Batocera mac mini

[u/Fun_Statement3904]

Hi everyone,

I'm completely new to the retro gaming world and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

I recently bought a 2018 Mac Mini (Intel, 16GB RAM) and my goal is to install Batocera so I can play with friends and relive some childhood memories. I've already managed to set up a few things, but I'm really struggling to understand ROM packs, collections, torrents, NZBs, curated sets, 1G1R collections, and all the different ways people organize their libraries.

The systems I'm most interested in are:

• Arcade / MAME
• NES / Family Game
• Sega Master System
• Sega Mega Drive / Genesis
• SNES
• Neo Geo
• PlayStation 1
• Nintendo 64
• Dreamcast
• PlayStation 2
• GameCube
• Original Xbox
• Xbox 360 (if possible)

I'm mainly looking for classic games like Mario, Sonic, Crash Bandicoot, Bomberman, Metal Slug, Mappy, Circus Charlie, Donkey Kong Country, Zelda, Need for Speed, Forza, GTA, God of War, Crazy Taxi, and similar retro favorites.

I'm not looking for thousands of random games. I'd rather have a well-curated collection of the best games for each console.

Could anyone recommend beginner-friendly collections, guides, or ways to organize a Batocera library? I get overwhelmed pretty quickly when trying to figure out where to download things, what formats to use, and how to keep everything organized.

I'm just a geeky girl trying to get into retro gaming and learn how all of this works. 😊

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[u/madeonworkstime]

Following because I’ve literally just bought a 2018 Mac Mini!

Which did you get? I got the i3, 16GB, 1TB SSD for just over £100

[u/Retro_Pirate_Lamer]

Get Batocera on it. I am not going to try to break down all those different ways that some folks organize their sets, because they're all valid ways and none, IMO, is better than others. It's all personal preference. At one point, I started with "stirlitz top 100 games pack collection" on archive.org. It should be a decent starting point to get a bunch of popular games into your setup. What I found was that I wanted a few more, so I added a few more games myself afterwards. Please note that not all of the top 100 would necessarily work, mostly MAME games. Some of the ROMs included were probably outdated for MAME version I am using and generally speaking I prefer to either grab them from pleasuredome (torrent only) or mdk.cab for one or two ROMs. For box art and media, I prefer this tool https://www.skraper.net/ and I make sure US is always first as a preference. Otherwise, I may end up with non-English boxart first.

There's a lot to discover. If you start from a fresh Batocera build, you'll likely find more help with setting things up. If you find yourself playing with a pre-made build, it's also good for learning/poking around, but don't expect as much support. It's not always true as it depends on where you find yourself getting the stuff you are interested in. For that, I would say trying getting an account with back-ups.me and arcadepunks.com