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Being the computer tech guy in the family I always end up with everybody’s old hardware. I usually scrap out old PCs. I save parts that I could use and scrap the rest. This week I salvaged up enough parts to build a computer to run my emulators.

Emulators are software programs that mimics a game console. You can find them for all but the latest game consoles. The Emulator Zone is full of info on all the latest emulators. I just run ones for the consoles that I had as a kid. I had an Atari 2600, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Master System, and Sega Genesis. It’s so fun playing games from my childhood.

The emulators are easy to find and totally legal. The ROMs, which are the games, are another thing. They are still under copyright, so may not be 100% legal to download. You have to look a little harder to find them online, but they are out there. Most of the games I play I paid for back in the day, so I don’t see anything wrong with it.

The old consoles were pretty primitive. Any PC can run the emulator software. What I wanted to do was build a computer that can be totally controlled by a game controller. There are many frontend software programs that let you select what console and game you want to play and then launch them. The frontend is what makes the system more user friendly, and they require a little more PC power depending on what frontend you select and what the frontend is capable of doing.

I chose to use Maximus Arcade for my frontend. It had the options that I wanted, looked nice, and was easy to configure. It costs $25 and was the only money that I spent on this project. Once I got it all set up, I set Maximus Arcade as the Windows shell, which totally hides Windows.

Many people build similar systems to run arcade games and build MAME cabinets to put them into. I don’t have the talent or the time to build a MAME cabinets, but it would be cool. I wasn’t much of an arcade gammer as a kid though. I was more of a console gammer. I might buy USB versions of the old controllers at retrousb.com to complete my system, and get more of a retro feel. For now I am just using a computer gamepad. Now I think it’s time for some Super Mario Brothers.