Best Emulator for 70s / 80s games

[omniflow]

Hi,

I'm thinking of building an arcade cabinet based around an emulator. The games I am interested in are:

Space Invaders (original and the one after that)
Pacman
Scramble
Defender

I'd like Battlezone too, but I think the controls would be a challenge.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to which emulator I use.

Thanks

[anonymous-user]

It would be MAME for those sorts of arcade games I would think.

[omniflow]

Done some more digging and I think you're right.

Has anyone done an arcade cabinet build, or will I be better off in the Computers & Gadgets sub forum?

[shtu]

Have a look at RetroPie, it'll do all you need.

[anonymous-user]

I built one a few years ago, with a PC inside and MAME etc... on it. It's one of those things that sounds like more fun than it really is I think as the novelty soon wears off, and unless you have a lot of space they can seem very large inside a normal house.

I converted my full size cabinet down to a tabletop one which is still fairly huge but more manageable, but it doesn't really get used and I am trying to decide what to do with it.

A RetroPie plugged into your normal TV is a lot easier, neater etc..., and if you want the proper arcade controls then you could make just the control panel block with proper sticks etc.. and connect it via USB to the RetroPie, avoiding the massive bulk of the fullsize cabinet - I think that's what I might do with my tabletop one - remove the PC innards and the monitor and just build the controls into a single control box for the RetroPie.

[TheGroover]

JimSuperSix said:

I built one a few years ago, with a PC inside and MAME etc... on it. It's one of those things that sounds like more fun than it really is I think as the novelty soon wears off, and unless you have a lot of space they can seem very large inside a normal house.

I converted my full size cabinet down to a tabletop one which is still fairly huge but more manageable, but it doesn't really get used and I am trying to decide what to do with it.

A RetroPie plugged into your normal TV is a lot easier, neater etc..., and if you want the proper arcade controls then you could make just the control panel block with proper sticks etc.. and connect it via USB to the RetroPie, avoiding the massive bulk of the fullsize cabinet - I think that's what I might do with my tabletop one - remove the PC innards and the monitor and just build the controls into a single control box for the RetroPie.

This all day long. I also built one and after the initial novelty period had worn off it barely got used. I've still got mame on a couple of devices (PlayStation classic and chromebook) which is more than enough for the occasional use it gets.
It was great as a project, but ultimately it didn't get used enough.

[omniflow]

Yeah - thanks for the feedback - I do get it.

It would go in the Garage next to my Twilight Zone Pinball Table. If I do it, and it's by no means a done deal, it would be mostly for the fun of doing it. It would probably only be used 3 or 4 times a year, and I think most of the fun would be trying to put something together than can be tweaked to allow various games to be played "arcade style" with very differing control requirements - e.g. trackball for missile command, twin 2 way joysticks with fire button for battlezone, etc. etc.

Looking at the price of some of these components, it might be a bit pricey, but I think I will at least spec one out and then decide whether or not to go ahead with it.