These are pretty goood to get up and running quickly. I have been building my own and the issue with that is its never ending. Tweaking, adding missing artwork and new systems etc. This is just a lot easier to get playing.
I was thinking of getting one of those cheap android boxes just for the library but when I saw that I could just get a harddrive with them for a fraction of the price (40 bucks for the 500gig variant), I opted for that. The self-booting linux thing is an added bonus.
I wish I still had my old walkman and tapes. I had SO MANY TAPES! I got a subscription to one of those record clubs every year for Christmas. I needed lots of music to listen to because I had a very long bus ride.
@@TechDweeb I thought you'd be on the _short bus_ TD! I still have one working tape player and all most of my old tapes. 400+ are just Hard Rock/Metal.
I just got back into actively enjoying vinyl (I never actually left either, but I did update my modest modern setup for bluetooth speakers). I'm STILL on the search for a decent MD player and nice Laserdisc player...
Interesting, but since I am a compulsive tinkerer, I went with the DIY method. There is also the additional handicap that I am uniquely broke, so the aforementioned DIY approach worked well for me, as it didn't cost me anything (well, not really, since I blew out my meagre budget on a racing wheel). But still, the portable SSD approach seems to me to be the way to go, since I can keep my well-manicured OS, and still game on the same semi-potato on the side.
Yeah it's really not hard to install Batocera on a flash drive or whatever if you're a tinkerer. And if you already have your games library then you have everything you need. I think this device is good for someone just starting out with this hobby, or someone who just can't be bothered to spend time getting it setup (which is often appealing to me, to just throw my money at something instead of my precious hours).
This is the first video that ever showed Cosmo Tank for GB. I played that game on my OG GB back in the day and was one of my favorites!! Great video, BTW. I've always wondered about these. I love that case! The cassette look is sweet.
What about CD Key resellers? I get a bunch of those. I even went down the rabbit hole of negotiating a price with one of them, only to have the deal crumble at the end when they demanded that I fill my entire description with spammy engrish marketing and links :/
@@TechDweeb Yeah! And they’re usually terrible prices. Like, I’m not a bad salesperson but even I can’t make people spend twice what they’d spend elsewhere on a crappy selection!
Oh for sure. I actually played a little Metroid Prime Hunters at one point, and setup the mouse and keyboard as if it was a PC fps, and it was actually a blast XD
I'm using V35 and have found it to be good for Emulation. Some systems can be hit and miss to get working, Daphne and some arcade systems, with most systems running without any problems. I'd recommend it for sure....But, it is recommended to use a AMD GPU, Nvidia is supported but it needs to be an Nvidia 1060 or higher as old ones are not supported.
@12:15 1080° Avalanche at 1080p. Cool. Also, love the subtitles... _"bottle Sarah"..._ _"bottom Sarah"..._ so, is Sarah a genie stuck at the bottom of a bottle?
In pounds..a fellow Brit..back in November I bought the 500GB from AliExpress for £38..mine says Hey Now on the replica cassette label..I can't comment on the 2TB..bit too much money for my meagre budget..the 500 has more than enough for me and with Batocera there's the option to install to SATA HDD which I have..and of course copy the ROMs over and the artwork..takes quite some time..now it's on a 3.5HDD..but i can have a dedicated PC for Batocera Linux.. not everyone has that option..I would recommend that to anyone if they have a spare computer..
Happy to see this video was used on Aliexpress for the listing. Im seriously considering one of these. I have an old PC/monitor im about to throw away but this thing starts at around $30 bucks right now.
I've told TechDweeb: "Man, you've really got to try Batocera". TechDweeb told me: "I don't wanna". Me: "But it's most excellent!" TechDweeb: "I prefer Retro Bat! :P". Well, now I'm here to gloat! Told you so! Seriously though, glad you've finally tried it and seen why I'm such a big fan. Can't wait for your cheap emulation machine. I've got one with an i3 4130 running many things really well. Problem is, it's so freakin loud I'm rarely turning it on. I'm seriously considering delidding the lowly dual core i3. That's Acer's fault though, not Batocera's.
Not gonna lie.. the only reasons I'm going to sub is #1 your voice and #2 that robber scenario and the ensuing shootout afterwards over stolen hard drives full of roms.
"You should get better performance in Batocera..." Not universally. There are occasional times when it's worse and times when it is better. Sometimes Linux does a good job of allowing the operating system to "Get out of the way" of performance when gaming. There are other times when the combination of hardware, APIs, and Drivers are better on windows DESPITE the Windows operating system being occasionally a little power hungry. A similar experience to Batocera can be had on windows with a nice front end like Launchbox "BIGBOX" (requires license) and other options that are free. Steam Big Picture mode now has steam deck front end available for other operating systems including windows to make the controller experience more friendly. There are ways to make these front ends automatically launch with windows if you have your old gaming desktop, an upgraded office PC, "steambox", or other that you want to convert to a dedicated game console.
It's also fairly simple to build your own batocera drive IF you are feeling fiesty, you really like retro emulation, and you have some old hardware you really want to try out and maybe make into a console.
Ah good to know. I've always heard that the performance on Batocera was better, but I've never tested it myself, and here I am repeating it possibly spreading bad info. I'm planning on doing a video soon on emulation on low end PCs, I think it'd be a good idea to do a comparison test.
@@TechDweeb occasionally, ETA prime will test a system in windows and batocera and he will have some perform better in different operating systems. It seems especially popular to test two or three operating systems on handhelds. Even RetroGameCorps has been dabbling in Batocera a bit.
Hard to say, but I don't think you'll be missing much other than gamecube and stuff. If you contact the company through their Ali page they'll send you a games list (and if you do, tell them TechDweeb sent ya!)
500GB has all your retro games , just not many 3D GAMES for systems like DREAMCAST GAMECUBE WII, although it does have a few, I picked up the 500GB for just shy of $25. CAD so I am pretty happy. Only thing is some games don't start so you will have to tinker to get them running in the emulation settings....bummer.
