Recommendations of Products for Best LaunchBox/Big Box Experience

[Beatlemaniac19]

I want to start a thread about the best equipment to purchase for setting up an awesome LaunchBox or Big Box experience. When I talk about a great experience, I mean finding the best equipment to set up for a home theatre, arcade cabinet, pinball cabinet or even just an office desk Here's a list of the kind of gear we can discuss here: -Controllers -External Keyboards -TVs (preferably ones with low input and display lag; Here's a great website for that: http://www.displaylag.com/) -Accessories (Light Guns, Track Balls, Dance Pads, Dolphin Bar, etc.) -Anything else you can think of that makes an awesome gaming rig Let me start out by saying that I favor Xbox One controllers over Xbox 360 controllers, because one USB adapter supports up to 8 controllers instead of only four controllers that you get with the 360 USB adapter. I have tons of PS1 and PS2 parties, so an adapter that supports the frantic 8 player multitap games that I play with my friends is needed. Here's the link to the USB adapter: https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Xbox-Wireless-Adapter-Windows-one/dp/B00ZB7W4QU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468469428&sr=8-1&keywords=xbox+one+usb+adapter Give me guys your recommendations.

[SentaiBrad]

Personally I use and love my PS4 controller, it works fantastically, but I want to make a custom Xbox One controller through the portal on the MS site. It's worth noting that PS3 and PS4 controllers only need InputMapper to work, but I don't know the max controller limitation here. So it all depends on what you want to do. If you want an all-in-one PC that does everything you want (including modern games), you're probably set up for a PC. As for the accessories, I pretty much get everything Logitech. I use the Logitech G600 MMO mouse, I use the G510 keyboard (but I want to upgrade to the G91s, but there is also the G510s variant which is cheaper now), and I use the 7.1 G35 Headset, while my wife uses the G930 which is the same but wireless. If you have enough space in your computer for 8TB Hard Drives, SSD's or the capabilities for M.2 SSD's then you can get set up for speed and storage. I have my OS on a 500GB SanDisk SSD, with a few internal and external drives (just recently got an 8TB drive), and I am wanting to get another SSD and an M.2. The M.2 will probably be a 256GB (They're a lot more expensive than regular SSD's) and I'll put the new, high load time games on that, and the second SSD will house LaunchBox, and all my games and emulators are on the new 8TB. The Dolphin Bar is a must have if you don't have a real Wii / Wii U, but I am opting to use my real hardware in that case personally. I also would love a 9 or 15 pin metal dance pad for DDR, with the proper adapters for all of the consoles even (I also collect actual hardware). I haven't dealt with trackballs, and I don't think I ever will. If you wanted to go with a Lightgun though, unless there's some special adapters I don't know about, you'll be stuck on real hardware and CRT's with non-digital signals. So PVM's in this case can provide the best picture, but they're frikin expensive. So I skip those two items and just use a mouse for light gun games that are not on the PS3 / Wii. A nice 144Mhz monitor with a 1 or 2ms delay will do you well, and you can probably find that in a TV as well. If you wanted to future proof, 4k would be the way to go in the long run, at probably 39-43 inches (this size range's prices have come down a lot). You can get curved or 3D enabled stuff if you want, but I also personally skip that junk as it just raises the price and doesn't raise my value at all. I personally have 3 major screens, our 41" TV, which is several years old at this point, but it's the big screen and my wife uses that with her smaller screen for her PC. She uses both, but we'll use the big TV together for gaming together from time to time. Otherwise, I primarily use a 27" LG and a 23" TV. It's a crap brand I don't care for, but the picture quality for both the PC and Consoles is just fine and I couldn't spend that much (most of this has been acquired over time). The sound on it sucks, but a wall mounted Sound Bar can fix that (needs to be wall mounted as I don't have any room for one). The TV mostly exists for my Capture Card (which I just replaced), for real consoles. The PC utilizes it just fine as my second screen where I primarily watch stuff while I use the main screen, or I utilize it for what ever production need I have. I have it lifted with a monitor riser, a PS3 under neath that, and a Wii U, PS2, PS4 and 360 off to the left. I also had the Wii up there, but I finally have my Wii U modded in Wii U mode and vWii mode so it replaced my Wii entirely, even for GameCube games. The 360 I pretty much don't use, and I actually dislike it. I want to figure out how to get the OG Xbox that is under my wife's TV right now over here, but low on space. If I ever need a 3rd screen, which is often, my 10" kindle is a decent replacement with a stand built in to it's case. It's not the most powerful tablet, and it's a rather small screen compared to my other two, but it fits on my desk and I can utilize it well. That's not my ENTIRE setup, but it's most of it and I am proud of it. If I could fit a 3rd screen in here I would. I took out a smaller 23" and 19" Monitor and TV pair (respectively) when I upgraded, but the 23" monitor is still just fine and works great. So when we move (which we've been saying for damn ever now... but money (if anyone wants to help (kidding (how many of these can I do?)))) I might try for a 3 screen set up. I did work a Cat7 cable over the top of the wall over to my set up from the router (didn't want another cable on the floor which is the Ethernet to my PC) currently going in to the PS3 or PS4 that I switch to and from. I am working on putting that in to a 5 way Switch Box instead, then cat 7 cables out to the PS3, PS4, 360 (if I keep it here), and the OG Xbox (if I can fit it). The Wii U is wireless only I believe, but if it's not I'll plug that in too.

