I thought this post would recommend Batocera, which I think is probably the better option: https://batocera.org/
It's a Linux distro that turns any ancient machine into a retro emulation box that's heavily optimized for old devices and retro handhelds. It also allows you to install Flatpaks so you can add Steam to it as well. If you just want to play games and don't need to use the actual desktop, it'll be a nicer experience.
First time I heard of it, seems to support many platforms. Info on homepage is practically non-existent though, the info found on their GitHub page should be found there.
https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux
I used to hand out raspberry pi’s with retropies and a bunch of old NES and SNES games to friends. Sort of like a “modern” version of mixtapes for the people I care about.
But about about two years ago I started using Batocera instead. I found it had a lot more support and optimizations then retropies did.
I've been playing around with something similar with a desktop. One suggestion if you've got old/spare/small drives is bcachefs to handle combining SSD and HDD, multiple of each even and with different sizes. I haven't been running it long enough to comment on stability (nothings gone wrong yet), but it's nice to not have to manually deal with moving files around, especially during the initial transfer of games. It's just for games, I'm not worried about losing files.
My old laptop has an mSATA 64GB SSD. None of my other devices have an mSATA slot, I don't even think it's worth getting an adapter to use it anywhere else.
From the title I thought this would be about running DOS on an old laptop on bare metal. There even exists this to emulate SoundBlaster on a modern sound card: https://github.com/crazii/SBEMU
It's not great for gaming, but I remember when I had an old Toshiba laptop from 2011 at my mom's house running Windows 10, it was painfully slow and practically unusable. I installed Ubuntu, and the performance improved significantly. It became usable for web browsing and light tasks.
Ubuntu is often a better choice for older hardware because it's less resource-intensive compared to Windows, and also you get the plus of avoid Window's nagging for Microsoft account sign in, products and ads.
Not an old laptop but I have similar setup with a mini pc: Debian 12, Steam and Lutris. I am playing games like Red Alert 2, championship manager 0102 and having much fun
I have run into something a bit like that before, but even I thought that line was questionable.
Once got a free all-in-one someone was tossing that would bluescreen when using either the mouse or keyboard it came with. Using a different one worked around that, and upgrading/replacing the OS (I believe it had Windows 8 to start with and I upgraded to 10) also solved the issue. So I would be surprised if a fresh install had such problems.
I wouldn't put Windows on anything I'm gonna primarily use myself, though, just a machine for someone else to use.
Interesting - I wouldn't use an OEM install of Windows because you have no idea what they've done to it, even uninstalling all the crap that comes with it still doesn't clean it 100 percent. It's pretty terrible that you can't just use it out of the box
There are a few reasons to go the route mentioned in the article:
- You may want to run more recent games. The 10 year old laptop, particularly one with a dedicated GPU and a lot of RAM, will even run some current games.
- There seems to be a fair bit of interest in retrocomputing these days. This is driving up the cost of both hardware and games. It is also possible to purchase many older games through GOG and Steam that you would not be able to directly install on that old hardware (either due to the installer or client).
- An older laptop is going to be smaller, quieter, and more reliable. Even if something does fail, it is going to be easier to find replacement parts.
It would be hard to find an old machine in good condition. Then, if you find one, you need to figure out logistics of getting your games on the thing. Good chances it won't recognise a modern hard drive or usb flash drive.
Full on PC setup also requires a lot more space than a small laptop.
The main thing is it has to have a 64-bit CPU. Aside from that in my experience if the connector is there (SATA, USB) the most modern storage devices will work in Linux, it being mostly a question of drivers.
As an extreme example, an ancient 32-bit Windows XP laptop that my mom clung to until the latest change at Gmail (OAuth only) finally obsoleted her old Thunderbird installation, wouldn't begin to recognize a 2TB USB HD if plugged in. But if you booted Linux from a Live DVD, no problem. This was to copy her data off for backup purposes a few years ago, when mainstream Linux distros still had 32-bit versions.
Also at the level of ancient being discussed here, Wifi and wired networking are a thing you know.
My thought from the title is that this is about putting extra hardware you have around to good use instead of not using it. I don't think buying something new goes well with that idea. Similar to using an old computer you already have as a NAS or HTPC.
The fact that you have an old unused laptop indicates that you also have a newer machine. There's no reason not to play on that newer machine instead, so I have a hard time understanding the point of the article.
There are way better uses for old laptops, such as using it as a homelab, media server, etc.
One reason: to keep games off of your productivity machine.
