Dreamcast Emulation Retroarch

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Barbra Lidder

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Aug 3, 2024, 6:01:23 PM8/3/24

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I use retroarch (lakka 2.32) on an old laptop with a celeron dual core processor, integrated intel graphics and 2gb of RAM (yes i know its crap). Surprisingly i can play most games up to n64 and psx without trouble, also some dreamcast, saturn and even Gamecube games( with glitches and slowdowns though).

Thanks a lot for your answer. Yeah i was fearing that a ram upgrade wasnt going to improve things a lot, but i had to give it a shot. Well since i cant upgrade the CPU i have to start saving for a new pc.

I really like RetroArch as a program, but I'm not a big fan of Lakka. In theory, the barebone minimum RetroArch (Lakka) should be one of the best choices, but I find Lakka runs really janky unless you do some configuring (especially on lower end systems). I'd actually suggest giving Batocera a try.

Like Lakka, it's a custom version of Linux that's built to just add games and go (give or take some BIOS files). I found it works surprisingly well even with some old office computers with no video card. I was able to run a couple PS2 games with it. It can be a tad finicky, but I still like it better than Lakka. Granted, I may have just been impatient with Lakka. *shrugs*

If you plug the flash drive into a Linux OS, you can just browse it and add the files you want/need to the file folders. Windows won't see it by default, but you can get a 3rd party program to get into it.

I've got a RPi 3B running Lakka. I find it to be a more reliable solution than RetroPie. I haven't used Batocera. The Lakka RPi 3B is one of my secondary emulation rigs, setup in the bedroom with wireless 360 controllers.

My latest primary emulation machine is a Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P with a Core i5, 8GB, and a SSD. I bought this reconditioned from Amazon a few months ago for $148. It blows away the RPi and runs pretty much everything.

I considered a RPi 4 but the RPi solutions have gotten a lot more expensive than they used to be. Long story short, when I priced the RPi 4 solution with power supply, fan, SSD adapter caddy, and a decent case it was more expensive than the Core i5 Lenovo M93P.

The Lenovo came with Windows 10. I could have installed Lakka but Windows runs RetroArch and almost every other emulator and front end ever made. I figured there was no point restricting myself to Lakka when I can have it all.