Someone needs to do a controller review so a beginner knows what is good and what Is junk control is a big part of the experience awesome video I'm not good with computers so i need to find good cheap computer to go with this and a controller thanks
Thanks for the suggestion. My quick answer is to get a 3rd party USB xbox 360 controller off of amazon, those are my go-to cheapo controllers. This one has served me well: amzn.to/47Hc5jZ
Big question for me: Is it possible to boot this and stream to my forthcoming RP3+? It would be an instant buy for me if thats the case. Otherwise I'll set up the PC emulation per your Retrobat guide. Glad to see some review units coming your way! I'm happy to see the channel get recognition, especially by Russ last week too.
I don't think so. Not with Batocera, as far as I know there isn't a way to get any streaming setup on the batocera end. HOWEVER, this company also makes a windows-based RetroBAT hard drive (they said they'd send me one!). With that you should be able to set it up to stream via steam.
@@TechDweeb That would be perfect!! I hope they do and I'll wait for that video. These drives seem like pretty decent gifts as well since they are plug and play.
Yes! When I was a kid I had perfectly straight very blonde hair. Then at some point my hair started to go curly and brown. I hated that, so I would try to straighten it by wearing hats to squish it flat. Then in grade 8 my mom convinced me to let it go curly, so we went for a haircut and the barber just put some product in it and let it curl up, and it curled up like crazy, it was like a little afro. And I went into school right after the haircut and all the kids were convinced that I had gotten a perm. I've been a curly haired dweeb ever since.
Dumb question… once we boot into Batocera, how do we safely shut down? I don’t want to damage my Batocera image. Also can I just copy the image to an m.2 and just boot that way?
I would like one of these to just plug into my TV so I don't have to sit at my PC. I'm no longer a PC gamer at my age but I bought a raspberry pi 4 loaded with games and now I have nothing but issues with it because of all the technical crap. I want to play Dreamcast games and Naomi games and all the retro games but I don't care about like handhelds and stuff like that. This looks really cool but what do you suggest as far as best plug and play like this but just to plug into your HDTV?
I'd suggest if you want dreamcast then either get a higher end android console (like the Hyper Base King), or get a mini PC with a batocera drive like this.
i bought the Kinhank 2TB hard drive with what they claim is 60,000 games on it but in reality there is far less than that as basically its a rom dump along with multiple copies of the same game and other files so while you do get thousands of games, you don't get the amount of games that they claim. Did you notice that on this one?
I didn't notice repeats, but I did notice several systems had way more Japanese games than others. I also noticed games that are on here that weren't on the game list. But the actual number of games seems accurate, 47804 games according to the drive itself, so it's not far off. Ultimately it's not the best most complete rom collection for English speakers, but it's not as bad as others I've seen.
These boxes are cool, but if you're not tech savvy, it's could be a bit frustrating to boot it up in your PC as you need to bypass BIOS security. This step was skipped in this video. Once you get it running, it's pretty cake from there. Keep in mind that the controller settings can be wonky from console to console.
True. I didn't show it because my mobo is set to automatically boot from USB, and if I showed that part it would probably cause more questions than it answered since every mobo does that part different. I plan on making a dedicated batocera video soon, so I'll definitely cover that part when I have more time to focus on it.
My only experience with it is a torrent I downloaded once of a pre-configured build. Seems like a good front end but a bit more complicated to set up as far as I can tell.
@TechDweeb since you reviewed alot of these , which would you say would suit me ? i want one with ps1 ps2 and if it has gamecube and saturn,dreamcast, that be a plus for me as well. which one do you recommend ?
All of them come setup to run PS2 out of the box, so it just comes down to which one will have the games you want to play (unless you are okay adding others yourself). If you're serious about PS2 the 5tb drive I just reviewed would be the best choice, it comes with the most games.
@@TechDweeb i want the one that has the most ps1,ps2,gamecube and dreamcast, saturn games . i grew up as a collector so i like everything, its time to put my collection to the side and just go with emulators . oh , and if there is one with 3do let me know as well, even if i have to buy 1 of each just to get the games i want i will. i wish u had social media other than youtube but i take what i can get . i appreciate the help
Can I theoretically buy this to transfer the roms on to an sd card to play them on say something like an RP3+ or Odin? (Assuming the handheld can play said systems.)
I'm pretty sure you can, it's just a HDD that has a bootable Linux with a crap ton of games....you should be allowed to extract them if you want or add even more.....
Definitely! You can actually access the ROMs from Windows on this drive, just plug it in and boom, you have a hard drive mounted with ROMs you can copy over to your SD card. Although if you are looking for ROMs for a handheld emulation device and you just want the low-end systems like SNES or whatever, you can actually buy replacement SD cards for devices like the miyoo mini and they are pretty cheap and come with the ROMs.
Thanks for the info. Ill be upgrading from an Rp2+ so this seems like a good cheap alternative to get access to a bunch of games I can finally now play.
I cannot get mine to boot up. I have a hp laptop and I’ve been able to run emulators like n64 and snes. But when I boot up the hyperbase it says “failed to read blocks:0x12” is it my laptop or is it that I’m just not smart with computers
I would suggest trying the drive in a different computer if you have access to one, if it boots fine there then there is likely an incompatibility with your computer. If it doesn't boot find there then it's a problem with the drive itself and I would contact the seller.
I have a question do you have video on how to set up a controller to work for the Wii Mario galaxy 1-2. On x box or ps control or rishi controller for mobile. Please
Great content, I actually just bought the Super Console Cube from your previous video, but now looking at purchasing this to use with my old computer. Do you know what requirements are needed from a pc to run these games? Also any difference between this batocera hard drive and emuelec from the super console systems. Is one better than the other? thanks again great stuff!
