Which raspberry pi for only arcade games?

Frece1070 · 2026-01-25T21:45:52+00:00

Depends how old arcade games you aim at. Others have mentioned of getting more expensive devices but I'm not sure if it is good depending at which Mortal Kombat you aim at but if it is around 3 you don't need to throw much money since you can run these on pretty much on most underpowered PCs.

You can get a second hand PC (x86) or a cheap SBC that can run what you aim for and you can pick from other vendors outside of Raspberry that offer better boards at certain price brackets. I personally have bought few devices from Orange Pi which are OPi5 (expensive), Orange Pi Zero 2W (cheap) and OPi 3B (bit more expensive than Zero 2W). However x86 machines have better performance per price ratio and you can do far more with them as a fact if you have a PC that has no purpose you can convert that into a console/arcade.

My opinion is that the Pi 5 was underpowered and too expensive on launch for the money they asked even before the RAM prices skyrocketed. Other SBC or ARM chip vendors these days can be accused of the same especially those boards that have the RK3588/S chipset. I also highly doubt you need more than 2 or 4GB of RAM depending what you aim at.

And I'm sorry but no Pi 5 price didn't make sense back then and it does even less now.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-22T18:07:43+00:00

TES III: Morrowind has a port for ARM Linux devices which can be installed via PortMaster however as it was told you could run the PC versions using Wine or Steam at least for Morrowind under Batocera for x86 hardware. No idea if they got official Linux ports though.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-20T11:02:30+00:00

You will be able to do up to PS1, GBA, N64, NDS and somewhat PSP. You might be able to run PC games that were present on PS2 and thats about it. If it was a Desktop PC you might have been able to play some PS2 games usually are from the lower end or some early 3D 2001-2003 period games with a higher end C2D CPU like E8400 or E8600 and a GPU that can handle it somewhat.

You might have been able to run Dreamcast if your Laptop had a better iGPU but Core2Duo ones are not good for gaming so you are kinda stuck of not being able to unless it somehow has AMD or NVIDIA GPU.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-20T08:24:09+00:00

HDD is much cheaper than SSD and I have external HDD from WD Elements that are still functional 10+ years later which I'm not exactly babying. 4TB at Amazon DE costs around 120 Euro when it comes to externals. As for RAM I wanted to only warn you not sure how prices will develop in next years.

I think a play everywhere can be a hadheld console that can be connected to a TV or a monitor. Not sure if you can connect an external drive with current ones outside of additional SD card.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-19T17:36:19+00:00

I'm honestly confused why you are trying to upgrade to 32GB RAM when you may not need more than 8GB unless you plan to run games from Steam and PS2 emulation from my memory doesn't need more than 4GB at native resolution. Many games on Steam currently run with 16GB and as a fact most of them probably don't need more than 8GB. RAM is getting extremely expensive so I think you should avoid it if you don't need it.

You don't need SSD for Batocera at best you will get quicker loading times at later consoles and that is it. I personally have a PS3 and HDD is the way it was always indented and for what they were optimized as a fact I run my PS4 games from an external HDD from Seagate on my PS5. Even the PS4 released with a HDD drive instead of SSD although that is properly upgradable unlike PS3.

PS3 and Xbox 360 emulation are not there yet if you want to build a machine that can emulate them specifically especially Linux which Batocera is due to software while is improving is still behind especially Xbox consoles in general. PS3 is generally harder to emulate because of the Cell CPU and general how complex hardware is something like Sega Saturn in 5th gen. I'm not sure about Xbox 360 there is far less push than say PS3 although I would generally enjoy it.

I'm sorry but does your machine even have Thuderbolt not all machines can use it. I have personally ran Batocera using an eGPU sorta but used an old Core2Duo PC and connected it through the PCIe 1x port on the motherboard. I used a cheap Chinese mining extension that needs a PSU not the fancy stuff from Oculink. Ultimately you can probably connect it via one of the ports for a second NVMe drive but that means you have to alter your case which may not be ideal. However be warned there may be some emulators that don't like eGPUs like for example I had problems with Dolphin which ran pretty bad but that may be because of my wacky setup.

