How to Build a Retro Gaming Setup: A Complete Guide

The First Decision: Original Hardware or Emulation

Before buying anything, decide what you actually want from retro gaming. The answer shapes every other decision.

Original hardware gives you the authentic experience: actual cartridges, original controllers, the real latency profile of the original hardware. It has drawbacks — original hardware requires maintenance, cartridges can corrode, and connecting old consoles to modern televisions requires work.

Emulation gives you convenience: a single device running hundreds of games without cartridges, save states, rewind features, and upscaled output. The tradeoff is that emulation accuracy varies by system, and some games have compatibility issues.

FPGA-based hardware (the middle ground): devices like the Analogue Pocket, Analogue Super NT, and Analogue Mega SG use Field-Programmable Gate Array chips to recreate console hardware at the circuit level rather than emulating it in software. These devices produce output identical to original hardware while connecting to modern displays via HDMI. They’re more expensive ($200-$250) but address most of original hardware’s display drawbacks.

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The Display Problem

The central challenge of retro gaming on modern hardware is that old consoles were designed for CRT televisions.

Why CRTs mattered: Old consoles output composite, RF, or RGB signals at 240p or 480i resolution. These signals were designed for CRT television technology that handled them differently from modern flat-panel displays:

• CRTs handled interlaced video natively; LCD panels must deinterlace it, introducing processing delay
• CRTs had no input lag — the electron beam drew directly to the phosphor coating without processing; modern TVs process the signal through a scaler, adding 1-8 frames of latency
• CRT “scanlines” — the visible gaps between horizontal rows — were an artifact of the display technology that games were designed for; pixels in retro games look different (softer, more blended) on CRTs than on the sharp pixel grid of LCD displays

Options for modern displays:

Upscalers: Devices like the Retrotink 5X Pro or OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter) take analog console output and convert it to HDMI with minimal added latency. The Retrotink 5X Pro ($200) is the current recommendation — it handles every signal type, adds less than a frame of latency, and includes scanline simulation filters. The OSSC ($150) is less plug-and-play but produces excellent output for RGB-modded consoles.

HDMI mods: Some consoles can be modified to output HDMI directly. The GBI (GameCube HDMI adapter), the Hi-Def NES mod, and the MegaDrive HDMI mod produce digital output from original hardware with zero processing latency.

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CRT Televisions: The Optimal Experience

If you want the authentic experience without upscalers, a CRT television remains the best display for pre-2000 console gaming.

What to look for:

• Consumer CRTs (Trinitron, Wega, etc.): Available cheaply or free on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. Most have composite and S-Video inputs. S-Video gives a cleaner signal than composite. They’re heavy, take significant space, and their quality varies.
• Professional broadcast monitors (BVMs and PVMs): Sony’s Broadcast Video Monitors and Professional Video Monitors support RGB via BNC inputs — the cleanest consumer-accessible analog signal. These are the displays used in game development. They’re expensive ($300-$1500 depending on size and condition) but produce the definitive CRT image quality.
• Consumer RGB monitors: Certain Sony Trinitron models with SCART or component inputs can accept RGB signal from modded consoles. European models often have SCART built in.

RGB: The best signal type for most retro consoles. The NES, SNES, Genesis, and PlayStation all produce RGB signals natively or with minor modification. RGB requires either a SCART cable (European standard) or a SCART-to-BNC adapter for PVM/BVM use.

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Which Consoles to Start With

Best starting points by budget:

Under $100:

• NES + controller + game: $40-70 for a working system. Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt bundled cartridge is inexpensive and immediately playable.
• Sega Genesis: $40-60. Sonic the Hedgehog is cheap and demonstrates the hardware well.
• Game Boy Advance SP: $40-60. Backlit screen, plays GBA and original GB cartridges.

$100-$300:

• SNES + a few games: $60-80 for the system; game prices vary significantly by title.
• PlayStation 1: $30-50 for the hardware; software is inexpensive.
• Nintendo 64: $50-70; game prices are higher than other platforms.

$300+:

• Neo Geo AES or MVS + cartridges: Original cartridges are expensive; MVS (arcade) hardware with adapters is cheaper.
• Sega Saturn: Japanese import systems are cheaper than North American ones and can play import games with the 50Hz/60Hz switch.
• Complete collections: Building a complete set of a platform’s library is a significant investment on most platforms.

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Game Prices and Collecting

Retro game prices have risen significantly since 2020. Some observations:

Reprints have complicated the market: Several companies (Limited Run Games, Strictly Limited) produce new physical releases of older games, creating cartridges and discs that look authentic but are modern productions. These are legitimate products, not fraud — but they can be confused with originals when sellers don’t disclose their nature.

Label reproductions: Counterfeit cartridge labels exist for expensive games. A copy of EarthBound (SNES) or Conker’s Bad Fur Day (N64) at below-market price may be a reproduction label applied to a legitimate but lower-value cartridge.

Testing before buying: Always test before purchasing at a shop. Most reputable retro game stores allow testing. Online purchases from platforms like eBay should come from sellers with return policies.

Where to buy:

• Local retro game shops: Best for testing before purchase; prices are often fair market
• eBay: Widest selection; use completed listings to gauge fair prices; buy from sellers with high feedback and return policies
• Facebook Marketplace / Craigslist: Best for finding deals from people liquidating collections
• Game conventions and flea markets: Variable quality; bring knowledge of current prices

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Flash Cartridges: The Practical Compromise

A flash cartridge is a single cartridge that can load ROMs from a microSD card, allowing a single cartridge to play the entire library of a platform on original hardware.

The major flash cartridge platforms:

• NES: Everdrive N8 Pro (~$90)
• SNES: Everdrive SNES X5 ($80-120)
• N64: Everdrive 64 X7 (~$90)
• Genesis: Everdrive MD X7 (~$80)
• Game Boy / GBC: Everdrive GB X5 (~$70)
• GBA: Everdrive GBA Mini (~$65)

Flash cartridges require sourcing ROM files separately. The legal status of playing ROMs for games you own is unclear; playing ROMs for games you don’t own is copyright infringement in most jurisdictions.

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Recommended Starter Kits

The “first retro console” kit: SNES + Everdrive SNES X5 + two original SNES controllers. This gives access to the full SNES library on original hardware with no display modification needed (composite to modern TV is acceptable for SNES, though an upscaler improves it significantly). Budget: $150-200.

The “authentic display” kit: Any NES-era console + Retrotink 5X Pro + a few original cartridges. This is the setup for someone who wants the best possible image quality on a modern TV. Budget: $300-400 with the Retrotink.

The “just want to play” kit: Raspberry Pi 4 running RetroArch with a USB controller and your television. RetroPie handles NES through PS1 well; N64 and later require more powerful hardware. Budget: $100-150 for the Pi and controller.

The right setup is the one that matches how you want to engage with classic games. Emulation and original hardware are both valid paths to the same destination.