My Arcade Build: Big Box & Virtual Reality

[ckp]

Something I find interesting in my setup.

I have a high end gaming rig next to a Sharp 32" 60Hz 1080p TV (with gaming mode) and a ASUS 24" 60Hz 1080p IPS monitor.

I would have thought gaming would look much better on the IPS monitor, but I have permanently hooked up to the TV ($150).

To me, and I'm nowhere near an authority as Lordmonkus on this, gaming looks a lot better on the TV!! Go figure.

So, like you, I won't purchase a great monitor yet, because I want high refresh, IPS, g-sync, and either 1440p or 4k.

I might be ok going with 27", but I'm still not yet satisfied with the choices out there for the $. And I'd rather wait for 32" anyway to replace the TV.

 

[Hoakypoaky]

So I figured I would give an update on my build so far.   I've been working on the cabinet & the computer build over the last month.   I said I wasn't going to go crazy, but I decided that I wanted to run Big Box with all the presentation bells & whistles, and I wanted to be able to run all of my newer Steam Library PC games from this computer as well.   And if I was going to do that, might as well go big for possible VR someday (who knows).  But I was just having too much fun building this thing!  In any case, here are the PC specs...

Intel i7 7700K CPU overclocked to 5.0GHz

Asus Strix z270e motherboard

32GB Corsair Dominator DDR4-3000 RAM

Corsair H115i CPU cooler

Asus Strix 11GB GeForce GTX 1080ti GPU

Samsung 960 evo 250GB SSD (for Windows 10 64bit Home install)

WD black 6TB HDD (for everything else)

Corsair 850W PSU

Corsair air 540 mid tower case (fits perfect in cab, plenty fans & airflow)

 

Went with a 32" VIZIO 1080p TV for the cabinet, but not by choice   There just wasn't a 32 inch gaming monitor available in 1440p resolution with the features I wanted.  Perhaps I will swap someday when someone manufactures  a high end 32" gaming monitor at 144hz.   I also bought a Dayton audio DTA-120 amp & ran two Alpine SPS-410 4" speakers in the cabinet, so I'm really happy with the sound results.   Graphics for the cabinet will come after everything else is finished.

The 32" cabinet & control panel comes from Rec Room Masters.   Love the cab itself, very study & solid.   The control panel is their "emulator plus" edition, with two 8-way & a dedicated 4-way suzo happ joysticks, with trackball & a spinner.  The whole control panel connects to the pc via two usb connectors, so I'm curious how hard it will be to dial in and setup.   I want to swap the joysticks out for something better, these seem pretty loose & cheap.   Been looking at options on ultramarc's website.   Perhaps their 4 & 8 way mag sticks?   Any suggestions appreciated.

Now the hard stufff begins setting up the Launchbox software.  Honestly I have no idea what I'm doing, and have so much to learn.   Going to dive into the YouTube Launchbox tutorials, but I wish there were written step-by-step instructions (for newbies) on the BEST way to install Launchbox & setup all the files & folders on your hard drive.  I know everyone probably has their own way of doing this.  I have a lot of research to do.   I just want to avoid any common mistakes.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome    I know I will need help at some point   

 

 

 

[Lordmonkus]

Sounds like a beast that will handle anything you throw at it.

As for how to set it all up on your hard drive I will only tell you how I have it.

I have an "Emulation" folder, and then in there I have a "Launchbox" folder, "Roms" folder and "Emulators" folder. Launchbox is obviously my Launchbox install and all the media. The roms folder has all my roms sorted into sub folders by platform. And then in my emulators folder I have all my emulators installed to their individual folder labeled with version numbers. That way I can install and test new versions of emulators without over writing a previous one and finding the update messed something up.

And if you want to you can even make a sub folder of "Emulation" called "Tools" and in there put all the misc. utility software specific to emulation such as ips patching software for rom hacks.

[Hoakypoaky]

Thanks for the response LordMonkus!   I will definitely setup the folders as you suggested.  You lost me on the last paragraph though, as I'm not familiar with the utility software options available.   I'm assuming you're referring to scan line generator add-ons? 

