Looking for some information on a Launchbox arcade project...

[FormulaFox]

Hello, all. I've not really used Launchbox much, just some experimentation with it now and then, but I've been impressed enough to decide to use it as a basis for an arcade cabinet project. Two, in fact, but only one is relevant here. It's a bit of an oddball, but I think it's an interesting idea to try. This might actually be a bit much for "noob" help, but as I have limited experience it nonetheless seemed appropriate. But if there's a better subforum for a thread of this nature, PLEASE move the thread to it - I have no desire to clutter up the wrong forum.

In any case, the main thing I want to know is what I can expect to get running on Launchbox via my chosen hardware. This is where things get interesting - this project is a mini bartop arcade cabinet that will mostly be self-fabricated, and the hardware was chosen for the reasons of repurposing old hardware. The hardware? Well, it's an old Windows 10 tablet. Yes, a Windows 10 TABLET. Specifically, an Ematic EWT826BK (specs can be found here: https://ematic.us/product/ematic-8-hd-windows-10-tablet-32gb-with-wifi-intel-atom-z3735g-processor-docking-keyboard-ewt826bk/ )

This obviously isn't a top-line computer - it's close to a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ in performance specs(it's major benefit over the Pi is not mentioned on the page; it's CPU can boost itself by 0.5GHz when stressed), but the idea behind this project is that I can easily install/remove it from the cabinet in case I ever need it for something else(it IS my emergency backup tablet). The main question is, like I said before, what can I expect to emulate on this? Is the RAM enough to handle things beyond the Pi or am I limited to about the same level?

The great thing about this idea is that I really only need to build a cabinet and come up with an input solution. Bu that brings up the big issue(and the one this may not be the best place to inquire about, but I'm hoping someone can send me in the right direction), which you'll notice if you look over the tablet's specs, is that it has only a single microUSB port for both charging AND connecting peripherals. You cannot maintain full battery power while running a peripheral through the MicroUSB, which could be a bit of an annoyance. But the tablet DOES have Bluetooth which makes me wonder if there exists, or there is a method to build, a Bluetooth arcade stick setup. I have no soldering skills, so any build with need to be a solder-free method, but if it were possible it's be a decent solution.

I'm hoping I can make this work somehow. Any and all advice on the idea would be greatly appreciated.

Edited April 15, 2019 by FormulaFox

[Lordmonkus]

I'm afraid that hardware is far too weak to handle BigBox.

Some of the more basic emulators would probably run fine on it but your choices would be very limited.

[neil9000]

I used to have a z3735 tablet with 2GB of ram and there was no chance of running Bigbox on it. I also have a newer atom x5 tablet which is faster than the z3735 by quite a bit, and that wont run Bigbox acceptably either, Launchbox is OK to a point on it, but Bigbox is very slow, due to the slow CPU, Storage and Ram, and of course the lack of a dedicated GPU. 

[neil9000]

If i was you i would look at something like Lakka for it.

 

http://www.lakka.tv/

[FormulaFox]

I'm not talking about using BigBox here. I'm specifically looking at basic Launchbox - I know it's limited, but this isn't supposed to be a high-end build - it's mostly a novelty to get SOMETHING out of some old hardware rather than it just sitting and collecting dust. The high-end design comes much later down the road with the OTHER project I'm looking at, but cannot afford to do at this time.

As for Lakka, I'm not going to mess with this thing's operating system. I do want to keep it ready to go in case something happens with my main tablet.

[Lordmonkus]

You can try it out since it's free, see how it goes.

[FormulaFox]

I know, I've messed with Lakka before. I could never get it to work right without it actually being installed - thus my comment about not wanting to mess with the OS. If I'd been able to run it reliably off a flash drive or SD card, I'd have already given it a go.

And for the record I've also tried Recalbox - with which I had few issues with testing without installing before on other computers. It HAAAAAAAAAAATES this thing's hardware. Words cannot describe how much Recalbox HATED this device - I couldn't even power it off or force a reboot, I had to let it run out of juice!

Edited April 15, 2019 by FormulaFox

[Lordmonkus]

I meant you could try Launchbox on it since it's free.

[DOS76]

Yeah I wouldn't want to install Lakka on a tablet I'd be afraid that it wouldn't have touch drivers available. I would think if you wanted to do this with a tablet you would need at least one with a i3 preferably an i5. Beside the Surface tablets I don't know if any one is making Windows tablets anymore but understand the higher end surface tablets are pretty nice.

[FormulaFox]

That wouldn't be an issue. I have a USB to microUSB adapter to connect a mouse until I ensured touch drivers were running.