I have a modern laptop and desktop, so I simply do work on the laptop and play on the desktop. Not everyone has that option.
It's also possible to have an old unused laptop without having a newer machine. Not very likely in this case since the author seems to be very much interested in computers, but there are certainly people out there who have replaced their computers with mobile devices and may not even touch a traditional computer (outside of work).
It could be used to create a bartop (or full-blown) arcade cabinet, perhaps. Or even just a "gaming console" hooked to a TV, rather than having to play at a desk in another room.
Of course, you could also just plug in that new laptop to either of those things, but sometimes having a dedicated device for something is just more convenient, especially if you've already got the hardware laying around going to waste.
I tend to have newer machines as main machines, and which may not necessarily be gaming machines; subsidiary machines be dedicated to a TV, or to side-rooms. Not all gaming needs to be done on your newer machine.
I don't fully agree with you. I’m planning to set up a "MAME cabinet" at home, and in an era with countless devices, my first thought would be to use one of the Raspberry Pis I already own. But just yesterday, while organizing my closet, this HN post reminded me that I have a "parked" x220. It’s funny how the neurons connect sometimes. Connecting simple dots like these is often undervalued.
They keep saying "the year of the Linux desktop" is still in the future, but don't tell that to my family. Everyone has been on Fedora (with MATE desktop) for years. All the important stuff works (multipmedia, printing, etc). There's also a Windows setup or two for "just in case" purposes but there are exactly three uses for it: An old Win7 laptop to use a convenient (fast, double sided, feedthrough) scanner, and once a year Win10 (in a VM) to run tax preparation software. Third one is the same VM to do firmware/map updates on older Garmin GPS devices. That's it.
I thought this post would recommend Batocera, which I think is probably the better option: https://batocera.org/
It's a Linux distro that turns any ancient machine into a retro emulation box that's heavily optimized for old devices and retro handhelds. It also allows you to install Flatpaks so you can add Steam to it as well. If you just want to play games and don't need to use the actual desktop, it'll be a nicer experience.
First time I heard of it, seems to support many platforms. Info on homepage is practically non-existent though, the info found on their GitHub page should be found there. https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux
I used to hand out raspberry pi’s with retropies and a bunch of old NES and SNES games to friends. Sort of like a “modern” version of mixtapes for the people I care about.
But about about two years ago I started using Batocera instead. I found it had a lot more support and optimizations then retropies did.
Is it arch-based? It appears to use pacman?
It’s pacman
https://wiki.batocera.org/pacman_package_manager
I've been playing around with something similar with a desktop. One suggestion if you've got old/spare/small drives is bcachefs to handle combining SSD and HDD, multiple of each even and with different sizes. I haven't been running it long enough to comment on stability (nothings gone wrong yet), but it's nice to not have to manually deal with moving files around, especially during the initial transfer of games. It's just for games, I'm not worried about losing files.
My old laptop has an mSATA 64GB SSD. None of my other devices have an mSATA slot, I don't even think it's worth getting an adapter to use it anywhere else.
From the title I thought this would be about running DOS on an old laptop on bare metal. There even exists this to emulate SoundBlaster on a modern sound card: https://github.com/crazii/SBEMU
It's not great for gaming, but I remember when I had an old Toshiba laptop from 2011 at my mom's house running Windows 10, it was painfully slow and practically unusable. I installed Ubuntu, and the performance improved significantly. It became usable for web browsing and light tasks.
Ubuntu is often a better choice for older hardware because it's less resource-intensive compared to Windows, and also you get the plus of avoid Window's nagging for Microsoft account sign in, products and ads.
Not an old laptop but I have similar setup with a mini pc: Debian 12, Steam and Lutris. I am playing games like Red Alert 2, championship manager 0102 and having much fun
"Old hardware are well known source of random BSODs on modern Windows" certainly not my experience - any evidence to back this up?
I have run into something a bit like that before, but even I thought that line was questionable.
Once got a free all-in-one someone was tossing that would bluescreen when using either the mouse or keyboard it came with. Using a different one worked around that, and upgrading/replacing the OS (I believe it had Windows 8 to start with and I upgraded to 10) also solved the issue. So I would be surprised if a fresh install had such problems.
I wouldn't put Windows on anything I'm gonna primarily use myself, though, just a machine for someone else to use.