And since you know my PC specs & what my system can handle, I'd be very interested to hear what you would suggest for my Launchbox install.

I will get Launchbox Premium with a lifetime license.   I also plan on getting a lifetime EmuMovies licence as well.   In fact I'll get whatever license I need to make this frontend look awesome.   I want to run Big Box with every presentation option, make it look like what I see in the youtube videos. 

But I still don't understand what the purpose of options like Rocket Launcher or Retrofit do, and which one should be installed.   Are they necessary, is one better than the other?   Is that the bridge between Launchbox & the individual emulators?   I have no clue at the moment.

I guess I'd like to know what would you install if you had this powerful system?   Just point me in the right direction.  You seem to have a wealth of knowledge on this subject

[ckp]

i think what you are asking for, if answered by @lordmonkus, is the same exact thing every new emulation person faces at first. 

Which emulators are best for each system to emulate, at least as a start for your setup. It would be a great sticky post for all new emulation people to start with.

The answer is often, "it depends on what you like", but for newbies, people often just want the best answer in "general" which would be fine for most people, and then later they can understand why they might choose something like a stand alone emulator over Retroarch for example.

So if lordmonkus answers you with a list of all possible systems to emulate (or at least the popular ones) and which emulator to use for each one as a start, that would be a super handy link to refer new people to.

just as an example of say Retroarch...Retroarch is great to use for as many systems as possible because once your controller and other setup can be applied to all the systems, making setup and changes very nice to all systems. It also lets you do cool shader stuff if you like shaders (i don't, but many people do). BUT...for some systems that Retroarch can do emulation for (like PPSP), there are better emulators to use like the PPSSPP stand alone emulator. 

it's a tough question, but if anyone can give a new person a great initial answer to start with, it's people like lordmonkus, dos76, and zombeaver.

to me, the controller stuff is the biggest pain in the ass when trying to run all the systems, especially when you need to use more than one type of controller (say arcade cab joysticks/buttons AND something like xbox controller since joysticks/buttons can't be the solution for all systems).

 

 

[Lordmonkus]

50 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

You lost me on the last paragraph though, as I'm not familiar with the utility software options available.

I'm just referring to 3rd party software that doesn't fall under emulators or roms. Stuff like Reshade / SweetFX shaders, rom patching software for hacks from romhacking.net or input mapping software like xpadder.

 

57 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

I guess I'd like to know what would you install if you had this powerful system?

Honestly just start out with the stuff you know you want and build upon it slowly. I just try and grab anything and everything all at once and figure your way through it you will find yourself quickly overwhelmed and in an unorganized mess.

As for emulators, you can either start out with individual ones like Snes9x or you can go with Retroarch and use it for what it does well which is quite a bit like the 8, 16 and 32 bit era stuff. You will want some stand alone that either has no Retroarch core or the core isn't on par with the stand alone like Dolphin, PPSSPPP and PCSX2.

[Hoakypoaky]

Thanks for the response guys.  I guess I should have been more clear.

I'm a child of the 80s, dropped tons of quarters in arcades as a kid.  So that means that I want to run all the arcade classics I can find.  That's what's most important to me, as well as running Laserdisc games.    I'd also like to run all the early console stuff from NES, SNES, N64, SEGA Genesis & and up through PlayStation One.   I'm pretty sure my system will be able to handle PlayStation 2, so I could do those too, but maybe later on.   I have fond memories of some PSP games, so if there's an emulator I would do those as well.   I imagine the ROMs, videos, box art, etc for just these systems will take up a ton of HD space.   I have a 6 TB HHD currently.

As far as PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Japanese stuff I've never heard of, and more modern systems, I'm really not interested even going there.  I didn't even know mobile game emulation was possible.   

But I definitely want to be able to run my Steam games, like platformers & modern fighting games through Launchbox.  As to how I will configure Mortal Combat X, Street Fighter V, and games like Pac-Man 256 though my arcade controls, I'm not sure if that's even possible.  Something to figure out down the road.