[imdavid555]

Aimtrak lightguns: http://www.ultimarc.com/store/section.php?xSec=7 Don't have one personally but a lot of people online swear by it. There isn't many other options too when it come to lightguns on PC. Dolphin Bar: https://www.amazon.com/Mayflash-W010-Wireless-Sensor-DolphinBar/dp/B00HZWEB74 Great for connecting wii remote to PC. Mayflash makes a bunch of different adapters for many different controllers. Logitech K400r is a great wireless keyboard for htpc setups. Air mouse/keyboards are also an option if you think the k400r is too big. I have this one and its seems to be alright so far: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00K768DHY/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468471341&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=air+mouse&dpPl=1&dpID=51ei5V7rdWL&ref=plSrch PS360+ http://m.play-asia.com/ps360/13/706m8z Arcade stick control board that works with many systems.

[Lordmonkus]

A couple of recommendations from me would be instead of a TV get a really nice gaming monitor if the budget allows. I personally use the Asus PG278Q G-Sync monitor and I cannot recommend it enough if you are willing to swallow the price tag and have a compatible Nvidia graphics card. G-Sync is absolutely amazing for fast paced console games and for Mame with all the games having funky refresh rates, it really is worth the price of admission. Plus you can easily rotate the monitor for those vertical games. https://www.amazon.com/PG278Q-27-Inch-Display-Refresh-Monitor/dp/B00MSOND8C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468476646&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+pg278q For controller one I recommend for any system that only uses a d-pad and up to 8 buttons (Sega Saturn) the Hori Fight Commander controllers are great. The d-pad quality is spot on and has the right button layout for fighting games. https://www.amazon.com/HORI-Fighting-Commander-Controller-PlayStation-4/dp/B00TKLFES8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468476916&sr=8-1&keywords=hori+fight+commander

[DOS76]

This is subjective really to what kind of system you want to build. I have multiple HTPC's (4) and I would say a must for them is a Logitech K400R. It is a great little Keyboard/trackpad combo that is small enough but still has function keys. This basically gives you full PC navigation and typing capability which is important to me since my HTPC's are basically just giant screened work stations and I'll use them for anything computer related not just entertainment purposes. For controllers I'm not as picky as some and I have a plethora of controllers I use XBox 360 controllers for 3 of my 4 HTPC's but do have a pair of Logitech F710's that are also pretty good. As long as its wireless for my HTPC's that's really the biggest requirement. On one of my laptops is where I will break out my wired controllers Logitech F310 these are always super cheap and definitely worth it for the price tag. For full Windows tablet devices (I don't get any other tablets I feel they are so much more limited in use to a real PC in tablet form) I like to get Ipega Bluetooth controllers they are priced well for what you get and mine work very well (D-Pad isn't the greatest) I have the telescoping model that I use to make one of my tablets into a LB handheld and the other 360 clone model with the phone holder in the middle that I use with the tablet that I have a mount for on my dash this acts as my cars media hub with full access to my Plex server (if I bring my jetpack) and all my games via the 200GB microSD I have installed.