Building a Retro Gaming System: A High-End Approach

As I began my journey to build a high-end retro gaming system, I wanted to test the limits of what's possible with modern hardware. My starting point was a $350 PC powered by a 2,200 GHz APU with eight gigabytes of RAM, which seemed like a decent foundation for emulating older consoles. However, I soon realized that I needed to upgrade to more powerful components to achieve smooth performance.

To start, I focused on Dreamcast emulation using the Redream emulator. This emulator is impressive, and I was able to run games at 1080p with ease. I also tested other games, such as Super Smash Bros., and was pleased to find that performance was great, with all of them running at 60 frames per second. I left links to my previous videos in the description, where I built a PC powered by a 2,200 GHz APU and eight gigabytes of RAM, as well as my experiences with other emulators.

Next up, I turned my attention to GameCube and Wii emulation using the Dolphin emulator. This emulator is fantastic, and I was able to run games such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at 60 frames per second. However, I did notice some dips in performance from time to time. Despite this, I was pleased with the overall performance, especially considering that the emulator is still relatively new.

I also tested PCSX2, a PS2 emulator, which ran games such as Ratchet and Clank at 720p. While performance was good, there were some instances of dips in performance, with frames per second dropping as low as 55 FPS. However, overall, I found the emulator to be reliable and perform well.

Another emulator I tested was Simu, a Wii U emulator that ran The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild at 60 frames per second. This was impressive, especially considering that the game is one of the most demanding titles available for the Wii U. However, when running games like Bayonetta 2, which require more processing power, performance dropped to around 30 FPS.

In contrast, my PS3 emulator performed well with games such as Tekken 6, although I did notice some glitches in older versions of the game. When running games like Skate 3, however, performance was poor due to the CPU's limitations. Even with a 3.9 GHz overclock, I found that the system struggled to maintain 60 frames per second.

In retrospect, the main challenge with emulating older consoles is CPU performance. The APU in my initial build may have been sufficient for some emulators, but others required more powerful components to achieve smooth performance. As a result, I realized that the best way to emulate retro games was to use a PC with more modern hardware.

I left links to my previous videos and detailed explanations of how to build this system in the description, where you can find benchmarking results and step-by-step instructions for setting up the emulators. If you're interested in building your own high-end retro gaming system, I highly recommend checking out these resources. With a little creativity and investment in modern hardware, it's possible to create an incredible gaming experience that rivals even today's modern systems.

One of my next projects is to build a system specifically designed for small form-factor gaming. This will require some creative solutions, but I'm excited to explore the possibilities of compact retro gaming. With this new build, I aim to push the limits of what's possible in retro gaming, and I invite you to join me on this journey.