So Retroarch & rocketlaucher are emulators themselves?  Or are they used to configure controls across platforms & run the individual emulators?   Little confusing, and their websites are hard to follow.   Do you need to use one of these?   I guess I just don't grasp the purpose of these applications yet.

My plan is to install LaunchBox, organize folders, then start going system by system (such as MAME) & download the emulator and the ROM sets.   Once I get MAME dialed in & the controls configured, then move on to the next system.

I've also read that nitpicking though ROM sets is a bad idea, as it's best to download everything for a system so you're not missing some critical file you need.  Correct? 

How do you configure the controls for each game?   Through launchbox, or say Retroarch, or do you need 3rd party input mapping software?   You really don't have to configure controls for each individual game across every system do you?   God that would take forever, but I have a feeling that is the case.  Isn't there a generalized control setup that can be adjusted for each game if defaults are wrong? 

Sorry my mind was running there.  Any help appreciated. 

 

[Lordmonkus]

2 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

I'm a child of the 80s, dropped tons of quarters in arcades as a kid.

Same here.

2 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Laserdisc games.

Laserdisc games will use the Daphne emulator but unfortunately that is a bit of a pain in the ass to setup. Though if all you really care about is Dragon's Lair 1 & 2 and Space Ace the Dragon's Lair Trilogy for the Wii is easily setup and plays great.

For the vast majority of arcade games you will use Mame, either the stand alone version or Retroarch core is fine. Which one you use will come down to personal preference, I like the stand alone version myself.

5 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

NES, SNES, N64, SEGA Genesis & and up through PlayStation One.

All the stuff in this time I suggest and recommend Retroarch.

6 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

PlayStation 2, so I could do those too, but maybe later on.   I have fond memories of some PSP games, so if there's an emulator I would do those as well.

PCSX2 emulator for PS2 and PPSSPP for PSP.

6 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

I imagine the ROMs, videos, box art, etc for just these systems will take up a ton of HD space

Most HD space will be taken up by the CD and DVD based console games, those disk images get fairly big.

8 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

But I definitely want to be able to run my Steam games, like platformers & modern fighting games through Launchbox.  As to how I will configure Mortal Combat X, Street Fighter V, and games like Pac-Man 256 though my arcade controls, I'm not sure if that's even possible.  Something to figure out down the road.

This is certainly doable and using your arcade controls shouldn't be much work at all, especially if your arcade stick is detected as an Xinput controller. If it is something like the X-Arcade it may take a little more effort to setup because it is not detected as an Xinput controller but rather as a keyboard.

9 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

So Retroarch & rocketlaucher are emulators themselves?

Retroarch is a multi emulator but RocketLauncher is mainly a backend for HyperSpin but can be used with Launchbox for more advanced features. I personally don't use or like RocketLauncher but there are others around here that do. If you decide you want it you will have to look at learning how to set it all up and I won't be able to help you with it.

13 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

My plan is to install LaunchBox, organize folders, then start going system by system (such as MAME) & download the emulator and the ROM sets.   Once I get MAME dialed in & the controls configured, then move on to the next system.

Definitely the best way to approach it.

13 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

I've also read that nitpicking though ROM sets is a bad idea, as it's best to download everything for a system so you're not missing some critical file you need.  C

That will depend on the system. For Mame and cartridge based consoles it is the easiest. The Mame roms work it is easiest to just get the whole set because how parent and clone roms work along with bios files, it becomes a real mess trying to pull out individual games with its required parents. Cartridge based consoles rom sets a very small and easy to get full sets, when looking for them search for "No-Intro" sets. These sets have all the games without all the extra fluff of "GoodSets".

CD based game sets though get to be quite large in size so for those I recommend just getting the games you know you want to play. If unsure of games look at some videos on youtube of "top games lists" Metal Jesus and Gamesack have some great videos showcasing a lot of games to get you started out.

18 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

How do you configure the controls for each game? 

