What I did was this -

• Lenovo M93P tiny (i7-4785t, 8GB, no GPU: cost $50. I can do upto PS2 at 1.5x, AAA games upto 2014/5 and later indies)
• Offline (once art scrapped by below etc)
• Windows 8.1 install (era appropriate, correct drivers, offline, yadda yadda) + ClassicShell
• Installed Xbox 360 dongle with drivers
• Installed games I wanted / emulators (eg: Dolphin for Wii and GC, PCSX2 for PS2 etc)
• Installed Playnite, set it to launch full screen
• Define scripts / launch conditions (e.g., Getting AntiMicroX to launch when Luanti launches, so that it can be played with controllers instead of keyboard, then shutdown cleanly when return to PlayNite)
• Replaced Explorer.exe as the default shell in Regedit

End result: turn on PC, boots into Windows (in about 2 seconds), launches Playnite (which is full controller / couch mode compatible). Additionally, I can fine tune things like EDID (fine grained control of display modes), ReShade (per game sharpening etc effects), to say nothing of the extra Win programs I can run.

With a bit of skill, you can make games look way better than they have any right to, even on low end hardware. I can dig up some screenshots of Just Cause 2 and FireWatch running in 540p for you if you’d like…you’d be hard pressed to tell it wasn’t much higher resolution (viewed on 75" tv from 8 feet away).

Reason I did it this way:

People will tell you Batocera is awesome (and it is) but…there are just some things that run better natively (e.g., Fallout 3 GOG Game of the Year Edition, Just Cause 2 etc). Windows lets you play windows shit natively and the emulation scene (Dolphin, PCSX2 etc) is mature. No need for Wine, Proton blah blah. It just … runs.

Playnite lets you “hide” games you don’t want the kiddies to run. Once you’re done with it, you can exit and return to desktop - you have normal PC (though if you do the shell replacement I mentioned, you will have to exit, CTRL-ALT-DEL to get task manager, then run explorer.exe. I only set Playnite as default shell because I wanted ZERO flashes or indication this was a normal windows PC on boot; if a small 2-3 second desktop flash doesn’t annoy you, then just set Playnite to launch at start, black screen desktop and go from there. It’s much easier for something that is multi-use). Also, because it’s just a front end, you should in theory just be able to make a shortcut to “Jellyfin.exe” and launch it as needed from Playnite (haven’t explored that myself tho).

PS: Controller-wise: Xbox 360 wireless + dongle for me. 1 $30 dongle can host up to 4 controllers and I already had to controllers :)

PPS: Can I be honest with you? After all this - the kids decided they just prefer the Wii. I had to laugh. Fine…we’ll use the Wii (even though I replicated everything on the M93p - INCLUDING upscale, making wii controllers etc work in Dolphin, bought a Dolphin bar etc. I even put the fucking wii music as the background in Playnite!). So much work … ignored LOL. Eh, I learned a lot doing it :)

PPPS: We have a Google chrome cast with TV dongle attached to the TV, so it can stream Jellyfin from the media server just fine. I really recommend those things (not the new one, the old hockey puck style one) or the off-label one you can get now (ONN I think?). Actually, come to think of it, I’m pretty sure Wii can stream JellyFin now in glorious 480p too lol