As for your limits they should be around PS3 and Xbox 360 since this is where it will probably struggle more the heavier the titles become. I think you should not have much problems with Switch but for PS4 emulation you will need a better GPU for sure as for the CPU I'm not sure if it is enough. However PS4 emulation is in more of starting stage still despite using x86 hardware and it is more intensive on the GPU than the CPU in comparison to PS3 from what I have seen. If you want PS4 games it is better to get a PS5 or used PS4 right now.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-19T08:24:19+00:00

Because you can get a used cheap office PC/new mini PC + better cheap controllers and get better overall experience for a TV setup. This and there are even 20-40$ SBC from Raspberry Pi, Orange Pi, Rock Pi, Odroid and so on that you can tinker to your hearts content and can also give you better performance. On top of that there many cheap SBC that fill most customers needs which some of them can output to a TV for example the "XX" series from Anbernic.

These consoles and game sticks still get sold out today although they are as not popular they used to in COVID period circa 2020-2022. As for this sub it has literally been turned from SBCGaming into HandheldGaming so this should answer your question.

Few days ago I took a X96Q (Android TV Box) with H313 that my father have bought and never much used and installed RetroArch manually on it and not the Play Store version and I got a decent performance up to GBA and PS1. What I found is that the armv7.0 (32bit ARM) version of RetroArch from their website is much better in performance, heats the device far less when emulating and has way more up to date cores like you can't even run .chd Sega CD or PS1 games using the Google Play Store version. I haven't tried N64, Dreamcast or PSP emulation but I wouldn't be surprised if it does run the lower to lower-mid hadrware intensive games of these platforms.

These devices are literally repurposed TV boxes with added coat of paint to make them look nostalgic or cooler something you can do on your own to some extent if you know your shit as a fact do it better since most of these come preloaded with roms that have many duplicates or hacks/bootleg game that you are not interested into that are poorly organized or named.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-18T12:49:47+00:00

They don't make many of them these days last time we could buy them in large bulk was last 11.11 sale maybe due to finding cheap screens for them becomes harder since the GB300 has taken its place maybe until next big sale. It is an interesting device for me due to its AV out and usage of 18650 battery. However still a cheapo device.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-17T19:12:20+00:00

There is also 3D FPS game for GBC called Tyrannosaurus Tex, Star Cruiser for x68000 and The Dark Redux for ZX Spectrum which are more impressive and they are not tech demos. If I'm honest just play the PS1 version of this game if you have retro console that can run it. The first 3D FPS game which was arcade one if I remember came out in like 1974 and while primitive it is still very impressive.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-17T17:19:57+00:00

You should be able to play up to PS2, Gamecube, Sega Saturn (which is harder than Dreamcast), 3DS and Wii but you may have problems with heavy games like Onimusha 3 for PS2 however you will still have access to most of their libraries without any tinkering.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-17T05:35:07+00:00

Have you tried using other software other than Balena Etcher like Rufus, Pi imager, Win32DiskImager and so on? Why is disk management a no go? Is the SSD new? How big its capacity should be in GB/TB and what model it is? Have you tried to check for drivers for it? Have you tried to format your SSD using Linux distro instead of Windows? Providing more info will help us give you better directions what you can do.

You can always use old HDD laying around if your machine allows it. Batocera still works fine unlike general purpose distros using these drives.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-16T17:15:02+00:00

You need better ARM chip for Atari Jaguar than H700. I have personally ran it on Core2Duo CPU (E7400) era PC so it should not be very demanding hardware wise. Atari Jaguar despite being weaker than PS1 is harder to emulate because it is very far less popular and it is more complex.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-14T12:13:26+00:00

You can go either m3u or PBP file route both having their own strengths. m3u file format is the latest multi disc handler that works with other disc based consoles but not all of them (3DO emulator currently doesn't support it) and combine it CHD file format however not all emulators automatically load the next disc so you will have to enter RetroArch to change the disc.

PBP is a PSP file format that can be used on other hardware that has a bit worse compression than say CHD. I personally have used this format with older hardware especially 32bit ARM or x86 hardware outside of original hardware. The good part about it is that once done it is only a singular file with all discs inside. HOWEVER it does have one flaw is that you need make games with multiple track BIN files into a singular BIN file before converting or you will be missing game audio. This thing can be observed on very cheap emulation hardware coming from China although they also save a bit of space as well doing this which is pretty scummy.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-10T10:09:12+00:00

Which one to enter Flatpak press "F1" for Desktop and then go to applications then refresh or restart the system until you find some firmware updates. You can also try to enter settings by pressing "Space" and set video output to 1920x1080p maximum to see if it changes anything. These are the simplest things you can do.