Primarily this will be done in the emulators themselves and no it wont be on a game by game basis. With Mame though you can set up a "default" controller set up but of course due to the nature of arcade games this wont always be ideal and you can and will tweak some individual games controls. Launchbox does nothing with the games controls.

20 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

or do you need 3rd party input mapping software?

Some rare instances of this may be required such as with Daphne for laser disk games but it really is the rarity rather than the norm.

[Hoakypoaky]

That was an awesome reply.  Thank you so much!

It's funny but my greatest arcade memory is being 8 years old & watching these 17 years olds dominate on Dragon's Lair.  I stood there & studied all their moves, I was just blown away how easy they made it look.   My hands used to shake just dropping in the quarters for my turn, and at 50 cents per play, not cheap in 1983!   Then I always proceeded to die on the flaming ropes 3 times & that was that.  Haha. 

Running Dragon's Lair & Space Ace was the main reason I wanted to do this build.   But if Daphne is a pain, then maybe I'll just have to play them through Steam or another option.   I just thought Daphne would be best, since I might be able to play games like Cliff Hanger (aka Lupin) as well.   I have a Dragon's Lair copy on Steam, but I haven't tried it out yet.   The controls always suffer from lag on every system I played it on.   Why does the Wii version run so well?

Can you have both Retroarch & the dedicated MAME emulator installed on your HD, then just select which one you want to run via Launchbox settings?    Sounds like Retroarch will meet most of my console emulation needs.   And I'll forget about rocketlauncher, as I don't need more problems or confusion.  I'd like to keep things from getting to complicated.

Thanks for the tip on CD games.  I'll just download the individual PSOne games that I enjoyed to conserve space.  Thanks for the top game list suggestion.

My Xtension "emulation plus" control panel is a "keyboard encoded device", pc combatable via two USB ports, and pre-configured to MAME.   Whatever that means.  As long as the steam games recognize the control panel, I suppose it's easy to set up your controls in-game using keyboard input settings.   I hope I said that right.

I'll have to watch some more Launchbox tutorials on YouTube.   Are those videos outdated, or are they a good guide for a noob when doing my setup?   Any beneficial forum threads I should read first?   I guess I should dive into that noob section. 

 

[Hoakypoaky]

Oh say I have some PSOne games on disc.... can you rip the ROMs from the disc to your computer?  I have some rare ones & I'm not sure if I'd be able to find them.  I suppose everything is out there if you look hard enough.   Just curious. 

[Lordmonkus]

45 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Why does the Wii version run so well?

I like the Wii version cause it looks great and you have it hard more like the arcade or easy mode with the prompts.

46 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Can you have both Retroarch & the dedicated MAME emulator installed on your HD, then just select which one you want to run via Launchbox settings?

Yes.

47 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

s long as the steam games recognize the control panel, I suppose it's easy to set up your controls in-game using keyboard input settings.

Yeah I cannot say how easy or difficult this will be, it will most likely just depend on a game by game basis.

48 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

I'll have to watch some more Launchbox tutorials on YouTube.   Are those videos outdated, or are they a good guide for a noob when doing my setup?

The tutorial videos are still very much valid. Once you get the hang of the basics it will make sense and be simple enough.

Here is a post where I try and add links to tutorials and guides here on the forums.

 

46 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Oh say I have some PSOne games on disc.... can you rip the ROMs from the disc to your computer?

Yeah, you can do this, there should be lots of guides out there on the net showing how to rip your own games.

47 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

I have some rare ones & I'm not sure if I'd be able to find them.  I suppose everything is out there if you look hard enough.   Just curious.

Yeah, it's very unlikely that there is something that isn't found in the usual places.

[Hoakypoaky]

Well I've been working on the arcade this weekend & the further I go, the more questions I have.   Sometimes the tutorial YouTube videos are slightly out of date.

Anyway, I installed Launchbox Premium & Big Box.   I've got lifetime membership to emumovies.  Then I downloaded all my Steam games, then imported them into Launchbox.   They're all there & run fine, but I'm having issues with configuring the controls for individual games, especially Mortal Kombat X & Street Fighter V.   Extremely frustrating, but those questions can wait for another time.

