Turn An Old Cheap PC Into An Emulation Dream Machine!

In this video, I show you how to turn an old office PC or Laptop into an emulation powerhouse using Batocera! This can for very cheap and easily using an old office PC from Lenovo, Dell or HP but I recommend using at least a 3rd gen intel i5 or better.
THIS VIDEO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES ONLY!
This video covers it all from installing the Batocera to Adding Games, Setting up controllers, Changing themes, confining a controller for the DOlphin emulator, and More. So if you are interested in playing your favorite retro games like PS2, Dreamcast, Gamecube, SNES, Sega Saturn, Neogeo, Sega mega drive, and many many more then this tutorial is for you!

00:00-Intro
00:30-Overview
01:40-Items Needed
03:47-Batocera Installation
06:45-Transfer Games
07:54-PC Setup
08:38-Bios Setup
09:55-First Boot
10:25-Controller Set-Up
11:05-Adding Games
14:32-Adding Box Art / Scraping Art Work
16:35-Adding & Changing Batocera Theme
18:27-Configure Dolphin Emulator Controller
21:07-CHanging Default Emulators / Batocer Redream

Equipment I Use:

DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you!

This video and Channel and Video are for viewers 14 years older and up. This video is not made for viewers under the age of 14.

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ETAPRIME
12520 Capital Blvd Ste 401 Number 108
Wake Forest, NC 27587 US

THIS VIDEO IS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND DEVELOPMENT PURPOSES ONLY!

#etaprime #Batocera DISCLAIMER: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. No Games Or Applications Are Included Or Added On Or To Any Device In This Video

[jjayala]

I got sober a few years ago and video games became my favorite hobby. I'm loving learning all this types of stuff and one of my kids helped me rig my vita up a while back. I'd love to get into doing this on old pcs and making handhelds.

[ahimanyu]

Woohoo..now my old pc will no longer be a coffee table...

[Zeron]

I absolutely love this video, not just because it was quite educational when it came to creating your own emulator machine, but how much you went into the little tricks that might help a first time user setting it up. plus easy to follow instructions. Now just gotta find myself the proper console i want to use.

[nux]

When i discovered your channel i saw your first batocera guide and since that day I havent been so happy playing old school games on my potato PC, you are an absolute legend Sir.

[wyrenutz]

Thanks great video. Finally someone did a step by step that makes it easier. A lot of videos skip over some steps or information.

[petruccilewis]

I recently built a pc with a 4th gen i5 I had laying around and install batocera on it. As I thought, this video has actually helped me with some useful tips I didn't know about, thank you c:

[darylcline]

I’ve been slowly getting in to emulating games and I gotta say this is so far is the best video I’ve come across

[LordTenebrum]

You are a wholesome and passionate man talking about setting up an emulator station. In all your videos, you do it for your audience and for yourself. I notice that you really enjoy showing us what you like or what you discover. You are like a lil' kid talking about your fav toy car. Love your videos, man! Keep going on! Hope you are doing good after being sick!

[SRC]

To get boxart for Marvel vs. Capcom, you need to rename the file to: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (USA)

[bluephreakr]

Pro tip: If you have a separate PC, use a USB stick to write Ventoy onto it, _then_ fetch an image for basically any Arch derivative that will work for you. Provided the target computer doesn't have Windows already, you can use that to fetch from the AUR *balena-etcher* and then use _that_ with your PC to flash Batocera onto your larget machine's internal media.

You then a) do absolutely nothing with your main PC except download games, b) have a spare OS on hand via Ventoy to boot into and c) don't need to spend the extra dosh on a USB to SATA adapter.

[ynnebbenny]

Can I just say I really enjoy and appreciate all your videos. I often wonder how you dont tire of doing them, but appreciate that you keep churning them out. I LOVE that you dont waffle on about non related stuff and your videos are ALWAYS on subject and packed with lots of info.
Seeing this recent video makes me want to try Batocera again. I think as good as the Pi4 is, a cheap i5 or i7 already comes ready for action. Size doesn't matter when moulting in a cabinet. Actually it doesnt even really matter when under a TV either.
Thank YOU !!!

[SketchModsThings]

As always, great stuff! I'll definitely use one of these for my arcade builds

[JonathanHolt]

One thing that's cool is if you choose redream and you've bought the full version, you can place the redream key in the configuration folder. Once you play a game after selecting redream, the config folder will show up (it won't until you've opened a game with redream). Then you'll have the ability to have more save States and higher resolution.

[TheSulross]

Not even a gamer but enjoy these kind of videos as am fascinated about subject of emulating retro computers and game consoles to the point of being viable for play to contemporary gamers - and is a bit amusing that the x86-64-bit PCs used to run the emulation software are themselves on the verge of slipping into retro status :-)

[acejon]

Thanks for the update. I first got into Batocera watching the original setup video 2 years ago!

[karimh]

This is an update to the first video i watched on this channel. You change my gaming life with it, I appreciate it man. Thank you.

[ThePlev]

Thanks for taking the time to explain the entire process. Can't be easy making these long videos. I'm going to get the USB adapter to flash a spare SSD to swap in and out of my 3050 since it is so easy to do. 1 win 10 ssd and 1 batocera SSD.

[Neevoks]

Great video! I realized I had a completely empty hard drive installed in my old computer, which is hooked up to the TV in the living room for watching stuff online.
Now my old PC is multi-functional, I can either boot it up as a Windows PC or as the Batocera gaming station. It only took about an hour to get it set up to play NES and SNES games, had a blast last night with my girlfriend revisiting games from childhood.

[tongoso]

This is amazing and super helpful, thank you so much for creating this tutorial!!

[FerrumBellator]

Also good to know if you can't get into the bios a lot of the oem pre-built pcs have a little jumper pin that you either remove or move over to the other pin beside it and it will remove the lock on the bios.