This project did not start with the tech. It started with a couch.

A couch, then a TV, then a console

I put a couch into my workshop, simply to have a comfortable place to sit down between jobs. Once the couch was there, a TV felt like the natural next step - I wanted Star Trek running the moment the light turns on.

And once you have a couch and a TV facing each other, the next thought writes itself: this setup needs couch multiplayer. 🎮

Recalbox on the Raspberry Pi

Recalbox is an all-in-one retro gaming OS: flash it, boot it, plug in a controller, and you get EmulationStation with emulators for pretty much every classic system already set up.

I gave it a first look on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, and it does exactly what it promises. What killed it for me was storage - I did not have enough of it available for the Pi, and a proper game library needs room.

Introducing the Dell 7040

Recalbox also ships an x86_64 image, so it runs on any old PC. In my case that became a Dell 7040 thin client: small enough to disappear behind the TV, but with real storage options.

The 7040 gives you more than one way to attach a disk, and I went with plain SATA - for the very scientific reason that a 1 TB SATA SSD was laying around. That is more space than a retro library will ever need, and the install itself was as boring as on the Pi: write the image, boot, done.

Controllers

Couch multiplayer stands and falls with the controllers, and this was refreshingly uneventful. PlayStation 4 and 5 controllers as well as Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers all just worked - wireless with a USB dongle or simply plugged in via cable. That was true on the Pi and it is true on the Dell today.

So now the light turns on, Star Trek starts playing, and when the episode is over there is a full emulation station waiting an arm’s length from the couch.