I've downloaded Retroarch v1.6.3 & plan on using to to emulate my early systems.   I have a fairly good idea of the menus & navigating through the retroarch menus.  But now I'm to the point that I need to download the various cores, and I'm finding that there are several versions for a single system (arcadeMAME, Gameboy, snes, etc).    I have no idea what the differences are, or which core is the best.   Are they different versions based on CPU performance?

Care to suggest the BEST retroarch core to download for each system???   My system is a beast & can handle anything.

i just wanted to start with MAME first, but hell, there's 10 different cores for arcade alone.   

 

[Hoakypoaky]

I just discovered that the Arcade MAME core is for version 0.188, so I suppose I'll need the latest version of roms to match.   Is that correct?   

Also does anyone care to share why they prefer RA over the standalone MAME emulators?  Perhaps I should download the standalone emulator as well. 

[Hoakypoaky]

Also what is the preferred type of romset to download for the first time?  Merged or non-merged sets?   This shit is getting so confusing

Edited August 6, 2017 by Hoakypoaky

[DOS76]

Okay let me try to help with a few things

31 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

 

I just discovered that the Arcade MAME core is for version 0.188, so I suppose I'll need the latest version of roms to match.   Is that correct?  

 

Getting the matching rom set while not 100% necessary is the best thing you can do especially if you ROM set is more than a few revisions back.

33 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Also does anyone care to share why they prefer RA over the standalone MAME emulators?  Perhaps I should download the standalone emulator as well. 

I prefer the MAME stand alone for a few reasons but they depend on some of my setups like in my room I have both a landscape and portrait monitor and the MAME stand alone emulator handles portrait natively where RA requires you to set the parameter of your screen on portrait it displays in a small rectangle across very little of the screen by default also I use MAME to emulate a few consoles like Atari 5200 Colecovision and a few others and the stand alone version is much more friendly than the RA version when it comes to the MESS side of MAME.

 

15 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Also what is the preferred type of romset to download for the first time?  Merged or non-merged sets?

http://docs.mamedev.org/usingmame/aboutromsets.html

This link should explain a lot about the different ROM sets better than I can explain it but I find for myself that the split set is the best one for my needs. That being said the merged set is limited in LB due to LB only having access to the parent zip and not being able to import any clones contained inside an issue that doesn't exist with split and non merged sets.

[Lordmonkus]

I prefer the stand alone version of Mame but the Retroarch version is extremely good and there is no glaring reason to use it or not use it over the stand alone. I would say the differences are extremely minor and you may prefer one over the other due to a very minor reason. Try them both out and see which you prefer, it is really easy to swap back and forth til you figure out which you want to use.

As for which rom set use either non merged or split set, I use the split set myself because of the extra level of customization of the rom choice.

[Hoakypoaky]

Bad link.   Isn't it best to have the non-merged set, as it has everything?  

Mame 0.188 mergered approx 125gb & nonmerged approx 58gb.   

Dont you need the whole zip with the bios & roms to run?

[Hoakypoaky]

I keep reading the differences but I'm not getting my head around it

[Lordmonkus]

Non merged and split contains everything you need including bios file.

I honestly just use the split set, it's what I have always used, it works and if I want to tweak my setup to point to a specific clone version of a game I can do so very easily.

[DOS76]

 

2 minutes ago, Hoakypoaky said:

Mame 0.188 mergered approx 125gb & nonmerged approx 58gb.   

that's actually the other way around non-merged is a 125GB and merged is the smallest set

the full set has all the bios and roms it doesn't include the chd package that is separate. The nonmerged is the best if you want a curated set as its safe to remove roms since everything is self-contained if you are going to have the whole set though anyway then split is the better choice since it will all still work but take up less space on disk if you were just using MAME alone with no front end I would say just get the merged set as from the built in UI it is totally accessible but due to its limitations in LB split is currently the best option.