A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

punkrockguy318 · 2007-01-07 02:16:38

Hey all! I got the Wii for Christmas! And boy, am I sick and tired of paying $5-$10 for ever single classic NES/SNES/Genesis game, since I've already bought them all ten years ago.
So, I had a great idea: using Arch for a living room gaming platform. I've got an old 1.0ghz pentium three box that would be perfect for the task. I also have an extra video card with s-out to use to give composite out to the TV. I'll need to buy adapters for s-video to composite conversion and headphone jack to composite.

I'm also going to buy a USB wifi card and a Bluetooth adapter. The wifi card will be for updating arch and internet access, and the Bluetooth adapter will be for the Wiimote. I'd like to use the wiimote for nes and genesis games.

I'll let you know how my experience goes, and maybe post some code if I end up writing anything!

Acid7711 · 2007-01-07 04:40:03

Sounds interesting, I'm looking forward to hearing the outcome

syd · 2007-01-07 10:17:17

Looking foward to hearing how the Wiimote goes.

punkrockguy318 · 2007-01-07 13:47:29

My first obstacle (sort of) has been this: S-video or composite video

I've heard different things from different people. Which one would be more suitable?

RedShift · 2007-01-07 16:18:05

S-video is better. What TV do you have btw, there are alot of television sets out there that support D-SUB.

deficite · 2007-01-07 16:23:11

punkrockguy318 wrote:

My first obstacle (sort of) has been this: S-video or composite video
I've heard different things from different people. Which one would be more suitable?

Definitely S-Video. Many graphics cards have S-Video built into them as a standard feature anyway. If your TV has VGA or DVI/HDMI you could even go that route (I hooked up a laptop to our 32" LCD 1080i TV and it looked just fine over VGA, and ran at 60Hz)

pauldonnelly · 2007-01-08 01:15:56

S-Video FTW. Combining everything into one channel degrades the quality of the picture. Component video would be best, but I don't know of any cards with that.

punkrockguy318 · 2007-01-09 03:26:26

Alright. My DVD player is currently hooked up to my TV using s-video, but I'll buy some composite cables and put it into my shared AV cable extension cord

iBertus · 2007-01-09 06:19:14

For playing emulated S/NES games you really don't have to worry about which is best between S-Video and composite. You probably won't be able to notice a difference.

pauldonnelly · 2007-01-09 06:51:32

That's true. The somewhat degraded signal might even be a plus in that situation. More old school and everything. But if he wants to watch video on it or use the desktop for anything I think better interconnects might be a plus.

jftaylor21 · 2007-01-10 23:54:54

If you get the desktop looking good on your tv, can you post your system and tv specs? I currently use my computer to play dvds on my tv because I am too cheap to buy a dvd player and my surround sound does not have digital decoding. So I use my computer to handle it. It looks okay while playing dvds (only the display looks slightly to the left on the tv screen), but the tv display looks like crap while on the desktop.

Thanks in advance.

P.S.
I have only tried this in windows. I am going to try in linux when I get time.

iphitus · 2007-01-11 11:42:29

one problem with the wiimote, unless you get the addon, it hasnt got enough buttons for a genesis/snes gamepad.

it'd be cheaper to get a logitech or third party USB gamepad than a bluetooth receiver, (which is what I did) and that'll work just as well, providing many more buttons... but not wireless unless you get a more expensive one.

James

punkrockguy318 · 2007-01-11 11:59:05

True, but the wiimote does has a classic controller expansion and also doubles as a mouse.

amunimanghi · 2007-02-26 02:49:35

How is the progress so far?

mcrae · 2007-06-07 11:45:27

Any update on this thread? Any results or did you run into a deal breaking problem?

McRae

Arch Linux

#1 2007-01-07 02:16:38

A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#2 2007-01-07 04:40:03

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#3 2007-01-07 10:17:17

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#4 2007-01-07 13:47:29

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#5 2007-01-07 16:18:05

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#6 2007-01-07 16:23:11

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#7 2007-01-08 01:15:56

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#8 2007-01-09 03:26:26

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#9 2007-01-09 06:19:14

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#10 2007-01-09 06:51:32

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#11 2007-01-10 23:54:54

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#12 2007-01-11 11:42:29

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#13 2007-01-11 11:59:05

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#14 2007-02-26 02:49:35

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

#15 2007-06-07 11:45:27

Re: A mission: Living Room Gaming PC with Arch

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