Generic console?
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I see a lot of knockoff game consoles, especially handhelds, that come pre-loaded with obviously unauthorized copies of proprietary games.
Are there any that come blank, or that can easily be made blank, or that come with only free/libre/open-source games, or that come with Lakka or the like built in rather than a cruddy menu of supposedly thousands of games but are in reality only a few dozen?
There is no "game console" - only computers. Once you realize that you'll see anything can work for this purpose, even a laptop or a cell phone running Replicant (it's the form factor that matters; it wouldn't need to have cell phone service.) Or any of these other handheld devices.
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What I would do is this:
1. Get a small form factor desktop PC with HDMI out
2. Get a good USB gaming controller
3. Collect and install a bunch of good free/libre games
4. Configure all the games to work with the controller (this is the
hard part!)
5. Install RetroArch
6. Configure RetroArch to launch all those games from a nice menu
7. Configure the PC to boot straight into RetroArch
Bam! Now, you have a fancy little gaming console! I'd recommend
putting it into a cool case, like one that looks like an Atari 2600.
Hmm, this gets me thinking... The homebrew scene for many consoles has been and is very active and produced some great libre games. Seeing that most emulators are Free Software, putting together a list of libre homebrew games might be useful.
Really? I've never seen even a decent libre homebrew game, and I've only ever seen one in total.
I had a lot of fun with https://github.com/WagicProject/wagic for example
What does that have to do with consoles or emulators? That seems like a regular computer game.
It's available for different platforms, one of them being the Sony PSP. Iirc this was the first platform they developed the game for, as well. This makes it a homebrew that could be played with the libre PPPSSPP emulator (just so happens that there are versions for ARM and x86 now, which would make it more or less pointless in this particular scenario depending on the platform - but the point still stands).
My kids are fans of SuperTux and SuperTuxCart.
Plenty of other decent games here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games I know I know, "open source" doesn't mean "free", and even GPL'd software sometimes uses proprietary data or art.
Thanks.
I guess in my question I was really looking for a Retroarch capable handheld. I'll talk about that in another post in this therad.
But as far as a "desktop" or TV-connected home console system goes, I've already started to go down the road you suggested. I wanted to get this: https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-mini-2-gnulinux-desktop but the wife insisted on an integrated optical drive so the kids could play CDs and DVDs. Their TV is a little white CRT TV/VCR, and that part of the house is very light colored, so the device needs to be basically white. So even if ThinkPenguin had been selling this https://www.thinkpenguin.com/gnu-linux/penguin-mini-b-edition-gnu-linux-desktop at the time it wouldn't have been suitable. Anyway I ended up buying an AOPEN MP945-VX, which is an old Windows XP knock-off of the Apple Mac Mini (back when the Mini came with a built-in optical disk slot). It came without the hard disk, though, so I also got a Crucial SSD to put in. It looks like a potential big challenge to open the case and install the SSD, and we decided that the kids had gotten enough for Christmas and we'd save this for summer vacation or the older kid's birthday, so I've procrastinated. I've verified it powers on (the fan is LOUD) and it can boot into 32-bit OSs from the DVD drive. Upcoming issues: the SSD install, installing Lakka, configuring it to work with a square screen CRT, uploading games, etc.
Yikes. It would be a lot easier to just use a PS2 (CD and DVD capability, big game library including authorized disks of retro games), but of course it's proprietary, no Retroarch / Lakka style UI, and she vetoed it anyway. It would also have been easier to get one of the modded Raspberry Pi case systems on eBay which come with Retroarch pre-installed, such as the Retro-G, but that has no optical drive.
Handheld, you say?
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/
This topic is in the wrong forum, by the way. It should probably be in the Troll Lounge.
This sounds cool!
"How hard" is the configuring controller part?
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I'd also put a TV tuner on it, and find a way to integrate
RetroArch/MythTV/Kodi. This would make a beautiful, awesome
entertainment machine.
Which is great, because most TV set top boxes are nasty devices running
malicious proprietary software. The TV won't even stay on when you ask
it to! It just shuts off whenever it feels like. Not cool!
i have a zipit z2. a old little handheld computer.
https://mozzwald.com/zipitz2
this guys been getting retro style games working on it:
http://macrofig.blogspot.fr/
i think he ported some emulators.
there getting harder and more expensive to get now.
Thanks for the tips, everyone.
As far as handhelds go, I'm trying to get one that can run Retroarch, preferably one that could boot straight to the Lakka interface (I love the Sony "Xross Media Bar" user interface and Lakka closely resembles that). I also prefer to have the full PS3 style button set - four action buttons, two sticks, two trigger buttons each, etc.
I see a ton of cheap retro handhelds (lookalikes of the PSP, Game Boy, and PSP Vita, the latter of which I'd be most interested in) on eBay that don't seem configurable - they come with "built in" retro games (usually unauthorized copies of proprietary software) and don't seem to be able to be wiped to install a free OS and custom interface and MY choice of games. If I'm wrong and they CAN be wiped to run Retroarch and Lakka I'd love to know it.
If I spend a LOT more money I have more options:
1) A hacked PS Vita with RetroArch. I'm a bit leery of that for ethical and security reasons.
2) There are also modded Game Boy Advance cases with an internal Raspberry PI and Retroarch, but they don't have the full button set or analog sticks and there's no headphone jack.
3) I could get an Android handheld console like the GPD XD, the monster JXD S192K, the smaller JXD S5800 or (although its sticks are above the D pad and control buttons and it only has two not four shoulder/trigger buttons).
I doubt any of those would work with Replicant, but at least I could run Retroarch.
Or I could get one of the Replicant smartphones from Techno ethical and attach it to a PS3 style controller via one of the clip-holders you can get. Clunky and also expensive, but it might work... I could save some money maybe by doing my own Replicant install onto a compatible device I bought myself https://www.replicant.us/supported-devices.php and but that's pretty daunting...
Just checked and it looks like it's not straightforward just being able to get and load RetroArch on Replicant / F-Droid. Even enabling anti-features and outdated repositories only gets you a 4 year old version. What a huge pain...
I use a Thinkpad T400 connected via VGA to a flatscreen TV. It is a cheap solution (less than 100 EUR) for libre gaming.
A usb gamepad can be used to play Supertux and other games.
Mobile devices using a Texas Instruments processor (such as the Pandora and Pyra) don't need any blobs to boot, but WIFI and OpenGL are non-functional in the free world.
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