Nice! You do not need a crazy PC to run these games. I was emulating gamecube on an old PC with an i5 3470 (WITHOUT a graphics card). If you want the best performance or if you plan on upscaling then you'll want at least a low-end gaming PC, but the vast majority of the stuff on here will run on any pc that can run basic 3d games. Batocera and EmuElec are VERY similar. They feel like the same system. They're running on different backends but the frontend and experience is identical.
With that voice you could have easily passed for McLovin’ from SuperBad. Maybe you could make a channel called “McLovin’s Gaming Review”. Just something to think about.
Well, damn. I finally got around to opening my own cassette hard drive, and the thing got crushed in the mail! It's probably too late to get any sort of replacement too... 😭
Nice! Kinda wish I had an affiliate link or something. Ah well. They were a good company to work with, much better at communicating than some of the weird interactions I've had with Chinese companies, I'm happy they'll get a few sales :)
I have the 128gb usb drive version of Batocera, and can't get it to boot , I have tried going in to my bios to pick boot from usb but does not work 😕, any help would be appreciated TechDweeb
I was thinking of switching from windows to batocera but batocera can't do HDR... @ least I've never been able to enable it. So I turned my external drive into a XBSX2 drive for Xbox series s and decided to emulate my PS2 library through series s... Everything else is emulated in windows 11 through RetroArch.
This unit initially recognized my ps4 controller immediately but now it won’t connect. I tried (forget controller) and started over after a reboot but still no luck. Any ideas on what to do? Thanks
still waiting for that proper complete rom set, but this is a nice option, maybe he can do 2 different ones, gen 1 for ps2 and below(add og xbox) gen 2 ps3 and xbox 360, could even make gen 2 look like a cd or DVD, my issue with these is last time I got one most of the ps1 games were in Portuguese and I couldn't change the language wich blew my mind and it was missing all the games I wanted to try out first and I'm not joking lol re 1 2 and 3 all Portuguese, chrono cross and metal gear missing, just a bad experience so interested in this one
I have thought about buying one of these since last year but my laptop won't handle the high end. I use a Max 96+ cloned Super Console X it only has 256gb of data but over 30k games
I have one of these hard drives and it works great. For a pretty small investment, you can use a used office PC from Ebay and just add a GPU and viola, you are good to go. Just make sure that the GPU will fit that particular form factor of the PC. ETA prime has some very good tutorials on how to do this. Techdweeb has a hilarious video of using his Grandma's inherited PC for emulation, however that particular build does not allow for you to add a graphics card, so it would not be powerful enough to run some of the newer games.
Hi pal. I just got the hyper base 2t hard drive. My laptop is Dell Inspiron 7000 gaming laptop. I've tried so many times but still can't boot in to the batocera. Can you help me?
I'm not entirely sure, but I believe you'll need to disable Secure Boot to be able to boot from external drives. According to google: The easiest way is to press F12 during system startup to access the one-time boot menu, then select the option called "Boot Mode Settings" or something like that, and then one of the options will be "UEFI Mode On, Secure Boot Off". Choose that and confirm your change. Then you can use the same process to switch back to "UEFI Mode On, Secure Boot On" later. Hope this helps you out!
How would a _Ryzen 3 3250u_ do with this? Cheers PS: I also have an _i5 12450_ buuuuuuuuut I have that for more modern games. Would be nice to give my lil laptop a real purpose other than a very light paperweight. Cheers
Definitely! As long as your laptop can boot to external drives, and if it's compatible with linux (which the 3250u is), then you should be good. I imagine the 3250u should have great performance in anything that comes on this drive at 1080p
@@TechDweeb Just ordered it, looking forward to it. Thanks for recommending it, no idea it existed but will end up as an early Christmas present. Cheers mate
I've been wondering if I should get the RP3+, and I already have a Miyoo Mini. And I was really wanting to play ds games and gamecube games but heard the RP3+ isn't the best with gamecube (Though heard it does most pretty well). But I also realized... I don't get out much... and again I already have a miyoo mini. I think this is the device for me. This is too interesting, and I could just bring it over to my friends house and jam out on some games, another thing I can't do with the RP3+, coop. (at least I don't think so). Thanks for the video! This is great. I would consider getting the controllers with it, but not sure how good they are, and there are so many to choose from I wouldn't know which to choose. Any suggestions for good (low priced) controllers for such a thing?
Nice! As far as which devices we need, I have a philosphy that we need 3 devices - #1 a very small super portable device that can handle up to PS1 that is so small and lightweight that you can bring it everywhere (for me it's the mini), and #2 a medium sized higher powered device for higher end emulation like PSP that is big enough to be very enjoyable but still small enough to be portable if needed (for me it's the RP3), and then #3 a very powerful device for all the higher end emulation like gamecube or PS3 or whatever and it doesn't need to be portable (for me it's a PC). Ideally device #2 can stream the games from device #3. As for your question about the controllers, they are cheap crappy controllers, but honestly they get the job done, I've played with those cheap controllers on my Super Console X for over a year now and I don't mind them at all. But honestly any controller would work fine, either wired or wireless. I like my Xbox One controller. If portability is a factor then the 8bitdo ZERO controllers are good for the price and they play great considering how small they are.
the Zero is the ultimate in portability - the 8Bitdo Lite gives a bit more room if you're hands are bigger & need more buttons - it's been my go to throw in my backpack on the go!
Makes me wonder if you have a smart TV with Bluetooth and can connect controller to it. Could you plug this thing into the USB port on the TV and it run.?
It was a good idea, I wish it worked like that, but you'll need a full PC with a compatible processor, ram, etc. Even if it theoretically could work you'd have such poor performance that it wouldn't be worth it. If you're looking for a simple TV solution the best bet would be to do one of the android boxes, like the super console X (ua-cam.com/video/mSS6d6BjAbA/v-deo.html). I have another product from the same company who gave me this hard drive, it's an android box, I'll be reviewing that soon.
