Adrock's thread on Dolphin (http://www.tekforums.net/computing-internet/graphics-card-for-dolphin/) made me realised that I should be using my HTPC Microserver for ROMS.
I plan on adding the following emulators to XMBC:
-N64
-Wii (if i can get it running smoothly on the HP)
-Megadrive
-(S)NES
The will all need to be controllable only using a remote control and have a seamless integration between emulator and XBMC. I think i'll be using the Advanced Launcer (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?t=85724) xbmc plugin to facilitate this.
I have ordered an Xbox 360 PC USB wireless receiver which in theory will allow me to have 4 xbox 360 pads wirelessly connected to play the games.
Has anyone got anything similar setup or know the limits of the Microserver's processing power?
I think you'd struggle with Dolphin, it is supposedly quite CPU intensive. People recommend i5 or i7 overclocked for the best performance.
You'll still be able to run the rest of the emu's you mentioned. I'd also look into PCSX2 if I were you. I think thats quite CPU intensive too, though. I would add though, that I'm basing this on forum posts of people who are probably running the games out of original spec to improve visual quality. Still, I think the microserver might struggle with newer emu's.
I ran a trial run of Mario Kart on Dolphin and it played with only minor lagging but it ran very slowly, I didnt get round to turning on the fps display to test it fully. I was hoping that with some optimisation / setting reduction it might become playable but I might be being optimistic.
no mame?
I never really played MAME in my youth so I dont hold any of the games fondly enough to bother.
I've got N64 working flawlessly with Project64 (performs better than Mupen64). Integrated into XBMC with Advanced Launcher with the addition of an EventGhost macro to close Project64 cleanly and return to XBMC when you press the back button.
The xbox360 controllers work nicely using a £7 wireless USB wireless receiver off ebay.
Sadly I cant get dolphin (wii) to run fast enough, its smooth and without glitching but only at 20-25fps in game (mariokart) which makes everything very slow.