[mcarni]

Hi Guys,

I usually play NES, SNES or old Arcade games with my son (recent Libreelec, through IAGL)

I am using some (quite cheap) wireless playstation clones, I bought them some years ago and they definitively worked fine but now the internal battery is lasting only few minutes and once plugged they are annoying and not so usable...

But maybe because of the controllers or maybe because of our improved skills (must be this   ) we struggle to finish a game if it lasts too long.

So i was wondering if there is any recommended gamepad that the community would suggest (compatibility, price, availability etc.)

thanks in advance
M

[sagrath]

I personally avoid any type of gamepad that is not original (and I live in Brazil where game equipment is very expensive for our reality). The reason is that it's usually not worth paying "cheaper" for a device that has a very short lifespan, especially when it comes to internal batteries like PS3 controllers. I already have an Xbox One X and I used the controller via Bluetooth in my Media Center for a long time and it was super enjoyable. But about 4 years ago, I bought a Steam Controller and now I can't use another gamepad on my Kodi. Thousands of configurations, very long battery life (rechargeable batteries) and the ability to dynamically use the same control on windows. I paid a lot at the time, R$500.00 (about US$125.00 in direct conversion), and at the time it cost about R$50.00 in the US. And I use this controller in ALL the games I have installed in my Media Center, from Retrogames, Arcade Games and Modern Games.

[mcarni]

thanks @sagrath , much appreciated

when i started playing games through Kodi I was not sure of how it worked and how i would have liked it
with hindsight i would say you are 100% right, I should have gone for original controller...lesson learned ;-)

i think the steam controller has been discontinued, that is really a pity, my son plays on steam and that would have been perfect.
I will check if I can find still some

thanks
M

[sagrath]

It's really a shame the steam controller has been discontinued, because with it I can create several settings to use both in Kodi and in other areas of the computer as a whole.

The vast majority of retrogames do not use more than 6 buttons (with the exception of Start and Select) so a joystick like the ones on the Xbox or PS3 supply a large scale for the use in these games, and break the whole Kodi.

A tip: after configuring your control on Kodi, add Kodi as a non-Steam game to Steam, and start Kodi through Steam, so you will have access to the joystick settings that Steam offers, being able to create different layouts. If needed, I'll post some screenshots of my setup to better illustrate.

[mcarni]

It's really a shame the steam controller has been discontinued, because with it I can create several settings to use both in Kodi and in other areas of the computer as a whole.

The vast majority of retrogames do not use more than 6 buttons (with the exception of Start and Select) so a joystick like the ones on the Xbox or PS3 supply a large scale for the use in these games, and break the whole Kodi.

A tip: after configuring your control on Kodi, add Kodi as a non-Steam game to Steam, and start Kodi through Steam, so you will have access to the joystick settings that Steam offers, being able to create different layouts. If needed, I'll post some screenshots of my setup to better illustrate.

my current setup is:
old laptop used by my son - steam
raspberrypi4 with libreelec - connected to main TV works as main media center for the whole family pictures/videos/movies/tvshows + Retrogames

I played in the past with the idea of having kodi (libreelec) to launch steamlink and play from there the games which are on my son's laptop, but I though this was not possible due to steamlink requiring Xorg which i think latest Kodi/libreelec doesn't use
I know i have some hardware limitations...but anything that will let me have an integrated or semi-integrated steam+kodi will be a huge improvement...

really interesting in your recommendations, please if you have time share some more info, screenshots will be great...


thanks a lot
M

[sagrath]

Right now I'm in work and I will post my screens later.

But here my setup:

AMD APU A10 7870K
8 GB DDR4 
VGA RADEON R7 250x
Motherboard Asus A78m-a

I originally bought this VGA and APU to use together in the Dual Graphics system, but it turned out that the VGA alone had a more satisfactory result.
Well, today I have Kodi as a media center in general (Music, Movies, Series and Games), but Steam manages all Kodi and Games. Confused right?

I'll go into more detail: With the exception of games via emulators, all my games are on steam, whether purchased or not. If I didn't buy it through steam, I add this game as a non-Steam game. And then I save the shortcut of that non-steam game in a folder called Games on my HDD.
I also add Kodi as a non-Steam game, and save its shortcut on my desktop. When I start Kodi, I start with this non-Steam shortcut, this way, Steam configures my Steam Controller as an XBOX Joystick. And I have access to the steam panel in game. It is within this panel that I can open the control settings and modify some keys for better use, as Kodi allows simultaneous use of Keyboard and Joystick.
As an example I change the RB and LB buttons to the "Next" and "Previous" music controls, and I change the control's select button to "Stop". These types of changes can be made to any controller, not necessarily the Steam Controller.

Another detail is that I don't use Kodi Retroplayer's ROMS addition system, I use the Advanced Emulator Launcher add-on, because with it I can, in addition to adding the games I have on Steam, I can add Roms and use Retroplayer from Kodi (again, kind of confusing right?)

Well, with Kodi, just point the folder where the roms are and then run the rom, choose the retroarch core and play! Right? Right. But with Advanced Emulator Launcher, things get a little better, because it will be possible to have Arts and Metadata of your Roms and still use the entire Kodi engine. Another thing is being able to launch non-retro games outside of Kodi: From within the Advanced Emulator Launcher add-on I have several launchers, and one of them is called "Windows Games" and there I put all the Steam games, like Fallout 3 and 4, Prince of Persia Trology and others. When starting any of these games, the game will open over Kodi (which will be in the background) and will use its own control layout, that is, Kodi's control layout will not interfere with the Game's control layout, because Steam will consider Kodi to be a launcher for that game. Of course, there are certain details that need to be tweaked in specific games, but that's a subject for another post.

I will prepare some screens to show how this all work in my setup.

[mcarni]

thanks @sagrath 

much much appreciated

i have read your post, i definitively have to study a bit more but i guess i can follow it.. kudos to you for explaining it well...
i understand what you mean with having kodi as a non-steam game, also the customised controller settings makes a lot of sense...

From a retroplayer perspective, I am using IAGL, which is working fine, very fine I must say, but curiosity was pushing me to try Advanced Kodi Launcher or Advanced Emulator Launcher
Your indication will give me a little extra nudge in this direction

so if I understand right, your setup is basically working as the opposite of mine
mine is:  rpi --> libreelec/Kodi -->  currently retroplayer/IAGL for retrogaming + i was thinking steam (or steamlink from kodi)
while yours is: asus a78 --> steam --> kodi --> steam games + non-steam games (including retrogaming roms) through AEL

My main concern is that I am not sure what limitation the raspberrypi4 has...
It runs kodi very smoothly and all my retrogaming needs are satisfied
If i want to follow your setup more strictly I will need to check how doable it would be to run steam
(i saw that there is no arm steam... so I am, while typing, checking steam on a rpi though box86 emulator, or using parsec or steam link from a different pc)
i need to experiment a bit and see

let's see

super thanks for opening a new word for me ;-)

thanks
M

[sagrath]

You're welcome my friend!!!

I've try the raspberry option in the past, but I've drop because his limitations:

Playstation 2 games was a PITA. 
Cannot use heavy games like as I mentioned in my last post.
and others use like manage my music collection (It's not a HUUUUGE collection, but requires some tweaks like arts, NFO e bla bla)

So, a normal pc was the perfect solution (with a hand made case hahahaha)