Interesting - I wouldn't use an OEM install of Windows because you have no idea what they've done to it, even uninstalling all the crap that comes with it still doesn't clean it 100 percent. It's pretty terrible that you can't just use it out of the box
For my old laptops I turned them into home servers. It’s great because UPS is built in with the battery.
Why not get a PC from the '90s with CRT monitor and everything?
If you like playing old games in their natural environment, then you can't beat that in authenticity.
There are a few reasons to go the route mentioned in the article:
- You may want to run more recent games. The 10 year old laptop, particularly one with a dedicated GPU and a lot of RAM, will even run some current games.
- There seems to be a fair bit of interest in retrocomputing these days. This is driving up the cost of both hardware and games. It is also possible to purchase many older games through GOG and Steam that you would not be able to directly install on that old hardware (either due to the installer or client).
- An older laptop is going to be smaller, quieter, and more reliable. Even if something does fail, it is going to be easier to find replacement parts.
It would be hard to find an old machine in good condition. Then, if you find one, you need to figure out logistics of getting your games on the thing. Good chances it won't recognise a modern hard drive or usb flash drive.
Full on PC setup also requires a lot more space than a small laptop.
The main thing is it has to have a 64-bit CPU. Aside from that in my experience if the connector is there (SATA, USB) the most modern storage devices will work in Linux, it being mostly a question of drivers.
As an extreme example, an ancient 32-bit Windows XP laptop that my mom clung to until the latest change at Gmail (OAuth only) finally obsoleted her old Thunderbird installation, wouldn't begin to recognize a 2TB USB HD if plugged in. But if you booted Linux from a Live DVD, no problem. This was to copy her data off for backup purposes a few years ago, when mainstream Linux distros still had 32-bit versions.
Also at the level of ancient being discussed here, Wifi and wired networking are a thing you know.
My thought from the title is that this is about putting extra hardware you have around to good use instead of not using it. I don't think buying something new goes well with that idea. Similar to using an old computer you already have as a NAS or HTPC.
Desk space, wife/husband factor, cost, etc.
Right, it can probably play all my favorite games - Stakan, Warcraft 2, Duke Nukem - just fine.
The fact that you have an old unused laptop indicates that you also have a newer machine. There's no reason not to play on that newer machine instead, so I have a hard time understanding the point of the article.
There are way better uses for old laptops, such as using it as a homelab, media server, etc.
One reason: to keep games off of your productivity machine.
I have a modern laptop and desktop, so I simply do work on the laptop and play on the desktop. Not everyone has that option.
It's also possible to have an old unused laptop without having a newer machine. Not very likely in this case since the author seems to be very much interested in computers, but there are certainly people out there who have replaced their computers with mobile devices and may not even touch a traditional computer (outside of work).
YMMV but for some people:
- it's more fun to have a device dedicated to one thing (or turned into a toy)
- just the act of making one is fun
It could be used to create a bartop (or full-blown) arcade cabinet, perhaps. Or even just a "gaming console" hooked to a TV, rather than having to play at a desk in another room.
Of course, you could also just plug in that new laptop to either of those things, but sometimes having a dedicated device for something is just more convenient, especially if you've already got the hardware laying around going to waste.
I tend to have newer machines as main machines, and which may not necessarily be gaming machines; subsidiary machines be dedicated to a TV, or to side-rooms. Not all gaming needs to be done on your newer machine.
Unless your newer machine is a MacBook
Any Mac Silicon will destroy a 10 years old laptop in gaming performance.
I frequently play on my work M1.
> There's no reason not to play on that newer machine instead
I prefer a secure OS: My main machine runs Qubes OS and protects me from all practical attack vectors. As a downside, it doesn't support any games.
I don't fully agree with you. I’m planning to set up a "MAME cabinet" at home, and in an era with countless devices, my first thought would be to use one of the Raspberry Pis I already own. But just yesterday, while organizing my closet, this HN post reminded me that I have a "parked" x220. It’s funny how the neurons connect sometimes. Connecting simple dots like these is often undervalued.
At this point I expected that linux would be at a state where you don't need to fud about windows.
They keep saying "the year of the Linux desktop" is still in the future, but don't tell that to my family. Everyone has been on Fedora (with MATE desktop) for years. All the important stuff works (multipmedia, printing, etc). There's also a Windows setup or two for "just in case" purposes but there are exactly three uses for it: An old Win7 laptop to use a convenient (fast, double sided, feedthrough) scanner, and once a year Win10 (in a VM) to run tax preparation software. Third one is the same VM to do firmware/map updates on older Garmin GPS devices. That's it.