Retro Gaming on a Mac Mini (is Now Awesome)

Thanks for the lively discourse in the comments. Some notes (I may update this as more comments come in): - This M2 Mac Mini is currently on sale for $499 on Amazon: amzn.to/3KhxlCH - Although development has halted on the emulator, AetherSX2 is available for Macs with silicon chips and I tested it after making this video. It runs like a dream, and resolves any issues I had with PS2 games lagging in PCSX2. I was able to play God of War II and Jak & Daxter at 4K resolution with zero issue. I've added more info to the written guide. - For the Sega Saturn interlacing/combing artifacts in Beetle Saturn, I found that using a CRT royale or bob shader resolves the issue. Some options include misc/bob-deinterlace, misc/bob-and-ghost-deinterlace, crt/crt-geom, crt/crt-royale, and crt/phosphorlut. - The heavy-duty CRT royale shaders work great on this setup within RetroArch, even with a combination of other features like run-ahead and rewind enabled, every core ran at full speed. - Regarding input lag on MacOS, I ran a series of tests with retro games including bluetooth and wired controllers, and tried to tax the system heavily with shaders and other features enabled, and everything still ran very well. I didn't feel any difference compared to playing these same games via RetroArch on a Windows PC, although adding run-ahead of 2 did make the experience feel a little more responsive (and still played very well). I wouldn't consider myself extremely sensitive to lag but it was a genuinely excellent retro gaming experience. - I understand the Apple hate, for example I don't agree with their stance on repairability and user upgrades. But it is also nice to see what other computers can accomplish outside of general Windows/PC spaces, and enjoying retro games on a Mac doesn't need to turn into a competition with other platforms. The reason for making this video was to show that if you own a Mac, or are interested in getting one, it does a great job with emulation right now. As a point of clarification, MacOS is not "walled off" in the same way that iOS and iPadOS is -- you can freely install apps (as is demonstrated with installing the emulators in this video).

For the mac users, I hope that Valve eventually makes a version of Proton available as well.

I found your channel a couple of weeks ago and have been hooked. I've watched a bunch of your videos on retro handheld emulators. This guide is perfect for me as I have a Mac. While I've been able to run different emulators, it's always nice to find a guide that is using the same OS I'm using and is very detailed. Keep up the great work!

I absolutely loved this. While more than half was review as I already casually enjoy retro on my MBP M1, the remainder was pure gold. Time to complete my retro arcade setup! 😎

If you get the “unknown developer” pop up, you should be able to right click on the app and click open, this time it will give you a “run anyway” command. Should save you from having to go into the settings app to find and allow it like you did

This is incredibly useful. I'm going on a work trip and don't want to bring 2 laptops but don't want to be bored to tears overnight or during the flight. My work computer is a Mac and I'll be outfitting it with Dolphin and Retroarch. I have an Android phone, but some of the emulators have really bad lag. This saves me a lot of bag space. Thanks!

I think this will be a very good value in about 2 years once corporate users start selling these to upgrade to a newer model. These are very popular among creative workflow offices right now, so there should be a very healthy supply of them once that sell-off happens. Plus we should see emulator support for Mac / Apple silicon be a lot more mature in a couple years time, so performance will be better on the same hardware.

Out of all the retro game review channels I watch, you are the only that shows your face, and I really like it. I think it helps the audience feel more connected with you. Love your content, keep it up!

I was waiting for you to make this video. Keep it up Russ!

So glad I found this channel. Loving your content, great work!

Shoutout to that mewithoutyou shirt

Already have the base M2 Mac Mini. I use Dolphin on it already and it runs very well. One thing I'd like to mention is if you're a student or a teacher, you can get the base M2 Mac Mini for $499.

So much easier to drag apps out of the dock instead of using the context menu. Also, you can launch the app by ctrl- or right-clicking on the app and choosing Open (at least that worked up to Monterey, maybe they changed it in Ventura).

You’re the first person I’ve ever seen with a Mewithoutyou shirt. I’ve seen them plenty of times in our hometown of Philadelphia. Great video as well, but you already knew that. 👌

I'm also a primary mac user so I'm glad to see this :D I really hope Apple catches up with the gaming cause there is a huge audience of people who would like to have one or two devices to enjoy the games they love most :)

13:05 if you right-click/control+click on the app it will then give you the "Open" option even from an un-trusted developer. Saves a trip to settings. Great video!

The M1 Mac mini was my first Mac computer and honestly it’s been my primary computer ever since

I just got an M2 Mini. I’m going to try this out. Thanks for this.

Great tutorial! Thanks as always!

Finally! Been waiting for this video since 2020. :)