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It’s an open secret: all cheap streaming sticks suck. Sure, it’s great to have access to loads of shows and movies on a device for under $50. Sure, it’s great that even the best devices no longer suffer from constant lag and performance interruptions. But as time goes on, the Faustian bargain we’re making with these devices becomes more and more apparent: we save money up front, only to repay the debt with a poor user experience.
I’ve been thinking about it ever since I bought it Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max This handshake from a few months ago is a good example. Available It has been on sale for $40 for most of the past few months, and at that price hardware It’s great value for money, it’s fast, supports all the major HDR formats and Dolby Atmos, and has all the apps you need.
But Amazon’s Fire OS is shamelessly bloated. Large ads dominate the UI, most of which promote Amazon services like Freevee, MGM+, and Prime Video, which are still bargains on Blockbuster’s streaming services. Some of the ads promote products you can buy on Amazon. You haven’t seen the dystopian future until the top third of your 55-inch TV is trying to convince you to buy a KitchenAid espresso machine. And once you start streaming, the Fire TV Stick 4K Max is great. But… resist Every ad the device pushes at me in order to mentally block out parts of it in order to get the most out of the device I bought with my own money.
So why did I still buy this? It’s mainly because I’m not using it the way Amazon intended. Instead, I’m using it to emulate old video games, which is the easiest way to get my hands on one. Of course, today retro games are available on PCs, iPhones, millions of different handhelds, refrigerator Etc. You can do similar things with other Android streamers. Google Chromecast or Amazon’s cheaper Fire TV Stick 4K Delta emulators are also now allowed on iOS, Get started Even Apple TV can connect via AirPlay instead of natively. I chose 4K Max because It seems that he has It’s a better performance safeguard than most other budget streamers, and it’s also a lot cheaper than high-end boxes like the Apple TV or NVIDIA Shield.
Either way, having a device dedicated to your TV is convenient in ways that a stick without streaming capabilities doesn’t. You don’t have to lug a giant gaming PC from your desk to your living room, and you don’t have to pay extra for a mini PC when you can get a dongle that emulates well enough for less. Official consoles like the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 have a lot of retro games in their libraries, but not all of them. I’m a collector who has spent a lot of money on consoles and games from decades ago, but the process of getting the original hardware to work properly on a modern TV can be a challenge. Very laboriousSometimes I just want to play for 30 minutes NHL ’94, Ken Griffey Jr. Presents Major League Baseball or Chrono Trigger Without having to pull out your SNES (or Genesis) Upscaler And then I dug the pile of cables out of the closet. (Related: I’d also like a bigger apartment, but life in NYC just doesn’t cut it.) The emulation on the Fire TV Stick isn’t as faithful to the real thing in terms of picture quality, but it’s certainly playable, and generally less hassle since all you have to do is power it on and use it.
Once you’ve set it up, turning your Fire TV Stick into a retro gaming center isn’t that complicated, but it does require a little preparation. There are plenty of tutorials out there that explain the whole process, but here’s how I got it to work. First, I needed a few accessories: a Bluetooth controller, USB Thumb Drive (Older USB 2.0 models are also supported) OTG Adapter It has a microUSB connector that allows you to power your Fire TV while connecting external storage. This old SNES style 8BitDo controllerit also works with PS4 and PS5 gamepads, just to give it a more period-appropriate feel. The USB drive contains the ROM and BIOS files for the game or system you want to emulate. Here, we would like to inform you that Engadget does not condone piracy. Emulators are completely legal, but sharing ROMs on the internet is illegal, so be careful. However, backing up files for old games you have already purchased is for personal use only. At least ambiguous.
After formatting your thumb drive and loading the game, all you need to do is download the popular frontend. Retroarch I downloaded the app from Amazon’s app store, downloaded the “cores” for each console I wanted to emulate with RetroArch, pointed the app to the appropriate folder on my USB drive, and configured my gamepad controls. As a deep dive into the retro gaming world over the past few years, I’ve done this process on dozens of devices, so the whole process took me less than an hour. It’ll take another 1,000 words to demystify RetroArch, so… Check out this great video tutorial This is a Retro Game Corps piece. It’s long, but these things take a bit of effort at first, but I think it’s worth it. Turning a device like this into something completely different makes you feel like you’ve done something right. Even if it’s just Sounds like this guy.
As for what you can actually play on the device, I found the 4K Max to be perfect for emulating consoles all the way back to the original PlayStation, with games from the PS1, NES, SNES, Game Boy, GBA, Genesis, and old arcade machines running consistently and smoothly. Technically It can also run N64, Dreamcast, PSP, and Nintendo DS games, but these are hit or miss, so don’t expect much unless you’re a sadist who enjoys tweaking resolutions and switching between emulators. Still, there are hundreds of games to enjoy, some of which are essential (Donkey Kong), some of which have been lost over time (United Nations Forces), some of them make me want to jump out of a window (Echo the Dolphin), not some purpose-built live service garbage that doesn’t respect my time.
I know this is a weird, niche hobby. Emulators can be daunting at first, and a lot of old games feel like relics for a reason. But turning this ad-riddled, data-hungry streamer into a mini retro console made me feel a little bit more like I was taking back ownership of the gadget I paid for. Ads will still appear, and the home screen will continue to pester me to watch Anne Hathaway movies. Latest romantic comedies On Prime Video. (My wife and I relented. It was fine.) But with a little trick, I I Now you have an easier way to find things to watch and have some nostalgic fun in the process.