So last thing I wanted to ask is if it supports wii u emulation and what kind of controllers can I use with it? I have a ps5 controller but not sure if that would work ok.
This drive looks like its probably a laptop or ssd inside an enclosure, what's interesting to me about thst is perhaps shucking and installing in a desktop or laptop pc. That would be even better ina multi boot sys
It SHOULD work with the hub. It might be an issue with your specific hub. You should try a different hub if you can. You can also check in the bios to see if the hdd is recognized when it's plugged into the hub. It might be that you need a powered hub depending on what else you have plugged into the hub.
@@TechDweeb i am using baseus 4 in 1 usb hub it has type C for input current it says only to power up do i need to connect it to adapter or charger to power it ???
It has Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, it's definitely worth buying. Haha, the fact that this gives you such amazing opportunity to play all of those games you never could as a child makes it largely worth the price if you don't want to set this up yourself.
Yes to get into the bottle Sarah system you need to boot from usb. You can plug this in when windows is on and you can access the roms, but you won't be able to run the system and emulators. There is a program called RetroBat that will let you do similar things in Windows but it's not set up by default on this drive.
I don't have any recommendations for cheap PCs, but honestly any gaming PC will do the job. You can get one of those little PCs like the minisforum PCs, or buy a small ITX gaming PC, or if you can have a bigger PC then even a pretty low tier gaming PC would be able to handle 4k with the systems that come with this device (up to gamecube & PS2). And yes, you can definitely add games, plug it into your PC running windows and you can just copy your games over to the ROMS folder (or grab the roms off it).
These are pretty goood to get up and running quickly. I have been building my own and the issue with that is its never ending. Tweaking, adding missing artwork and new systems etc. This is just a lot easier to get playing.
I was thinking of getting one of those cheap android boxes just for the library but when I saw that I could just get a harddrive with them for a fraction of the price (40 bucks for the 500gig variant), I opted for that. The self-booting linux thing is an added bonus.
Happy Thanksgiving, Dweeb! I hope you and your mom have a good day! Good video.
Thanks buddy, you too!
So pleased you got a promotional review unit, man!
I'm movin' up in the world!
@@TechDweeb It’s deserved. Really enjoying your commitment to character, and to making your work distinct.
Still listening my music from Vinyl and tapes! Spotify can go burn!
I wish I still had my old walkman and tapes. I had SO MANY TAPES! I got a subscription to one of those record clubs every year for Christmas. I needed lots of music to listen to because I had a very long bus ride.
@@TechDweeb
I thought you'd be on the _short bus_ TD!
I still have one working tape player and all most of my old tapes.
400+ are just Hard Rock/Metal.
While a great collection of games, ita missi g some big titles
I’m still on CDs and proud of it
I just got back into actively enjoying vinyl (I never actually left either, but I did update my modest modern setup for bluetooth speakers). I'm STILL on the search for a decent MD player and nice Laserdisc player...
Interesting, but since I am a compulsive tinkerer, I went with the DIY method. There is also the additional handicap that I am uniquely broke, so the aforementioned DIY approach worked well for me, as it didn't cost me anything (well, not really, since I blew out my meagre budget on a racing wheel). But still, the portable SSD approach seems to me to be the way to go, since I can keep my well-manicured OS, and still game on the same semi-potato on the side.
Yeah it's really not hard to install Batocera on a flash drive or whatever if you're a tinkerer. And if you already have your games library then you have everything you need. I think this device is good for someone just starting out with this hobby, or someone who just can't be bothered to spend time getting it setup (which is often appealing to me, to just throw my money at something instead of my precious hours).
@@TechDweeb What would you buy if you wanted multiplayer for smash brothers or Mario kart?
This is the first video that ever showed Cosmo Tank for GB. I played that game on my OG GB back in the day and was one of my favorites!! Great video, BTW. I've always wondered about these. I love that case! The cassette look is sweet.
I just ordered one... Thanks for all great videos you make... 👍
the robbers not stealing the camouflaged cassette was too funny not to subscribe. well done.
Aw man, you're so lucky! I only get emails from people trying to have me pitch their dodgy Play-To-Earn crypto games.
What about CD Key resellers? I get a bunch of those. I even went down the rabbit hole of negotiating a price with one of them, only to have the deal crumble at the end when they demanded that I fill my entire description with spammy engrish marketing and links :/
@@TechDweeb Yeah! And they’re usually terrible prices. Like, I’m not a bad salesperson but even I can’t make people spend twice what they’d spend elsewhere on a crappy selection!
This is a very easy to use Plug and Play device to turn your computer into a game console! Cool
For Nintendo DS, I like to use the mouse for cursor control. Makes flicking for darts and bowling easier than using the slower controller.
Oh for sure. I actually played a little Metroid Prime Hunters at one point, and setup the mouse and keyboard as if it was a PC fps, and it was actually a blast XD
I'm using V35 and have found it to be good for Emulation. Some systems can be hit and miss to get working, Daphne and some arcade systems, with most systems running without any problems.
I'd recommend it for sure....But, it is recommended to use a AMD GPU, Nvidia is supported but it needs to be an Nvidia 1060 or higher as old ones are not supported.
My question is what a Gpu you used? I have a GTX 1050 and GameCube and Wii and the other hard things doesn't go well 😅? Which Gpu you prefer?
@@DjGezaa2405 I'm on a gtx 1080 and can do up to PS2\GC in 4k, 3ds a little lower but still hd.
@12:15 1080° Avalanche at 1080p. Cool. Also, love the subtitles... _"bottle Sarah"..._ _"bottom Sarah"..._ so, is Sarah a genie stuck at the bottom of a bottle?
Thank for the video, just saw these on Ebay n thinking of picking up one
Cassette needs a sticker with metal mix written on it.
YES!
