Newb to Lakka, Retroarch, and Linux needs help

General
#1

Hello everyone. I’m a complete newb to Lakka and also linux. I purchased a used Lenovo Q180 nettop pc for a retro video game console to keep next to my TV. It has an Intel Atom D2700 dual core processor with hyperthreading clocked at 2.13 Ghz. A discrete Radeon 6450A graphics card clocked at 625 Mhz with 512Mb DDR3. And also 4Gb of DDR3 1066 RAM. My goal was to be able to emulate at least up to N64 and maybe some Dreamcast. Only thing I needed to buy extra was a Bluetooth 3.0 adapter for a USB port. BTW, my emulation experience is mostly limited to Android apps on my phone. After hours of reading and fiddling, here are my issues.

1). My Bluetooth adapter is powered on but not working. I’m currently using a plugged in PS3 controller. I assume it’s a driver issue, but I’m clueless on which one I would need or how I would install it. I can log into Lakka through Putty (I’m on Win 10), but the command I tried wasn’t recognized “$ 1susp”. Again, I know nothing of Linux command line.

2). I’m playing ROMS but they’re not being added to my playlist. I thought that was automatic along with scraping box art. I’m downloading my ROMS from “xxx” paradise, and I leave them zipped without altering the file names.

3). Conkers Bad Fur Day on N64 runs at 10-12 fps with choppy sound. That’s with default settings on Paralell. Not sure if there is anything I can do about that. I’ve never needed to play with emulator settings on my phone. I haven’t tried other N64 titles and I know it’s supposed to be the hardest to emulate.

4). I’m also confused on disc based games. I tried Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver for PS1. I downloaded the sch5101 BIOS and extracted it to the SYSTEM folder. Then I extracted the .bin and .cue files to the ROMS folder. I tried launching the game by selecting the .bin file, but it crashed Lakka. Only PS1 game I’ve tried.

And finally, what keys do I press if Lakka crashes?

Thank you for putting up with this essay I’ve typed and the newb questions.

#2

For the bluetooth issue, check here: http://www.lakka.tv/doc/Wireless-Dualshock/

I think the automatic add-to-playlist thing hasn’t been included in Lakka yet (I think it was added to RetroArch fairly recently and Lakka hasn’t had a major update since then). Box art isn’t automatic. You have to download the set you want from the online updater and then enable it in settings > user interface > menu

Conker is indeed a tough one to emulate. Maybe start with Mario64 and see how that one treats you. Also check out the mupen64plus-libretro core, which might treat you a little better, dunno.

Try selecting the cue instead of the bin. However, since this is an x86 CPU, it has to use the Beetle-PSX core for PS1 games, which is a much heavier core than the PCSX-ReARMed core used on ARM devices (e.g., phones). I wouldn’t be surprised if your Atom CPU fails to reach full speed on it, unfortunately.

#3

Thanks! I’ll give those a shot.

#4

Everything works now except still having atrocious performance with Conkers Bad Fur Day on N64. I’ll try more N64 games tonight. I tried Soul Reaver for PS1 and it was pretty much unplayable. I’m going to run some 3D benchmarks on this little computer and see just how bad it is. I’m thinking that the emulator cores aren’t making any use of the discrete graphics card or it’s just so weak that it doesn’t even matter.