As always, thank you for watching, and I look forward to sharing my future projects with you. If you have any questions or comments about this build, feel free to leave them in the section below.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwhat's going on guys the CTA Prime back here again recently I did a three-part series on building the gaming PC now I kind of want to get this out of the way before we even get started this rig was not built for 550 dollars specifically for emulation this was built for PC gaming but since I have it sitting here I figured I'd go ahead and make an emulation video with this rig in this video I'm going to be testing some higher-end emulators to see how they perform on here lower end stuffs gonna run fine PSP SNES NES Naomi atomiswave PC engines Sega Saturn Genesis 32x Sega CD all that stuff and retroarch is gonna work fine on a unit like this but I wanted to test the higher-end stuff that a lot of people are moving over to like Dreamcast game cube we ps2 ps3 and Wii U I've made a three part series on building a unit like this it started as a $350 PC powered by a 2,200 G APU with eight gigabytes of RAM and then eventually I added a gtx 1660 so that's what we're working with here I'll leave links in the description to those other videos and the parts used in this build so with all that out of the way let's get into some emulation so first up we have some Dreamcast emulation using the redream emulator this emulator is awesome I've been able to run this on lower end systems also with no trouble at all this is set at 1080p you can go higher with this system I also tested a few other games and performance was great all at 60fps next up we have another fantastic emulator this is dolphin it does GameCube and Wii on screen we have Smash Brothers running but I also tested Super Mario Sunshine Metroid Prime and Mario Galaxy using the Wii part of this emulator all of them perform fine here we have pcsx2 the ps2 emulator running Ratchet and Clank um at 720p performance is pretty great but every once in a while you will notice a dip I've seen it drop as low as about 55 FPS in some situations but overall I think it performs pretty decently this is Shadow of the Colossus using the same pcsx2 emulator at 720p it performs much better than I thought it would on this system simu the WiiU emulator running breath of the wild so as you can see up in the top left hand corner we have the FPS running when I look up in the sky we can get about 60 FPS I do have FPS + + on + simu hook installed I can only get around 30 FPS in game with this system so if you're ok with 30 FPS in this game which I'm totally fine with you can play it on this system no problem even though breath of the wild was only running at 30 FPS there are still some Wii games that are gonna run at 60 here's Mario Kart 8 and you got to keep in mind that this emulator and the next one you're gonna see here a relatively newer emulator so over time performance will get better and better here's one more for Wii U this is Bayonetta 2 I do see some dips every once in a while but performance is pretty steady with this one our PCs three the ps3 emulator this is Tekken 6 as you can see there's a lot of glitching going on and in older versions it doesn't do this but it doesn't perform as well so I had to stick with the newest version here hopefully this can be fixed in the future because this game will run at full speed on the system one more for our pcs three this is skate three if we take a look up in the top left-hand corner our CPU is totally maxed out and even with a 3.9 gigahertz overclock you're still not gonna get great performance with this game let me put it this way my main gaming machine has a 9600 K that's a six core CPU it's overclocked to 5.1 gigahertz and my GPU is an RT X xx atti I still can't get this game to lock at 60fps in every area and on that rig the audio is a little better than this but not by much so in the end the bad performance that some of these emulators really boils down to CPU performance you need good single core performance and multi-core performance which the 2200 G is lacking in both areas when compared to some Intel CPUs even the i3 8100 Trump's this and single and multi core performance they're both quad-core CPUs around the same clock speed but Intel just does it a little differently still there are thousands and thousands of retro games that you can play on this and it's actually a pretty good PC gaming machine also like I mentioned I'm going to leave links to the other three videos that I did I've done some benchmarking I showed you how to build this and set everything up it actually worked out pretty well and for the price it's really hard to beat unless you go used so that's pretty much it for this video guys I really appreciate you watching keep an eye on the channel because I do have a higher end build coming up very shortly and it's super small form-factor of course it's going to cost more than a system like this but it's definitely gonna outperform it I'd really appreciate it if you can hit that like button maybe subscribe to the channel and like always thanks for watching youwhat's going on guys the CTA Prime back here again recently I did a three-part series on building the gaming PC now I kind of want to get this out of the way before we even get started this rig was not built for 550 dollars specifically for emulation this was built for PC gaming but since I have it sitting here I figured I'd go ahead and make an emulation video with this rig in this video I'm going to be testing some higher-end emulators to see how they perform on here lower end stuffs gonna run fine PSP SNES NES Naomi atomiswave PC engines Sega Saturn Genesis 32x Sega CD all that stuff and retroarch is gonna work fine on a unit like this but I wanted to test the higher-end stuff that a lot of people are moving over to like Dreamcast game cube we ps2 ps3 and Wii U I've made a three part series on building a unit like this it started as a $350 PC powered by a 2,200 G APU with eight gigabytes of RAM and then eventually I added a gtx 1660 so that's what we're working with here I'll leave links in the description to those other videos and the parts used in this build so with all that out of the way let's get into some emulation so first up we have some Dreamcast emulation using the redream emulator this emulator is awesome I've been able to run this on lower end systems also with no trouble at all this is set at 1080p you can go higher with this system I also tested a few other games and performance was great all at 60fps next up we have another fantastic emulator this is dolphin it does GameCube and Wii on screen we have Smash Brothers running but I also tested Super Mario Sunshine Metroid Prime and Mario Galaxy using the Wii part of this emulator all of them perform fine here we have pcsx2 the ps2 emulator running Ratchet and Clank um at 720p performance is pretty great but every once in a while you will notice a dip I've seen it drop as low as about 55 FPS in some situations but overall I think it performs pretty decently this is Shadow of the Colossus using the same pcsx2 emulator at 720p it performs much better than I thought it would on this system simu the WiiU emulator running breath of the wild so as you can see up in the top left hand corner we have the FPS running when I look up in the sky we can get about 60 FPS I do have FPS + + on + simu hook installed I can only get around 30 FPS in game with this system so if you're ok with 30 FPS in this game which I'm totally fine with you can play it on this system no problem even though breath of the wild was only running at 30 FPS there are still some Wii games that are gonna run at 60 here's Mario Kart 8 and you got to keep in mind that this emulator and the next one you're gonna see here a relatively newer emulator so over time performance will get better and better here's one more for Wii U this is Bayonetta 2 I do see some dips every once in a while but performance is pretty steady with this one our PCs three the ps3 emulator this is Tekken 6 as you can see there's a lot of glitching going on and in older versions it doesn't do this but it doesn't perform as well so I had to stick with the newest version here hopefully this can be fixed in the future because this game will run at full speed on the system one more for our pcs three this is skate three if we take a look up in the top left-hand corner our CPU is totally maxed out and even with a 3.9 gigahertz overclock you're still not gonna get great performance with this game let me put it this way my main gaming machine has a 9600 K that's a six core CPU it's overclocked to 5.1 gigahertz and my GPU is an RT X xx atti I still can't get this game to lock at 60fps in every area and on that rig the audio is a little better than this but not by much so in the end the bad performance that some of these emulators really boils down to CPU performance you need good single core performance and multi-core performance which the 2200 G is lacking in both areas when compared to some Intel CPUs even the i3 8100 Trump's this and single and multi core performance they're both quad-core CPUs around the same clock speed but Intel just does it a little differently still there are thousands and thousands of retro games that you can play on this and it's actually a pretty good PC gaming machine also like I mentioned I'm going to leave links to the other three videos that I did I've done some benchmarking I showed you how to build this and set everything up it actually worked out pretty well and for the price it's really hard to beat unless you go used so that's pretty much it for this video guys I really appreciate you watching keep an eye on the channel because I do have a higher end build coming up very shortly and it's super small form-factor of course it's going to cost more than a system like this but it's definitely gonna outperform it I'd really appreciate it if you can hit that like button maybe subscribe to the channel and like always thanks for watching you\n"