[Series] Emulation on the Alpha: Part 1 - NES
Welcome to Console Emulation on the Alienware Alpha
Welcome to the first of a series on emulation on the Alienware Alpha. These will be a set of simple guides/reviews of hardware and software for emulating other games consoles on the Alpha, and therefore creating the ultimate portable gaming experience.
When I bought my Alpha, I envisioned creating something I always dreamed of: a small device that is capable of current gen games, and all the retro games from yesteryear. Being able to carry my Alpha with a few usb peripherals to a friend's house and be able to accurately simulate the experience of decades past. Playing Mega Drive games (Sega Genesis) with a Mega Drive controller, NES games with a NES controller, SNES, Atari, N64, Sega Saturn...etc all from the same small little box. No need to carry CDs or cartridges, as they're all on the hard drive. All easy to play and most importantly easy to setup and as accurate as possible.
I didn't want to spend lots of money on this idea, but at the same time I really wanted to be able to lose myself in the experience, and be able to accurately play the games as if I were using the console the games came on.
I will recommend the hardware I found to be decent, mention the hardware I think isn't good enough, and the software I used to accomplish my goals.
Part 1: NES
Hardware.
When researching my options with NES in terms of hardware, I realised I could go two ways. One: I could buy a 3rd party, ready-made clone of the NES controller. Plug and play, cheaper, as I wouldn't have to buy multiple pieces of hardware, and as the peripheral is all inclusive, less parts to carry/store.
The second option is an adapter with an original NES controller plugged into it. This would give the more accurate and genuine experience, but tends to cost more, and isn't always easy to find. Especially in terms of finding a well-kept 2nd hand controller that belonged to the original console.
For the NES I decided to check out the Amazon reviews of the 3rd party offerings. The one that I found with a decent set of reviews was the RetroLink NES Classic Style Controller
Picture
I decided to order it and see what it's like. It was cheaper than getting the genuine control and usb adapter, and it has decent reviews.
Once it arrived I got it open, and plugged it in. The Alienware Alpha comes with Windows 8.1 64-bit, so it's always a bit risky with drivers, but reviews already informed me it'd be compatible and alas it indeed automatically installed and recognised the controller. No separate driver installation or effort needed. I launched the Game Controller Control Panel and tested the buttons, all seemed to work great, and the controller felt extremely realistic. I played with the Control Panel preferences screen for a few minutes ensuring the buttons worked properly, and it felt good in my hands. I am satisfied that I chose will with the controller, and suggest if you want to spend the money for the genuine experience, feel free to go for a NES controller with an adapte. The best adapter seems to be the RetroUSB NES USB adapter, it's imported from America, but the shipping is quite low, but combined costs with the NES controller from ebay, will be more than just getting a RetroLink usb controller.
Video Review of RetroLink USB Controller
After that I decided to get the emulator and roms (games).
Software.
So after checking out the various emulator sites, I decided on using the emulator Nestopia it seems to emulate a great number of games, is easy to use, is popular, and is capable of networked multiplayer (though I haven't done this yet).
I googled for some NES ROMS and downloaded a few of my favourites, of course the Mario series being among the first.
To configure and run the software I created a Desktop account for my Alpha. In order to get to desktop mode, you must have a mouse attached. I have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard with a USB dongle so that I can use the devices from the couch.
I turned on the mouse, and connected the dongle to one of the usb ports on the Alpha, and the mouse cursor showed up on the Alienware Alpha UI.
Exit out of Steam if it's open, and click on the Power button on Alienware UI. Then click the "Go To Desktop" menu option. There's other ways to get to the Desktop Mode, but I find this to be the easiest.
I ended up creating two desktop accounts. One called "Desktop" with no password attached, as a standard user. This means anyone playing with the device can easily switch to Desktop Mode and use Windows, and play the Windows games/ media/browser etc. I also created a second account with the same username as I use on my laptop, and this one an administrator. For this account I set a password to match the password I use on the laptop.
I then navigated in Windows Explorer to the C Drive, and Shared this Drive on the network. I set the permissions to only be shared to the account with the password, and gave it full access. I ensured no other accounts had access to the share.
The reason I did this was so that I could use my laptop from now on to acquire software for the Alpha, and all I had to do was save to the Alpha to store the emulators and ROMS. of course this is an optional step, you can use the keyboard and mouse for the Alpha, but for me it makes things easier, plus gives a central point for all media and games, accessible from any of my devices: computers, tablets, phone etc.
After this I put Nestopia and the ROMs in folders C:\Games\Emulators\NES\Nestopia and C:\Games\Emulators\NES\ROMS on the Alpha. This makes it easy to change emulators in the future and keep all the ROMs centralised.
Once I put a few games in place, I connected my USB NES controller, and launched Nestopia.
I navigated to Options, and Input and ensured the Controller was mapped correctly. Under Mapping, I selected each row and pressed the relevant button. I ignored Auto-Fire A and Auto-Fire B, and Mic. After that I clicked OK, and navigated to and opened the first game: Mario. Ctrl+O tends to be the shortcut to open the ROM for most of these emulators, but you can also use the mouse and click File>Open.
Mario opened up without issue, and to set the window to Full Screen I used Alt+Enter. The game pad worked perfectly, and I was able to get into the first level and play as though I had travelled back many years.
I pressed Ctrl+O to select a new game, and tried a few more, Excitebike, Zelda all played perfectly.
The controller felt fantastic and I was able to sink away a couple of hours in nostalgic bliss.
To make things easy, I make a shortcut to Nesticle on the Desktop.
I'll be creating the retro console experience with multiple difference games consoles of years past, and I'll detail the hardware I decided to go with and the software I selected. It'll be even easier to setup with the Desktop accounts and share created.
The next chapter in the series will be the SNES, I'll try to do one chapter every couple of days until I am satisfied I've re-created all the console experiences I am after.
I am overjoyed by how well the Alpha works as an emulator station for my favourite games of the days gone by, and can't wait to show you how easy and fun it is to do.
Posted Feb 7, 2015, 7:12 PM UTC · edited