Game Console Emulator - Wii vs Xbox?

[clok1966]

Swapping a new HDD into an XBox might be an arguably neater solution when its all said and done, but the Wii can work with USB hard drives to load ROMs so hard drive capacity is not really an advantage for the XBox unless you're dealing strictly with stock consoles (as the Wii is only 512MB flash vs. 8-10GB HDD on the XBox, although Wii can take SDHC cards up to 32GB for the easiest/cheapest capacity upgrade of them all, and way more than enough capacity for any emulators + ROMs the two systems can run at full speed). And when we consider the XBox uses IDE cables, you'd need an IDE/SATA adapter to mod in a new drive which can make things a little trickier than they already are, otherwise a used IDE drive is going leave you with limited capacity and reliability.

I'm a pretty big fan of the original XBox and particularly of how future proof it has been, but I think that USB2.0 and current support has given the Wii the edge, and that the XBox has been on its way out in terms of practicality. On the one hand its really cool that it can output HD resolutions whereas the Wii cannot, on the other hand neither system is really fast enough for putting out HD content anyway (other than upscaling truly retro emulators, which has pretty diminishing returns)

You have some great points, I was looking at it more price. I have the Wii and WODE and i must admit is quite nice but again you are looking at the MOD and the HD prices (softmodding would save some, but you still need a HD or a bunch of 32 meg cards). And you can still buy a IDE HD (not as cheap as one would like but 500 go for $50). I can see both as ok choices. Your mention of the USB 2 is a big downer, I have used external USB with the 360, but not to sure on the adapters for the USB on the controller ports for the original xbox.


lots of good options.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

You have some great points, I was looking at it more price. I have the Wii and WODE and i must admit is quite nice but again you are looking at the MOD and the HD prices (softmodding would save some, but you still need a HD or a bunch of 32 meg cards). And you can still buy a IDE HD (not as cheap as one would like but 500 go for $50). I can see both as ok choices. Your mention of the USB 2 is a big downer, I have used external USB with the 360, but not to sure on the adapters for the USB on the controller ports for the original xbox.


lots of good options.

yeah that's a curious point about USB

USB2.0 was released April 2000, so there's a chance the XBox's (released November 15, 2001) custom USB ports are USB2.0

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Buy an old desktop. Buy a $80 LCD. And use that. Especially if you only want NES, SNES and MAME games working. An old desktop will have more than enough horsepower. You just have to figure out the controller.

With Mame, only a few games I have encountered need a lot of CPU horsepower.

 

[lamedude]

yeah that's a curious point about USB

USB2.0 was released April 2000, so there's a chance the XBox's (released November 15, 2001) custom USB ports are USB2.0

Doesn't look like it.

 

[RedBeard]

I'd recommend running native.

Check around craigslist and get yourself an actual NES/SNES/Genesis.
It is so much better playing on the original hardware than emulated. You can even pick up flash cartridges for the systems here:

http://krikzz.com/

They work wonderfully.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I'd recommend running native.

if one really cares about the retro experience, I would agree, however for someone just looking to have easy access like the OP appears to be, then its likely far too much money/hassle to bother with

Check around craigslist and get yourself an actual NES/SNES/Genesis.

those consoles might still be viable, but good luck getting reasonable deals with gems like TurboGrafx and NeoGeo

It is so much better playing on the original hardware than emulated. You can even pick up flash cartridges for the systems here:

http://krikzz.com/

They work wonderfully.

Flash carts are a pretty brilliant solution, but whether or not its better can be subjective. For instance, emulators can make the old games look much nicer on modern digital TVs, and while the native consoles can be made to look nice as well, that's going to be a good deal more money on top of it all (going to cost time/money to get at least S-Video cables, but preferably RGB, which might even require some modding, and likely some conversion hardware for the TV if we're dealing with RGB/SCART)

Cost of original consoles (~$30 for the common ones like NES/SNES/Genesis) could mean spending close to $100 just for 3 consoles

Cost average of the flash cartridges is over $100, for instance the best (and likely only truly worthwhile) one for the SNES is close to $200 and still doesn't guarantee complete compatibility, the SNES being particularly notorious because of all the extra chips found inside inside the game carts (http://sd2snes.de/blog/compatibility), meaning no support for major titles like StarFox, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island, or Super Mario RPG (titles frequently ranking up there with the best SNES games of all time, often making top 10 lists...)

When its all said and done we're looking at at least $500 just for the NES/SNES/Genesis(MD), and this is before we start to consider any image quality improvements (better cables, mods, conversion hardware, etc)

For that kind of money we could build an awesome PC just for emulation that will be able to do far more more than those 3 systems, or for far less we can do it with a Wii or XBox (options that will cost ~$50, including component cables), even better if we already have such options like the OP does.