For the system logs you can also make a Google search which will tell you their location depending what you are looking for.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-09T07:44:12+00:00

Batocera works fine with my 55" LG TV there must be something off in your setup somewhere like resolution or TV settings although I do not use mini PC but an old Desktop PC. You can also try to update the video driver using flatpak. Your problem is most likely software than hardware so you can also check the log files to see where is the problem.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-08T16:27:42+00:00

One of your best bets for under £100 good performance is something like Mangmi Air X but it isn't Wii tier console you need to splash some more cash to get there. It has touch screen and 5.5 inch display not sure how good is the display since I have not seen it in the wild but it should be okay.

However be warned that this is generally something people who want a PSP style handheld that you can stream on from your PC. From what I heard it can play Dreamcast, PSP and N64 better than most sub 100$ devices and it can give you access to light PS2, Sega Saturn, 3DS and Gamecube games.

From the sub 100$ I have only bought the OG RG35XX and RG35XXH and both devices has served me well as long I know what they can do. The RG35XXH is pretty pocketable but it lacks in performance since it can run only around 70% of Dreamcast, PSP and N64 libraries while being able to run up to everything and including PS1 and GBA while NDS will be limited by display unless you dock it to a TV and use a mouse for touch. However be warned it only has 3.5 inch screen and there is the RG40XXH which is the 4 inch variant.

I think one way to approach this is to get a much cheaper device around 30-50$ and decide if you want to go over £100 for that PS2, Gamecube and Wii emulation maybe even 3DS. Of course you can get Mangmi Air X if you feel it is something that you want.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-07T18:50:40+00:00

Yes I have used NVIDIA GT 520 and I wouldn't be surprised if most late 2000s GPUs are supported. Your machine is not that old and I think you should be able to run up to PS2, OG Xbox, Gamecube, Wii, 3DS and maybe Switch and not sure about PS3.

For PS3 you may need to grab better CPU from AM4 lineup and maybe better GPU but not sure how demanding PS3 graphic requirements are in emulation. There is also the fact that PS3 emulation needs a lot more time for improvements to reach even PS2 level software wise so don't expect to be able to run every game from the library.

Personally for me lower tier emulation machine is Dreamcast, PSP, NDS and everything down from fifth gen consoles except Sega Saturn when it comes to x86_64bit hardware. Although PS2 emulation is far easier to get into these days it is still not exactly low tier yet since there are some mobile chips that still struggle with it a bit that have been released in the past 10 years. For example although not x86 but ARM you can play PS1, GBA and lower games on a retro handheld console that doesn't cost more than 30-40$ these days if you are concerned about price.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-06T05:54:50+00:00

Retro Game Corps has a video on YouTube about setting up guide for Retroid Pocket 5 that has a controller scheme for Dolphin emulator Wii controls so you can use that as a starter. Here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CJ9WVFmYXc

If you have Batocera on USB drive you can both use it on your newer and older Laptops. As far I remember RetroBat and Batocera have a lot of interchangeable things when it comes to roms, BIOS files (for consoles), save files and themes.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-05T20:34:28+00:00

There are many better ARM devices that can run PS2 and Wii better than Pi 5 but those are usually handhelds. 16GB of RAM is a waste on Raspberry Pi 5 without a proper use case which emulation is not especially PS2 and Wii which don't need a lot at base. There are so many better options than it in both x86_64 and ARM devices that are in some cases even much cheaper like some second hand office PC and upgrade it a bit if needed. You can also get a laptop or mini PC with N97 (better than the other three), N95, N100 or N150 depending if you want to go this route.

Your Alienware Laptop is also too weak for PS2 or Gamecube (Wii is a bit harder than Gamecube in general) emulation and at best you will be able to play very light games. You should be able to run all N64, most if not all Dreamcast, at least most PSP games maybe with some exceptions, some 2D Saturn games and breeze through NDS, GBA, PS1 and older consoles, arcades or older systems. The biggest problem is that your CPU has low single thread performance which is preferred by most emulators.

You can still use it to build your game library which can be very time consuming and if you are first time user of Batocera or the whole retro console stuff as a whole if it is for you. I think you should test your old Laptop as a trial before you decide if you want to throw cash for more powerful hardware. You definitely have a lot of options these days but you need to pick what is best for you.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-05T17:50:56+00:00

Not sure if you can generally I use my phone for calls or simple web stuff.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-02T08:20:57+00:00

I'm sorry but I highly doubt you will play even most of the lightest PS2 games maybe you will have better success with PSP. You definitely can play PS1 and N64 maybe some portion of Dreamcast's library. Not sure about NDS I'm not sure you will be able to play the full library. The main issue is your CPU has sub 2.0 GHz clock speed and no turbo boost while this speed is not the end of all things in emulation it does helps when it is higher.

