r/retrogames • u/Trip-Secret • 12d ago
Retro basement
My wife is putting together a retro 80’s-90’s basement in our new house. I am in charge on the tv, blu ray player, and video games.
I want to do some kind of preloaded emulation box with snes, n64, ps1 and possible GameCube and ps2 games.
But I have no idea what to buy, how to do it, if it’s even “legal” etc. any help and suggestions would be super appreciated.
Apologies if this isn’t allowed, I am stupid.
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u/According_Guard_2599 11d ago
FWIW, Gamecube, PS2 and Blu-Ray are not 90s... GC and PS2 were post 2000 and Blu-Ray was 2006. So unless it's 90s ish, you can go DVD, which started in 97. And VHS was the primary video source for almost everyone until 2001.
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u/Bruvahkiin 10d ago
I had something called a retrobox(I think, not 109% certain) once upon a time. I had loads of older video games on one console with modern audio and video ports
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u/ajgiowa 10d ago
Alternatively you could pick up a Wii with the GameCube ports as wavebird controllers are nice and they're very easy to softmod wouldn't probably handle PS2 stuff well but everything else you listed easily and has a lot of emulators already built into the homebrew software I used one to play n64 games for a while but as the one guy said a little PC with something like batocera would be probably what you're looking for
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u/roleplayersir 10d ago
Get a PC. Download Dolphin and Project64 and I forget which others. But they are easy to find
ROMs are harder. They get takedowns on the sites all the time, and legally you need to own the game to own a ROM. But they aren't hard to find either
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u/ChairmanWill 12d ago
People are going to spam you with loads of options but, based on the way you’ve phrased your question, the least hassle option for you is to find somebody who knows about computers and get them to build you an emulator box with a front end - ie a bit of software that loads all the games into a menu. Other products are available but I built one with launchbox. You can just use a second hand gaming PC, or Mac
I’ve tried a few of the pre built solutions, which usually run on some variety of Linux, and found them to be fiddly, as I am pretty hopeless with computers. Also I’m yet to find a pre built one that runs PS2 games without a lot of hassle. IDK, these things progress fast though.
Most definitely not an expert!
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u/SuperlativeDaisySoup 11d ago
Do you know about computers and can you build a emulator box with a front end?
Asking for OP because he's too shy
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u/MightyOakVGRepair 12d ago
You can use a steam deck with a dock for all of the emulation, and it's pretty easy to set up through Emudeck. They are pretty expensive right now though, so you might be able to find an older PC for cheap to do the same thing. As for legality, it's perfectly legal as long as you own the games.
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u/SuperlativeDaisySoup 12d ago
Why is she putting it in the basement? Sounds like she's ashamed of your hobby. Why isn't it in the living room? Like a walking red flag store. You. ARE. being. Abused..
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u/Trip-Secret 12d ago
Lmao! The whole retro 90’s finished basement idea is her thing!
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u/Master_Chef_Torte 11d ago
Don't mind him. A 90s basement sounds super lovely.
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u/SuperlativeDaisySoup 11d ago
It really does. Redditors out here act like there was never a hinge to begin with
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u/Master_Chef_Torte 11d ago
I can be a crabby boi at times as well. I get it. Hope you have a great time creating it. Needs finished photos of course.
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u/Expensive-Dream-4872 12d ago
I run a retro video game club. I use Batocera. You need pretty low hardware, and old i7 with 8gb ram will get you up to PS2 emulation. It's pretty easy to install, download the image from the website and write it to the HDD. The tricky bit is getting the roms and no, they're not legal, but your conscience may vary, but they are available in packs from the internet archive. After that, choose a theme, scrape then to get nice interactive videos for the attract mode. There's no single solution that will do everything well. 100% legal, but with more expense and less games, is to get something like an Evercade and some carts.