One of my favorite channels. Great tutorials
What is the different game lists between the 500GB and 2TB versions? In my Country it is £38 (500Gb) vs £85 (2TB)
In pounds..a fellow Brit..back in November I bought the 500GB from AliExpress for £38..mine says Hey Now on the replica cassette label..I can't comment on the 2TB..bit too much money for my meagre budget..the 500 has more than enough for me and with Batocera there's the option to install to SATA HDD which I have..and of course copy the ROMs over and the artwork..takes quite some time..now it's on a 3.5HDD..but i can have a dedicated PC for Batocera Linux.. not everyone has that option..I would recommend that to anyone if they have a spare computer..
"Well." Nothing work "good" but things do "work well"
That's some well advice right there!
WOW! In between this and the $70 RX 580 videos, you've just made my year!
Happy to see this video was used on Aliexpress for the listing.
Im seriously considering one of these. I have an old PC/monitor im about to throw away but this thing starts at around $30 bucks right now.
Awesome dude! Rocking!
I've told TechDweeb: "Man, you've really got to try Batocera".
TechDweeb told me: "I don't wanna".
Me: "But it's most excellent!"
TechDweeb: "I prefer Retro Bat! :P".
Well, now I'm here to gloat! Told you so!
Seriously though, glad you've finally tried it and seen why I'm such a big fan. Can't wait for your cheap emulation machine. I've got one with an i3 4130 running many things really well.
Problem is, it's so freakin loud I'm rarely turning it on. I'm seriously considering delidding the lowly dual core i3. That's Acer's fault though, not Batocera's.
Haha I thought of your comment actually when I was making the video XD
Thanks for all great videos you make, I just ordered one..👍🏻
Nice!
I wish someone would make something like this that attaches to the back of the Steam Deck and plugs into the USB-C port at the top.
They do it's called retrostation
Can we connect this to a laptop?
Awesome, purchasing one these soon as pay day comes junk food and chill with my son. BTW I AM A 40YR OLD NERD TOO.
Haha nice!
Great video, I love this concept "plug and play", thanks a bunch! ✌️😁🎮
I love your black and orange sleeves... matches my truck!!!
Not gonna lie.. the only reasons I'm going to sub is #1 your voice and #2 that robber scenario and the ensuing shootout afterwards over stolen hard drives full of roms.
Well that's good because I do lots of both of those sorts of things!
@@TechDweeb excellent, you and I will get along jusssst fine.
Looks like I need to go back and watch all your other videos !!
I just ordered one thanks to this amazing review, thanks techdweeb,,, legend ✌️😁
Can I remove the hdd from the enclosure and install it internally into my pc?
I don't see why not! It's a standard 2.5" sata hard drive as far as I can tell.
Excellent content more paper character cut-outs next episode please thx again
👍
"You should get better performance in Batocera..." Not universally. There are occasional times when it's worse and times when it is better. Sometimes Linux does a good job of allowing the operating system to "Get out of the way" of performance when gaming. There are other times when the combination of hardware, APIs, and Drivers are better on windows DESPITE the Windows operating system being occasionally a little power hungry. A similar experience to Batocera can be had on windows with a nice front end like Launchbox "BIGBOX" (requires license) and other options that are free. Steam Big Picture mode now has steam deck front end available for other operating systems including windows to make the controller experience more friendly. There are ways to make these front ends automatically launch with windows if you have your old gaming desktop, an upgraded office PC, "steambox", or other that you want to convert to a dedicated game console.
It's also fairly simple to build your own batocera drive IF you are feeling fiesty, you really like retro emulation, and you have some old hardware you really want to try out and maybe make into a console.
Ah good to know. I've always heard that the performance on Batocera was better, but I've never tested it myself, and here I am repeating it possibly spreading bad info. I'm planning on doing a video soon on emulation on low end PCs, I think it'd be a good idea to do a comparison test.
@@TechDweeb occasionally, ETA prime will test a system in windows and batocera and he will have some perform better in different operating systems. It seems especially popular to test two or three operating systems on handhelds. Even RetroGameCorps has been dabbling in Batocera a bit.
I’m sold, though if I get the 500gb version am I missing out on a lot of retro stuff or is that just ps2 games etc?
Hard to say, but I don't think you'll be missing much other than gamecube and stuff. If you contact the company through their Ali page they'll send you a games list (and if you do, tell them TechDweeb sent ya!)
500GB has all your retro games , just not many 3D GAMES for systems like DREAMCAST GAMECUBE WII, although it does have a few, I picked up the 500GB for just shy of $25. CAD so I am pretty happy. Only thing is some games don't start so you will have to tinker to get them running in the emulation settings....bummer.
Cheers xD good old days I remember my dad buying me an Atari 2600 and then after leaving to the us he bought me the nes good old days indeed
Someone needs to do a controller review so a beginner knows what is good and what Is junk control is a big part of the experience awesome video I'm not good with computers so i need to find good cheap computer to go with this and a controller thanks
Thanks for the suggestion. My quick answer is to get a 3rd party USB xbox 360 controller off of amazon, those are my go-to cheapo controllers. This one has served me well: amzn.to/47Hc5jZ
you make such good content 🤩🤩🤩
I love the retro look of the cassette tape? Can I add or put what I want on it too or is it locked somehow?
Big question for me: Is it possible to boot this and stream to my forthcoming RP3+? It would be an instant buy for me if thats the case. Otherwise I'll set up the PC emulation per your Retrobat guide.
Glad to see some review units coming your way! I'm happy to see the channel get recognition, especially by Russ last week too.
I don't think so. Not with Batocera, as far as I know there isn't a way to get any streaming setup on the batocera end. HOWEVER, this company also makes a windows-based RetroBAT hard drive (they said they'd send me one!). With that you should be able to set it up to stream via steam.
@@TechDweeb That would be perfect!! I hope they do and I'll wait for that video. These drives seem like pretty decent gifts as well since they are plug and play.
So you were blonde as a kid but brown haired as an adult? That's some new TechDweeb lore in the can!
