Using an LCD adds unacceptable delays, even if you get a very expensive upscaler (though they do reduce it a lot, but not entirely) at which point you lose all of the advantage of using original hardware or an expensive hardware emulator.
If you're going to play on an LCD, just use a PC with the Duckstation, Mesen, Dolphin, MAME, Final Burn Neo, and PCSX2 emulators, which will get you all of the popular retro systems emulated more than good enough. Retroarch can be added if you need some of the other systems.
Note also that if you play on a sufficiently high-res and high-refresh monitor, there are some really convincing CRT simulation shaders, including realistic phosphor delay.
There's two exceptions to the above: N64 emulation is still not perfect, and if you want to play something more obscure, the available emulators may just not be good enough, such as for example the CDi and 3DO. In those cases, real hardware is better even if you don't have a CRT.
Edit: Oh and of course handhelds are honestly best played in handheld form factor. Either get original hardware, or one of the million small handheld emulation devices, all these systems are emulated near perfectly.
It really depends. My father found my old consoles in the loft and I decided to get them working.
- PlayStation 1,2 and Dreamcast are easy to get, easily to repair. Normally the biggest problem will be CD/DVD-ROM drive that is bad. These consoles are extremely reliable other than the DVD/CD drive. Repairing such as this are simple and can be done in literally minutes, with a screw driver.
- Games are relatively inexpensive for PS1, PS2 and Dreamcast. Yes Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Castlevania Symphony of the night will £500 for a copy, but the vast majority of games can be found in Good Condition for £5-20. Absolute mint condition games will be about £30-50. I buy a couple of games a month for each console and have a nice small collection of classic games (not anything too crazy, but decent).
- I was missing cables for the consoles (long since lost). I got official controllers, and cables for reasonable amount of money. Memory cards were cheap. I did have to take apart the old controllers and service them, but again nothing major.
- If you have a slightly older (late-2000s/early-2010s) LCD TV, the upscaler will actually work properly and the games look pretty reasonable. You can get HDMI upscalers for a reasonable price for these consoles. Cheap upscalers can be bought online for PS1/PS2 and Dreamcast and the results are "OK".
Emulation is obviously easier, with a few caveats. You must find a BIOS for the PS1 and PS2. These can be easily found with some googling. Also DuckStation has licensing doesn't allow it to be repackaged for your <linux distro>, so you have to use their app image or download & compile yourself. Which is a bit annoying, as I don't really know what to do with AppImages.
They're self-contained. You make them executable and run them. Store them in /use/local/bin or wherever you want.
Side node: The same thing works on phones, too. While most of the games are not very fun on a touch screen, I've found that turn based games like RPGs hold up remarkably well.
edit: I'm referring to AppleTV the box, not the service
If you are going to buy a Wii U for wii games, make sure you buy one that actually has a gamepad, since they are useless without one (efforts are currently underway to make a working replacement, but currently you need a whole computer to pretend to be one)
I wouldn't recommend it for non-technical people, but people here would probably be fine.
After installing a custom firmware on the PS3, I am now able to play my PS2 games, and also have the benefit of using HDMI without an expensive upscaler.
Turns out, the PS3 satisfied my needs to relive childhood memories, although I never had one as a kid growing up.
Also, I started reading books again. A pretty hassle-free childhood memory, to say the least.
Far better experience than traditional emulation.
I'd say "retro console" in the linux handheld sense is the best value hobby gadget to buy for the HN crowd.
Man, I have a PS3 here. Not really as part of a retro collection, it was just the PS3 I bought close to the end of PS3 days. I never thought of that thing as retro. I now feel extremely old.
Either way, yeah, owning original hardware is something for hobbyists. To play ancient consoles as they were meant to be played you will be looking for CRT TVs, sometimes you will need to repair shit.
If you just want to experience old games, emulation is the way to go. Retroarch is an amazing tool for that, especially if you take the time to adjust settings (such as shaders for example) to make the pixel art look better on modern monitors.
Unless you absolutely need to play these games away from home and a phone isn't good enough, please just emulate on a computer instead of paying a subscription for some mediocre emulators that you can't even own permanently.
Also, the article really should mention why cheap generic HDMI converters are bad instead of just saying they're not recommended (the lower video quality is obvious, but what's less obvious is that they usually have significant latency that may make certain types of games much less pleasant to play)
