While I await a few parts (specifically the microcontroller) for my bindicator project, I’ve kicked off another project that’s been on my to-do list for some time – turning a spare mini PC I have sitting around into a retro gaming and emulation machine.

Until the end of last year I was using this HP EliteDesk 800 G2 in the workshop half of my home office, but I’ve since shuffled things around a little bit and it’s been sitting idle for a couple of months.

I’ve installed Batocera on it which was a chore, because there is no installer – I had to write the disk image to a USB stick, boot from that, then re-download and re-write the same disk image to the internal drive.

The version of the PC I have doesn’t have WiFi or Bluetooth but it does have a M.2 slot available for a card that provides both so I’ve ordered one of those, necessary partly because I want to use an Xbox controller with this setup and partly because I’m not sure exactly where I’ll be putting it and whether there’ll be ethernet there.

My plan is to backup a whole bunch of my old console games and use the emulators from Batocera to play them on them. I’d really like it if I’m able to get some cloud game streaming working on this so I can play some Xbox cloud games. I have no idea if that’s doable, but we’ll find out together.

This is my first time trying out Batocera, so if you have any hints, tips or advice (or alternative OSes I should be using instead) let me know!