Yes! When I was a kid I had perfectly straight very blonde hair. Then at some point my hair started to go curly and brown. I hated that, so I would try to straighten it by wearing hats to squish it flat. Then in grade 8 my mom convinced me to let it go curly, so we went for a haircut and the barber just put some product in it and let it curl up, and it curled up like crazy, it was like a little afro. And I went into school right after the haircut and all the kids were convinced that I had gotten a perm. I've been a curly haired dweeb ever since.
Dumb question… once we boot into Batocera, how do we safely shut down? I don’t want to damage my Batocera image. Also can I just copy the image to an m.2 and just boot that way?
There is a shutdown option by pressing the start button in the main menu.
@@TechDweeb thank you.
How does Batocera deal with video card drivers? I have a system that requires Nvidia drivers from RPM Fusion. How would I add these?
Thanks for your video! How many light gun games are included on this HDD?
All of the pages for these drives say that they give you access to their FTP server to download more games, but none of the reviews ever mention this.
That's because there is a chance we could be demonetized or delisted if we are showing how to download ROM files in the videos.
@@TechDweeb Thanks for the reply. That makes sense. I just found your channel, keep up the great content.
My question is what a Gpu you used? I have a GTX 1050 and GameCube and Wii and the other hard things doesn't go well 😅? Which Gpu you prefer?
I have hard disk with games and batocera I want to learn screen adjustments and quality adjustments and more about batocera can u teach me
I have an Emulation Station guide in the works. Sit tight!
Can you take the Roms and move them to another system, like, say Retroid or Miyoo Mini?
Yup! The drive is easily accessible through windows too.
BurgerTime is one of my all time favorites as well...Congrats on your first Review...Also is it possible to add games? Or is the SSD full...
Would like to know as well
BT fans unite! anyone know which is the best port out there? I didn't even realize there was a GB one til watching this video!
I would like one of these to just plug into my TV so I don't have to sit at my PC. I'm no longer a PC gamer at my age but I bought a raspberry pi 4 loaded with games and now I have nothing but issues with it because of all the technical crap. I want to play Dreamcast games and Naomi games and all the retro games but I don't care about like handhelds and stuff like that. This looks really cool but what do you suggest as far as best plug and play like this but just to plug into your HDTV?
I'd suggest if you want dreamcast then either get a higher end android console (like the Hyper Base King), or get a mini PC with a batocera drive like this.
i bought the Kinhank 2TB hard drive with what they claim is 60,000 games on it but in reality there is far less than that as basically its a rom dump along with multiple copies of the same game and other files so while you do get thousands of games, you don't get the amount of games that they claim. Did you notice that on this one?
I didn't notice repeats, but I did notice several systems had way more Japanese games than others. I also noticed games that are on here that weren't on the game list. But the actual number of games seems accurate, 47804 games according to the drive itself, so it's not far off. Ultimately it's not the best most complete rom collection for English speakers, but it's not as bad as others I've seen.
These boxes are cool, but if you're not tech savvy, it's could be a bit frustrating to boot it up in your PC as you need to bypass BIOS security. This step was skipped in this video. Once you get it running, it's pretty cake from there. Keep in mind that the controller settings can be wonky from console to console.
True. I didn't show it because my mobo is set to automatically boot from USB, and if I showed that part it would probably cause more questions than it answered since every mobo does that part different. I plan on making a dedicated batocera video soon, so I'll definitely cover that part when I have more time to focus on it.
Now the cost has risen by two fold :(
I checked out the link for the game list and it says it hold 47,803 games. Pretty impressive
Great video by the way, do you have any experience with Hyperspin?
I am trying to complete a pedestal build.
My only experience with it is a torrent I downloaded once of a pre-configured build. Seems like a good front end but a bit more complicated to set up as far as I can tell.
Do you use the controller for Batocera short cuts or a keyboard?
@TechDweeb since you reviewed alot of these , which would you say would suit me ? i want one with ps1 ps2 and if it has gamecube and saturn,dreamcast, that be a plus for me as well. which one do you recommend ?
All of them come setup to run PS2 out of the box, so it just comes down to which one will have the games you want to play (unless you are okay adding others yourself). If you're serious about PS2 the 5tb drive I just reviewed would be the best choice, it comes with the most games.
@@TechDweeb i want the one that has the most ps1,ps2,gamecube and dreamcast, saturn games . i grew up as a collector so i like everything, its time to put my collection to the side and just go with emulators . oh , and if there is one with 3do let me know as well, even if i have to buy 1 of each just to get the games i want i will. i wish u had social media other than youtube but i take what i can get . i appreciate the help
Can I theoretically buy this to transfer the roms on to an sd card to play them on say something like an RP3+ or Odin? (Assuming the handheld can play said systems.)
I'm pretty sure you can, it's just a HDD that has a bootable Linux with a crap ton of games....you should be allowed to extract them if you want or add even more.....
Definitely! You can actually access the ROMs from Windows on this drive, just plug it in and boom, you have a hard drive mounted with ROMs you can copy over to your SD card. Although if you are looking for ROMs for a handheld emulation device and you just want the low-end systems like SNES or whatever, you can actually buy replacement SD cards for devices like the miyoo mini and they are pretty cheap and come with the ROMs.
Thanks for the info.
Ill be upgrading from an Rp2+ so this seems like a good cheap alternative to get access to a bunch of games I can finally now play.
I cannot get mine to boot up. I have a hp laptop and I’ve been able to run emulators like n64 and snes. But when I boot up the hyperbase it says “failed to read blocks:0x12” is it my laptop or is it that I’m just not smart with computers
I would suggest trying the drive in a different computer if you have access to one, if it boots fine there then there is likely an incompatibility with your computer. If it doesn't boot find there then it's a problem with the drive itself and I would contact the seller.