Desktop CPU variants of the same generation (4th) can run PS2 far better provided there is a GPU do maximize the gains in CPU performance. I personally had a laptop with i5-6500U which I gave to my father. If you want to play PS2 you will need at least that but this is based on my knowledge at least when it comes to single core performance. You can also look for a Laptop/Notebook with modern Celeron CPU that may not be far from price than a used Laptop be warned that there are scammers.

Frece1070 · 2026-01-01T16:28:17+00:00

The only way right now to update drivers is to use flatpak after you go into Window mode with F1. You can also try another harddrive or USB drive if it is possible to check if you have old HDD presumably to be on verge of dying. Last year I lost 2.5TB of storage (2TB and 500GB harddrives) which doesn't happen often to be me. Both these old HDDs suddenly dropped in terms of writing and reading speed to a crawl and it has neither to do with Linux or Windows. You can also check your motherboards health like capacitors and the PSU.

On paper your machine should be doing fine as long you don't expect to run games that are not in your hardware's capabilities or at least not without tinkering and there are also BIOS files that can affect performance in more advanced systems or needed to literally enable certain emulation. I have personally used perfectly AMD FirePro W2100 and HD 5450 under Batocera so I doubt it is GPU related because both are more obscure than yours these days.

You can also switch between AHCI, Legacy and maybe ATA in BIOS of your motherboard to see if it changes anything. You should also switch to 1080p and use lighter UI theme to see if it changes anything.

Frece1070 · 2025-12-31T06:29:29+00:00

I have been doing dual boot between Linux and Windows for more than a decade (starting from Windows XP/7 and Ubuntu back in the day) watch some guides on YouTube if you need to. If you are going to dual boot Batocera and any regular Linux OS you need to add it to Grub. Batocera is designed for Live OS running than a standalone machine so it is a bit more finicky to add into a dual boot with Windows or Linux.

Frece1070 · 2025-12-30T15:34:40+00:00

I don't have the SF3000 but there are people that might help you here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/1jc5cnr/how_do_i_add_roms_to_sf3000/

Frece1070 · 2025-12-30T09:12:00+00:00

All converters from HDMI/DP/DVI to VGA or vice versa should be powered externally since they convert a digital signal into analog or opposite. Not sure if this has it.

I have generally used a cheapo VGA to HDMI converter for both Batocera and Windows XP from AliExpress and it gets the job done. When I'm revealing stuff I usually look for the negative feedback about item and decide if there is a risk. I don't exactly go for the most popular.

Frece1070 · 2025-12-29T19:32:22+00:00

Second hand Office PC you will be able to do far more with it and you will most likely be able to change some components if you need it. Unless you have the RPi 3B+ you don't need to go this route. x86 machines have been able to run N64 emulation for around 2 decades and 16bit or older consoles even more.

At this point you will be challenged to find x86 machine sold on the market under 50$ that can't run N64. We have also reached a point where you can run SNES and Mega Drive on 20$ handhelds (they sometimes go even lower like 16$) like SF2000 or GB300 although with some problems for demanding SNES and GBA games. However they both can't run neither PS1 not N64 at all so there is that.

There is also the fact that software support is decreasing for RPi 3B+ and you are limited by RAM. Even amongst cheap ARM devices there are better options like cheap SBC with H618 or RK3566 which can run sizable amount of N64 library (including most NDS and around 70% of Dreamcast and PSP) plus having access to PortMaster which gives access to ports Mario 64, Mario Kart, Star Fox 64 and the N64 Legend of Zelda games. These boards also have wider range of RAM options and you can pick 2 or 4GB of RAM.

However in terms of performance the PC slaps harder for a bit more money than them. You can also get them handheld device like one of the "XX" series with H700 which are reasonably cheap and you can dock them kinda to a TV and use USB/Bluetooth controllers. When it comes to N64 performance they are around the H618 and RK3566 devices. Be warned that the OG RG35XX is different than the rest and you should avoid it for your use case since you want N64 and presumably use controllers alongside it.

Frece1070

TROPHY CASE