Setup design: your advise and suggestions are very much welcomed

[Praeses]

(If this is the wrong forum for this, I do apologize)

I've had this setup in mind for a while and I'd really appreciate your advise, suggestions or ideas you good people might have.

Overview:

Basically I want to put together a couch media/gaming center. It needs to be convenient and user friendly. Thousands of retro games at your finger tips. Pick up a controller, few button presses and walla! Chrono Trigger ready to go.

An Nvidia Shield streaming Bigbox or Steam from a PC, with movies/shows streamed from a NAS. I thought of skipping the Shield all together and having the PC act as the media center, but I really like the Android TV UI and apps.

I do have a version of this running at the moment. Bigbox streams to the Shield to the TV. It works well enough, but I still need to iron out some kinks.

The systems I'll be focusing on are:

• Nintendo NES all the way to the Wii U. All the handhelds as well.
• Sega Master System all the way to the Dreamcast.
• Sony PSX, PS2, PSP.
• Arcades. I have no experience in this area, but I'd like to give it a go.

Controllers:

Rather than go with a tried and tested Xbox controller for everything, I'd like to have multiple to use depending on the system being played. Now having a controller for every single system is an overkill, so I chose the ones that deserve to be there for one reason or the other. Either for their distinct form factor/functions to play the games with the controller they were designed for (N64 Z-button I'm looking at you!), or the unique functions they provide (PS4 touch pad).

This is where I need some clarity.

• PS4: I used the PS4 controller for a while. The biggest issue I had was how I needed to set it up almost every time I'd switch it on. This happened a lot with Cemu and often Retroarch. Anyone ran into this issue or know how to solve it?
• Wii: I've yet to test the Wiimote, but research tells me it shouldn't be an issue on PC. My understanding is the Motion Plus version is best to use, coupled with a sensor bar. Correct?
• Convenience: While I'm going to be using the PS4 controller as the default, it would be great if I can just pickup another one and have it act as the main one. For example turn on the Gamecube one and use it with to play a Dreamcast game. Would that be possible without having to fiddle with the setup, or am I asking for too much here?
• Multiplayer: I should be able to use any of these controllers for multiplayer, correct?

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I like to be prepared and plan things through. If you got this far, thank you for reading.

[Praeses]

This is odd. I remember seeing that someone replied to this thread and thought I'd check it out later, but now it seems to have disappeared.

[Omen]

On 4/9/2019 at 9:52 AM, Praeses said:

This is odd. I remember seeing that someone replied to this thread and thought I'd check it out later, but now it seems to have disappeared.

I did, for some reason I thought you mentioned DS4Windows already, so I deleted my post. Check out DS4Windows, it will make the DS4 look like an Xbox controller in Windows.

[guyverjay]

Check out the 8bitdo DIY kits, I modded an original Snes, nes and Genesis pad to blutooth. Nothing like using an original controller.

https://shop.8bitdo.com/

 

I use an original Gamecube wireless wave bird controller coupled with the mayflash gamecube adapter

http://www.mayflash.com/Products/NINTENDOWiiU/W012.html

I wan to use as many original controllers as possible but I want them to be wireless

 

For N64 I use this

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/12/hardware_review_retro-bit_x_8bitdo_rb8-64_bluetooth_controller

 

Not an original but as close to wireless one as I can get without modding one myself

[bmonomad]

I have a similar setup with a HTPC hooked up via hdmi to my 43' tv, but really underestimated what a pain setting up controllers is with Retroarch.  Retroarch is buggy, despite devs claiming otherwise, and configs can often get scrambled.

I wouldn't advise trying to run all systems off the DS4 like I did, for that reason alone.  i may look at buying original-style controllers, despite it being a pain to switch constantly.

[Omen]

26 minutes ago, bmonomad said:

I have a similar setup with a HTPC hooked up via hdmi to my 43' tv, but really underestimated what a pain setting up controllers is with Retroarch.  Retroarch is buggy, despite devs claiming otherwise, and configs can often get scrambled.

I wouldn't advise trying to run all systems off the DS4 like I did, for that reason alone.  i may look at buying original-style controllers, despite it being a pain to switch constantly.

I’ve never had any issues with RA’s configs, they’ve never gotten scrambled or anything.

[zetec-s-joe]

Any updates on this?

[Praeses]

2 hours ago, zetec-s-joe said:

Any updates on this?

I've been too busy to set this up, unfortunately. But I'll definitely post updates once I do.