@@TechDweeb thank you I will try that
10k by the end of the year? Let's hope :)
🤞
I have a question do you have video on how to set up a controller to work for the Wii Mario galaxy 1-2. On x box or ps control or rishi controller for mobile. Please
Great content, I actually just bought the Super Console Cube from your previous video, but now looking at purchasing this to use with my old computer. Do you know what requirements are needed from a pc to run these games? Also any difference between this batocera hard drive and emuelec from the super console systems. Is one better than the other? thanks again great stuff!
Nice!
You do not need a crazy PC to run these games. I was emulating gamecube on an old PC with an i5 3470 (WITHOUT a graphics card). If you want the best performance or if you plan on upscaling then you'll want at least a low-end gaming PC, but the vast majority of the stuff on here will run on any pc that can run basic 3d games.
Batocera and EmuElec are VERY similar. They feel like the same system. They're running on different backends but the frontend and experience is identical.
I found a 500gb one for. A fraction of the cost. It says it has the same amount of games. So is there any difference between them?
The 500 GB version will not have as many 3D games like ps1, saturn, PSP, and dreamcast.
@@TechDweeb k. Ty for the info. Just started watching your videos, great stuff 👍
With that voice you could have easily passed for McLovin’ from SuperBad. Maybe you could make a channel called “McLovin’s Gaming Review”. Just something to think about.
I like the sound of that!
If it's Batocera ... I don't have any Win of.. i only have Linux base OS.. does it work? Also can we delete roms that we don't want..
Yeah, if your PC can boot linux, you should be able to boot to Batocera.
how can I save games psone while playing?select and R1 dosnt works
Check which hotkey is bound for save in the retroarch settings (under settings/input/hotkeys)
How did Marvel vs Capcom 2 (Dreamcast) run?
Perfectly
@@TechDweeb debating if I should get this or the retrobat (which you also reviewed). Which one would you recommend 🤔
Well, damn. I finally got around to opening my own cassette hard drive, and the thing got crushed in the mail! It's probably too late to get any sort of replacement too... 😭
Aw bummer! I don't suppose it still works? Maybe the drive inside the case is okay and can be swapped?
@@TechDweeb It's quite crushed. 😭 I should have checked it right when I got it.
How many ps3 games does the memory in this cassette actually allows you to add on your own?
Probably not many. PS3 games can be pretty huge, 10-20gb each.
do the nintendo 3ds games work?
yes if your pc is powerful enough
Damn you techDweep, you made me order one at once.
Nice! Kinda wish I had an affiliate link or something. Ah well. They were a good company to work with, much better at communicating than some of the weird interactions I've had with Chinese companies, I'm happy they'll get a few sales :)
@@TechDweeb Ooh yeah translation can go horribly wrong sometimes giving the weirdest conversations 😅
I have the 128gb usb drive version of Batocera, and can't get it to boot , I have tried going in to my bios to pick boot from usb but does not work 😕, any help would be appreciated TechDweeb
I was thinking of switching from windows to batocera but batocera can't do HDR... @ least I've never been able to enable it. So I turned my external drive into a XBSX2 drive for Xbox series s and decided to emulate my PS2 library through series s... Everything else is emulated in windows 11 through RetroArch.
Neat! I've heard good things about XBSX2.
great, I wonder if they can add more dos games, I can see just 3
This unit initially recognized my ps4 controller immediately but now it won’t connect. I tried (forget controller) and started over after a reboot but still no luck. Any ideas on what to do? Thanks
My biggest problem is the bezels covering part of the screen
You can disable the bezels system-wide through the global settings, or via each individual system with the 'advanced system settings'.
@@TechDweeb hadn’t dug into settings much and that’s great to know. Thank you for the video!
still waiting for that proper complete rom set, but this is a nice option, maybe he can do 2 different ones, gen 1 for ps2 and below(add og xbox) gen 2 ps3 and xbox 360, could even make gen 2 look like a cd or DVD, my issue with these is last time I got one most of the ps1 games were in Portuguese and I couldn't change the language wich blew my mind and it was missing all the games I wanted to try out first and I'm not joking lol re 1 2 and 3 all Portuguese, chrono cross and metal gear missing, just a bad experience so interested in this one
I'm with ya. It's frustrating when these rom collections aren't very well thought out.
I have thought about buying one of these since last year but my laptop won't handle the high end. I use a Max 96+ cloned Super Console X it only has 256gb of data but over 30k games
I have one of these hard drives and it works great. For a pretty small investment, you can use a used office PC from Ebay and just add a GPU and viola, you are good to go. Just make sure that the GPU will fit that particular form factor of the PC. ETA prime has some very good tutorials on how to do this.
Techdweeb has a hilarious video of using his Grandma's inherited PC for emulation, however that particular build does not allow for you to add a graphics card, so it would not be powerful enough to run some of the newer games.
Hi pal. I just got the hyper base 2t hard drive. My laptop is Dell Inspiron 7000 gaming laptop. I've tried so many times but still can't boot in to the batocera. Can you help me?
I'm not entirely sure, but I believe you'll need to disable Secure Boot to be able to boot from external drives. According to google:
The easiest way is to press F12 during system startup to access the one-time boot menu, then select the option called "Boot Mode Settings" or something like that, and then one of the options will be "UEFI Mode On, Secure Boot Off". Choose that and confirm your change. Then you can use the same process to switch back to "UEFI Mode On, Secure Boot On" later.
Hope this helps you out!
You can copy the roms to another HDD correct?
Yup!
How would a _Ryzen 3 3250u_ do with this? Cheers
PS: I also have an _i5 12450_ buuuuuuuuut I have that for more modern games. Would be nice to give my lil laptop a real purpose other than a very light paperweight. Cheers
Definitely! As long as your laptop can boot to external drives, and if it's compatible with linux (which the 3250u is), then you should be good. I imagine the 3250u should have great performance in anything that comes on this drive at 1080p
@@TechDweeb
Just ordered it, looking forward to it. Thanks for recommending it, no idea it existed but will end up as an early Christmas present. Cheers mate
I've been wondering if I should get the RP3+, and I already have a Miyoo Mini. And I was really wanting to play ds games and gamecube games but heard the RP3+ isn't the best with gamecube (Though heard it does most pretty well). But I also realized... I don't get out much... and again I already have a miyoo mini. I think this is the device for me. This is too interesting, and I could just bring it over to my friends house and jam out on some games, another thing I can't do with the RP3+, coop. (at least I don't think so).
