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I'm researching a media PC for the living room. Playing videos, audio and streaming Internet is straightforward enough. I would also like to run a gaming console system. I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this.

So far I've discovered that a PS3 controller (thankfully it uses USB and Bluetooth) can be connected to a PC.

I've also found that MAME, MESS and PCSX2 are all the emulators I need (I can even emulate a TI-83 calculator with MESS).

These emulators can re-map keys, so for example I can make the Nintendo's A button to the PS3 X button, or the SNES key pad could be the PS3 keypad or the analog stick.

There are also front-ends to these emulators which can do fancy things like image scaling, anti-aliasing and double-buffering to improve the image quality of an 8-bit Mario on a 50 inch plasma.

My set up would be this:

  1. PS3 controller connecting over Bluetooth to the PC,
  2. PC with Windows, PS3 controller drivers, all my emulators,
  3. Network drive with all my ROMs,
  4. PC connected to TV via HDMI
  5. TV playing Super Mario Kart

Does this sound feasible? Does anyone have experience of doing anything like this?

Is this a good idea or should I grow up and stop living in the past?

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  • Sounds fantastic! I'd love to have something like that. And YES it is totally possible. And it should be very easy.
    – Thomas B.
    Commented Sep 1, 2010 at 5:18

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Sounds feasable. You may want to look into using XBMC as your interface, as you can get your media and emulator stuff all running, and controllable via the ps3 controller.

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  • If you softmod an xbox and install XBMC i believe you can do all that and even play xbox games.
    – James Mertz
    Commented Sep 1, 2010 at 5:19
  • No need to mod an xbox, XBMC has a windows installer.
    – Ryan Gooler
    Commented Sep 1, 2010 at 17:36

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