Proton must have come along in leaps and bounds since I last used it in that case.

What front end does Bazzite use? I understood it to have Steam baked in; most of my games are from other sources, like GoG.

I think once Steam kills support for Win 10 (probs in a year or two, based on history) the smart move is going to be something like Bazzite.

The hours of tinkering, troubleshooting, and configuring were mine - not AI. The "Super Pretendo 5" exists because I built it, not because of a mockup Sega attack ad from 1993.

If the fun wrapper offends you, that’s your hang-up, not mine. If your big move is policing how I shared my joy, congrats - you win 'hall monitor of fake internet points" retroachivement.

Funnily enough, I have ROTK high up on my GameCube "to play" list after playing LOTR on GBA. The GBA game was pretty dang güd.

Heh...it's a little late for a career change...

But I'll add it to the list :)

Windows sucks...but the M93p is old and Windows has bespoke drivers for it to coax the most out of the iGPU. The m93p really is tiny (1L case) and presents no real possibility for plugging in a GPU.

I've also had really shitty luck getting stuff to run under Proton.

Don't worry. It's the only thing in the house running windows. We're all about the penguin here (Raspbian, Zorin, PopOS and a few others)

Besides which, there's a peverse pleasure in torturing Windows into doing what you want :)

Bazzite is just for steam, right? Would that mean it plays Windows based games via Proton layer? Proton blows on Batocera. Shame, because Bato was pretty nice.

I strongly dislike Windows, but it was the only way I could cobble together something for this use case that just works

I'm getting that vibe lol. My bad.

Sorry my dude. I don't have that skillset. Would be handy. Will work on it.

So! I have a pi4 acting as my Jellyfin, Radarr, Sonarr etc server. (I'm actually debating adding Immich and Synchthing, as well as home CCTV to it's list of duties).

IME, emulation on the pi is weirdly hit or miss. For example, Dreamcast (Redream) is pretty good! N64 tanks it. Zero chance for PS2 etc... but then it plays Half life and Doom 3 just fine.

I lucked out when I got it - for what you pay for a Pi now, you'd get a lot more out of a NUC or a thinclient. Case in point: a barebones pi5 costs around $150 AUD near me. Literally just the board - no case, no power supply.

For a $150, you could replicate the machine I got, which is orders of magnitude more powerful, with 120gb SSD, power supply etc. And only slightly more power hungry than the pi.

I love my Pi, but that thing is like a box full of angry cats. Something about the Argon 40 case messes with it. You breath too hard near it, it drops wifi. It spontaneously decided "no RealVNC access for you - come back one year".

I really need to strip it back to parts and start again, but that's a job I keep putting off, because it works well enough for what it does.

Wouldn't want to game on it tho; I actually think even the Google Chromecast outperforms for some stuff.

I noticed that too 🤣 ChatGPT is an idiot sometimes.

I mean, we all know the Xbox260 only came out in Japan.

A+ for style. C- for content

I'm toying around with the idea of 3D printing a case for this, in classic console style. If i can just figure out how I can incorporate some IR LEDs into the front (so that the Wiimotes work without wii light bar) and the Xbox 360 USB dongle, I'm I'm business. As with all retro projects, one thing inevitably leads to the next...

Made the following along the lines of the old SEGA ads back in the day, then ran it thru ChatGPT for formatting help.

Hope this ok to share; just fun / not trying to AI spam / posting here for enjoyment.

Super Pretendo 5 — Retro Reinvented

Front of Box

Logo: Super Pretendo 5™ Tagline: Don’t spend $80 to play Mario Kart. Do more with less.

Hero art: Rico parachuting in JC2 + Mario Kart Wii chaos.

Badges:

1. Xbox 360, PS4 and Wiimote Ready
2. Playnite Console UI
3. Optimized for Wii / GC / PS2 4.PC Prestige Collection

Back of Box

Headline: Your old games. New life. One tiny box.

Features:

🎮 Console Feel – Couch-ready, controller-first, TV-native.

🧠 Smart Power – i7-4785T + Intel HD 4600 wrung dry for HD.

📦 Backlog Optimized & Upscaled – Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart, Shadow of the Colossus, Fallout 3, Just Cause 2 … and many more

✨ Switch Modes:

• Crunchy Mode → Wii-like smoothness @ 60 FPS.

• Cinematic Mode → 1366p sharper fidelity.

🔧 Thrift Engineered – A$200 (~US$130) total build cost → complete console-like system.

≈ 3× cheaper than PS5 / Xbox Series X (~A$800).

The Prestige Collection(TM)

PC Ports Tested & Couch Ready on the Super Pretendo 5

60 FPS Locked

• Portal 2

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution

• Dead Rising 2

• Assassin’s Creed II

• Superhot

• Firewatch

• Half-Life 2

• Mass Effect 2

30+ FPS

• Metal Gear Solid V

• Grand Theft Auto IV

• Bayonetta

• Fallout 4

• Witcher 2

• Bioshock Infinite

• Dishonored

• Prey

… and many more

Special Note

Just Cause 2 → Crunchy Mode: Locked 60 FPS @ 960×540 (VSync on — 84 FPS with VSync off). Cinematic Mode: ~45 FPS @ 1366×768.

Screenshots Panel

Mario Kart Wii — native vs. 2× IR

Just Cause 2 — 60 FPS wingsuit chaos

Fallout 3 — Remastered & Upscaled, 60 FPS

Fine Print

Super Pretendo 5™ is a DIY build. Capable of playing thousands of retro titles + select modern/indie games from the 2015–2025 era, including Superhot, Firewatch, Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, Cult of the Lamb, and more.

Thousands of 6th gen console classics at 2× upscale. Prestige ports tested for couch play.

Comparison Chart

System Cost (AUD)

• Super Pretendo 5 ~A$200
• Xbox 360 (2005) ~A$700
• Nintendo Switch ~A$470
• PS5 / Series X ~A$800

Footer Slogan

“Don’t spend $80 to play Mario Kart again. Do more with less.”