draneb Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 I purchased a lifetime license of Launchbox/Big Box but have not set it up yet. I don't want to do a lot of work only to find out it doesn't do what I am looking for. I bought an ultra small form factor PC. I want to be able to carry it around with a couple of joysticks and be able to play games at friends houses without carrying around a keyboard. I have a Pi 3b+ with Retropie setup and while it is limited with some systems, I like how it can be totally navigated with a joystick. I also like how it boots up right into Retropie without having to click icons, etc. So those are the two things I am wanting to do. I have been racking my brain trying to decide which front end would be best for this. Can Big Box be navigated solely with joysticks? And launched at Startup? I know I'm in the Big Box forums but if someone thinks a different front end would be better for this instance please let me know. Thank you very much for your input and advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 For the specific case scenario you are describing I think I would go with a Pi. Can Launchbox do it ? Yes but it's still a Windows based PC and I don't think i'd ever want to be 100% keyboardless because things do happen with PCs where it's nice to have one even if it's a small wireless one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retro808 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 9 minutes ago, draneb said: Can Big Box be navigated solely with joysticks? And launched at Startup? Yes. You can move around in BigBox with just a controller or arcade controls and even set BigBox to start on when your pc boots up. You would need a keyboard to set-up everything and make tweaks, I would keep one handy even afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DOS76 Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 also when you start talking about small form factor unless its higher end it may not have enough power to run it with good performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draneb Posted March 1, 2020 Author Share Posted March 1, 2020 There are quite a few options, all with pros and cons. I stumbled across Recalbox and Batocera over the weekend, which use the Emulation Station front end so it looks like Retropie. I guess I will just give them all a quick trial and see which one works out the best for my scenario. Ok, thank you everyone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tackett1980 Posted March 15, 2020 Share Posted March 15, 2020 even with a pi and retropie you at the minimum need a keyboard. At the maximum you need a PC that can access it either through scp or through network. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.