Thanks for the video! This is great. I would consider getting the controllers with it, but not sure how good they are, and there are so many to choose from I wouldn't know which to choose. Any suggestions for good (low priced) controllers for such a thing?
Nice! As far as which devices we need, I have a philosphy that we need 3 devices - #1 a very small super portable device that can handle up to PS1 that is so small and lightweight that you can bring it everywhere (for me it's the mini), and #2 a medium sized higher powered device for higher end emulation like PSP that is big enough to be very enjoyable but still small enough to be portable if needed (for me it's the RP3), and then #3 a very powerful device for all the higher end emulation like gamecube or PS3 or whatever and it doesn't need to be portable (for me it's a PC). Ideally device #2 can stream the games from device #3.
As for your question about the controllers, they are cheap crappy controllers, but honestly they get the job done, I've played with those cheap controllers on my Super Console X for over a year now and I don't mind them at all. But honestly any controller would work fine, either wired or wireless. I like my Xbox One controller. If portability is a factor then the 8bitdo ZERO controllers are good for the price and they play great considering how small they are.
the Zero is the ultimate in portability - the 8Bitdo Lite gives a bit more room if you're hands are bigger & need more buttons - it's been my go to throw in my backpack on the go!
I am so gonna buy this!!!
Can you remember me when you get to 100M subs?
I could never forget you SVcross D.O. You will haunt my dreams forever.
@@TechDweeb aww dude, that's what my mom used to say!
Makes me wonder if you have a smart TV with Bluetooth and can connect controller to it. Could you plug this thing into the USB port on the TV and it run.?
No
@@robengley4209 that was a hard no. Now I feel dumb.
It was a good idea, I wish it worked like that, but you'll need a full PC with a compatible processor, ram, etc. Even if it theoretically could work you'd have such poor performance that it wouldn't be worth it. If you're looking for a simple TV solution the best bet would be to do one of the android boxes, like the super console X (ua-cam.com/video/mSS6d6BjAbA/v-deo.html). I have another product from the same company who gave me this hard drive, it's an android box, I'll be reviewing that soon.
I have an i7 10700 with a gtx 2080 it should run fine right?
Oh yeah, no issues at all with that setup.
So last thing I wanted to ask is if it supports wii u emulation and what kind of controllers can I use with it? I have a ps5 controller but not sure if that would work ok.
This drive looks like its probably a laptop or ssd inside an enclosure, what's interesting to me about thst is perhaps shucking and installing in a desktop or laptop pc.
That would be even better ina multi boot sys
i can boot batocera by directly connecting hdd to laptop but cant boot when i am using usb hub can u help with that ?
It SHOULD work with the hub. It might be an issue with your specific hub. You should try a different hub if you can. You can also check in the bios to see if the hdd is recognized when it's plugged into the hub. It might be that you need a powered hub depending on what else you have plugged into the hub.
@@TechDweeb i am using baseus 4 in 1 usb hub it has type C for input current it says only to power up do i need to connect it to adapter or charger to power it ???
I just learned I need to power up the device but it still doesn't work
HDD is connected I can browse folders but can't boot it
What theme are you using and where to find?
I will wait for a sale and totally get one!
Will it work on a Android phone?
How well does it play more demanding ps2 and ps3 games?
Depends on the PC it's running on. You'll need a moderately competent gaming PC to run PS2 and above.
Can batocera be upgraded to a new version? Im guessing an older version comes preinstalled
Probably a dumb question (sorry if already answered) but might this work on a M1 MacBook?
Nope. This is for PC only.
@@TechDweeb bummer! Thank you sir, love the vids
It has Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, it's definitely worth buying. Haha, the fact that this gives you such amazing opportunity to play all of those games you never could as a child makes it largely worth the price if you don't want to set this up yourself.
Can you see if a steamdeck can run these harddrives I wanna see if hyper base mix can on mine
I'm looking to get batocera what should I buy for long term a usb stick or drive I'm looking at 256gb or 512gb any suggestions plz
Hi bro
Can I use HDMI output of my laptop during play
yup!
If I get a mini pc and get this hard drive can I Plug it in the mini pc and plug the mini pc to my TV
Yup!
Can I run this on my raspberry pi 400? Been having a heck of a time.
I don't think so. I'm pretty sure there's a special version of Batocera for Raspberry Pi's, this version is for x86 PC's.
Hey techdeeeb, do I HAVE to boot from USB? Or can I open the hard drive when it's connected to my pc and utilize it through Windows?
Yes to get into the bottle Sarah system you need to boot from usb. You can plug this in when windows is on and you can access the roms, but you won't be able to run the system and emulators. There is a program called RetroBat that will let you do similar things in Windows but it's not set up by default on this drive.
@@TechDweeb ah thanks, do I boot from USB in the motherboard bios?
@@Astropenguin14 Yup
I've been wanting some for dedicated emulation thats small enough to hide behind my tv. Maybe this would be what to use with it?
Do you have any recommendations for cheap pcs i could use this with and hide behind my tv? Push 4k
Also, can you add roms to it?
I don't have any recommendations for cheap PCs, but honestly any gaming PC will do the job. You can get one of those little PCs like the minisforum PCs, or buy a small ITX gaming PC, or if you can have a bigger PC then even a pretty low tier gaming PC would be able to handle 4k with the systems that come with this device (up to gamecube & PS2). And yes, you can definitely add games, plug it into your PC running windows and you can just copy your games over to the ROMS folder (or grab the roms off it).