Need some setting up help and advice

[gnwinter]

So I got a Windows 7 PC in the hopes of making it into a dedicated retro gaming console.  I want to emulate NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, and PS1 games on it.  I want to eventually be able to control everything through my wired xbox 360 controller and not have my keyboard or mouse even connected to it unless I need to tweak something.  I have been tinkering with it for weeks and can't seem to get it to do exactly what I want it to.  I am very inexperienced when it comes to editing config files and using commandline commands.  I tried retroarch, and it does exactly what I want, but I still have to have a mouse and keyboard to start it and turn my PC off, and that GUI isn't the best.  I then tried EmulationStation, and it sorta worked.  I used it as the front end to retroarch, but I can't seem to exit one game and choose another one seemlessly.  If I exit a game it would go to the retroarch GUI instead of EmulationStation, then if I exit retroarch it would take me back to my windows desktop.  So then I tried Kodi and Rom Collection Browser.  But I must be typing in some commands wrong because I can't get it to find my roms.  Then I tried Steam and a program called ICE that is supposed to import roms and emulators into Steam's game library.  I thought that I followed their tutorials exactly, substituting my rom paths and emulator paths, but still never could get it to find my roms.  Needless to say, its been quite a frustrating journey.  I have scoured the internet and read several forums where people describe how they have their PC's to run emulators seemlessly using the various methods I have tried.  I have yet to try Launchbox and Big Box, but it will be my next step.  Any advice, hints, tutorials, testimonials, or other tidbits anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated.  I have the latest version of retroarch with several cores running fine and I also have standalone emulators (Nestopia, SNES9x, Fusion364, project64, and ePSXe) that I have set up that also work fine.  My system specs are windows 7 64 bit, 8gigs ram, 320gig harddrive, AMD HD 6450 1gig video card.

[Lordmonkus]

Hopefully BigBox suits your needs and I am sure others around here can help you out further with your needs.

My advice for you though is stick with Retroarch for the most part for your emulation needs. I know you don't want to have to use a keyboard and mouse but it advisable to have at least a wireless one around just in case you need it. It is still a windows PC after all and things do happen where you will need it from time to time.

There are lots of tutorials especially on the Launchbox Youtube channel and many people around here that can help you out with any specific questions you may have.

[gnwinter]

Thanks. Ya I guess I should have posted when I have more specific questions. Ill post again after I try it out and figure out what doesn't work. 

[Charco]

I have a similar level of experience and just started setting up LaunchBox and Big Box last week, it has been a pretty seamless experience so far for me. If I can help in any way with any of the questions you may have, I'll try my best to help out

[Rincewind]

My biggest advice at this point would be to add a SSD and put windows and launchbox on there and use your old drive just for the Roms, only because you want windows and launchbox running as fast as possible and the Roms on a larger, cheaper, slower drive is fine.

[Charco]

I have Windows on my SSD and LaunchBox all set up on my 2TB HDD. Would it be faster to have it installed on the SSD, and if so, is there anything I can do about that now that everything is set up on the HDD?

[Rincewind]

Yes it would be faster  in my experience (as the pc I use is old), launchbox is self contained so you should just be able to just move it...... I've not tried it tho so if I were you I would copy it over and test before deleting the one on the 2TB HDD

[Charco]

Ok, I might try that. It's working fine anyway, just maybe a little bit slower in LaunchBox when switching between platforms. BigBox is fast though. I'm only really using the Launchbox side of things while I'm adding systems and scraping data, it'll be all BigBox once it's all set up.

[DOS76]

Before putting LB on a SSD I would recommend you consider what you plan on doing with it. If you are only going to emulate those few systems then it should be fine also if you are getting a 500GB SSD you should be fine if you get 120GB drive you may run in to issues with space if you have a lot of systems with all of available media types. I know my one LB folder is over 100GB. So basically visualize what it is you want to setup and plan accordingly. Having the OS on the SSD is what is the most important part anyway.

[Charco]

I think I'll leave it as is as I'd be afraid of breaking something. I already have about 20 systems set up with over 500GB of games and counting. I have yet to add Dreamcast and PS2 and still want to add the top 20 or so PSX and Saturn games. The bulk of what I have space wise is Wii and Gamecube though, about 80 Wii games and 50 Gamecube games.