setup is to play shooters and run n guns. I am not sure how that effects my choices, as I am not particularly nostalgic for a certain feel at this point...

Any tips on good things to get setup? Im using retropie for the first time actually, but on a PC. Ive only ever used Retroarch standalone. Currently everything is default except shaders.

Yea I am definitely going to just build a box at this point. Seems like the way to go. Im more concerned with picking the right parts at this point.. as I have 0 experience. Will be interesting to learn though. I really want something simple to start.. mainly to play shmups honestly

Thank you thank you! Really appreciate all the info. And yes Im going to check out your site and let you know if I need anything at all. Artwork would be awesome

I agree with you totally.. a lot of them do look very homemade. I do not have any CNC equipment.. but I do have a decent set of tools, drill press, band saw, etc. I have been thinking some kind of plastic like Lexan or PVC/ABS would be a good route. It will look alot cleaner than plywood I think. Seems like Hammond actually makes stuff like that as well

Lol, promised the wife I would cut down on the electronics projects this year to lower the clutter and collection.. but this may have to be an exception. @doubledown, any advice on the box? Thats really the most confusing to me. I have seen some people use jewelry/cigar boxes... but I feel like my best bet is to build one from scratch out of wood. Or even better some kind of PVC/Lexan/etc and some kind of glue

This is really good. Seems like a lot of people prefer to have more wrist/forearm space if possible.. which makes total sense. Alot of the premade ones seem like the controls are very forward on the board, closer to the player

You know.. I think I wanna build one Do you think this guide is decent? http://terntek.com/blog/blog/2017/08/01/how-to-build-an-arcade-stick-for-pc-or-retropie/ Seems like its all in all not too much of a project. I have soldering skills and other electronic tools as I have done a lot of handheld console builds and such

I actually had no idea this existed. Very interesting. If the build is quality, you are getting games as a bonus which is really cool. On my radar now

All good answers I am starting to flirt with the idea of getting into speedrunning, 1cc attempts, etc and Im feeling like those things are nearly impossible without doing your practice runs using save states. Obviously when going for the actual run you wouldnt use them.. but I cant see how I can practice hards parts enough without using states. Like I said I previously really only used them when I wanted to shut down for the session and be able to pop back in. But Im thinking Ill have to be more lenient if I want to do some challenge type runs

That makes sense. Well firstly Ill play shmups, and other arcade games. I generally don't play any fighters. A 3 button may be fine, but 6 is likely ideal especially for genesis 6 button games or other arcades that used 6. Those buttons plus a good stick is really all I need. I would be fine going used as well, and I don't really want to spend over $100 if possible. Hoping that going used could help keep me in that range and still get something quality.

Well sure, which is why I said not absurdly expensive Im fine spending money, but I dont think I need the highest quality, competition quality fightstick you know? I just want to play arcade games in my living room, non competitively. I just dont want the joystick to drift after 2 months, or have to toss the whole thing if something breaks and not be at all repairable in pieces.. if possible

So I am in the market for an arcade stick that I can use on my lap or on my coffee table while playing emulators on my living room TV. I have a PC setup that I use while sitting back on the couch, and I normally just use controllers. Do you have any suggestions for a good quality but not absurdly expensive USB arcade stick? I would use it for things like MAME and well as shmups... or pretty much any games that would work well with it.

So I have always been wary of using save states abusively, especially in older games. Many games with credit systems were designed at a certain difficulty based on X number of lives and continues, and save scumming just totally ruins that. Therefore, I have always used save states as the equivalent of 'leaving on my console'. Where if I have to stop playing for that session, and the game has no built in save mechanic, I would save my state to continue next time.. but never reload that state mid game or anything. Lately though I have been thinking, if my ultimate goal is to 1CC certain games, does it make sense to use save states in order to get a feel for each section of the game and beat it a few times.. then just try for 1CC runs without them? I am playing Castlevania: Bloodlines now and not using save states abusively.. and I am having to replay the early levels so many times just to get to the later levels that I am struggling with. Been thinking of just saving state at the later levels so I can practice them. I still havent beat the full game yet though. I know there are no rules to any of this clearly, but just wondering what you all do in order to not ruin games by abusing state saving, but still use some modern convenience.

For me its the XB1 controller for anything from PS1 emulation to modern pc games. Anything earlier I use a SNES controller converted to USB. Only exception is Ill use my 6 button Genesis controller for games that utilize it.

I bought one used on LetGo a few months ago. It wouldnt read a single disc. I opened it, use compressed air on everything, then cleaned the lens with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and a cotton swab. It hasnt failed to read a single disc since. I highly recommend doing this yourself. Its very easy and fixes read errors pretty often it seems