Emulation on the M4 Mac Mini (is Pretty Crazy)

[@darkfish]

You're a legend for talking about upscaling while showing that Dead Or Alive Volleyball footage.

[@Skyverb]

Man of culture.

[@benji_san]

little risky showing it in the month of November

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Gooners finna goon

[@reynold99991]

It's on 21:52 , there you go 🤣

[@NotSoCleverUsername]

Oh it’s a hidden gem alright…

[@hong_kong_phooey]

100% a Mac specific guide would be appreciated.

[@xRamada]

google

[@hong_kong_phooey]

@ yes. Thank you. I know how the internet works. He asked if his viewers would be interested. I am. Russ is a good teacher and fun to watch. I would rather watch him for 20mins than spend twice that chasing down forum posts and GitHub links.

[@Visethelegend]

@@xRamada I always get confused even if it's a guide for dummies so I will always appreciate a guide. Something always doesn't work like it's supposed to

[@xRamada]

@@Visethelegend Well the thing is the cant put emulator/rom guides on youtube or either Nintendo or KZbin will come after his butt cheeks- that's why major youtubers aren't giving you 100% steps, you actually have to google this one

[@DarkEnigma91]

Yes. I would love a macOS emulation setup for dummies like me. Maybe add a few tips for settings, if you have any as well.

[@nekomancer105]

"The 'Yeah man I wanna do it' button" - I loled, love ya Russ! Great vid as usual :)

[@cyniczny]

That Warrior Boy Wanders filter is so crisp I can almost bite the pixels! 😂 20/10, I am not hungry anymore!

[@frankc8689]

Yes make a full mac mini es-de tutorial. I just got finished on my pc, but would like to get one and do it on this also.

[@dustyr112]

A Mac guide would be fantastic, Russ! I'm still new in the hobby, but I've learned so much from you and other wonderful members of the community. A lot of it I had to figure out, and all of it was done on a Mac. By this point I've set up several devices and run into few issues, but it would have been so much easier if there was a guide to follow made by one so thorough as yourself. For the amount of people who scoff at using a Mac for this hobby, I've found it be very smooth and hassle-free (now that I kinda know what I'm doing). Please consider making a proper guide, mate!!! 👏👏👏

[@tonyrosario1940]

Did not expect a M4 mac mini review so soon, this is awesome, Russ! 🍻🤘🏼🔥

[@codiusprime]

My standard unit of measurement is now sticks of butter.

[@stefanschuchardt5734]

Just by now?! The french do it since time began.

[@callia9176]

And all affirmative buttons say "Yeah man, I wanna do it."

[@danielbaker1248]

You've never measured with butter before???? You have not lived then!

[@N3orion]

Needs buttered up banana for scale

[@hoddino]

Great video as always! The fix I found for the black screen launching in ES-DE is make sure you go toRetroArch then Settings -> Video -> Full-screen Mode and make sure Start in Full-screen mode is enabled and save your configuration. Works perfectly in ES-DE after that!

[@g4z-kb7ct]

Full points for showing the game names instead of only talking / playing and not saying the name of the game like all the others retro emulation vids do. My mind is _blown_ hehe!

[@Cujobob]

Gun & Sword Lady 2 is the sequel we all needed.

[@joshenders]

I don’t know what game it is 😭

[@a1ltair]

The sequel is exists and called Gun & Sword Lady 3, also there is a spin off called Small Lady & Stuffed animal

[@frayans]

​@@joshenders It starts with Bayo

[@harshrajjadhav940]

Bayonetta 2 probably​@@joshenders

[@worldofz00]

and a Drakenguard sequel too

[@db7839]

A setup guide on your website would be great, especially if it showed us how to do basic things that are different on iOS for the first time Mac users. Your videos are much appreciated.

[@redball102]

100%

[@gluttonousmaximus9048]

In terms of showing the steps to basic things on iOS, I doubt people would come to the Mac platform specifically to set up an emulation box, they probably use it for their own purposes - and thus be familiarized with the way Mac works elsewhere. Maybe the article can focus more on setting up emulators.

[@db7839]

@@gluttonousmaximus9048 Yeah, like a typical emulating on IOS setup giude but also going in depth on how to do simple things on the apple environment that are taken for granted on Windows. Normal guide but written like it's for 5 year olds touching a mac for the first time.

[@dbww2234]

Kerrygold butter in Hawaii!! Wow! Sorry that shouldn't have been my main comment for this video, I'm from Ireland and that took me by surprise. Great work as usual Russ.

[@MPJPlayer]

Me too! Made me double take 😂

[@stefanschuchardt5734]

Fiji water in Ireland?! We live in crazy times 😮

[@milk_bath]

Very common brand in the states.

[@sp3lllz]

That stuff is expensive in the UK hate to think the price getting it all the way to Hawaii

[@Nakameguro97]

@@sp3lllz Just picked up a 2lb (4 pack) from Costco Iwilei (Honolulu) for like $15/11.8GBP yesterday. So I guess less than 3GBP for 8oz. How does that compare to the UK? fwiw, logistics to Oahu is surprisingly good, considering we're in the middle of the Pacific. Amazon, Costco, Target, and Sam's Club/Walmart all help a lot.

[@JimPryde]

Just picked up an M4 Mac mini base model and a 2TB SSD to run externally. I hadn't really thought about emulation, but after seeing this video, I am definitely going to look into it. Thanks for the thorough overview and review!

[@AJailani]

Literally, that was the only thing I was wondering about. Thankful, you saved me so much time searching 😂

[@lion123z]

One recommendation I would make is: if you buy external storage, open disk utility > erase the disk > set the format to APFS and rename it like he did, to make it easier to find. This way you avoid any formatting issues later, after you’ve already added your ROMs!

[@bluppy1]

Loved that you even explained the little things a new Mac OS user needs, man I was so lost when I first used a mac

[@DabbinHarambe]

Thank you for showing a really comprehensive emulation guide for Mac, a more in depth video would be wonderful! One other thing I want to point out is that you helped me troubleshoot an issue with booting up games I've downloaded from GOG when you talked about going to the security settings and just opening the application through there (starting at 10:07). Your videos are always super helpful, thank you again for making this one!

[@dallionaire8947]

Thanks for your honesty. So many KZbin channels show games running great and then I try and it’s so slow.

[@zptaco]

Thanks for taking your time to treat this like a proper review and not just another computer

[@argie_]

CEMU (Wii U) was just updated with a new METAL back end, with 24% performance added AND fix for Vertex shaders (the diagonal black bar you showed)!

[@smeyichou3514]

Where do you see that ? I have the latest 2.4 version, nothing about Metal back end

[@argie_]

@ my bad it is still a preview! I guess it should be released soon!

[@Ancaja123]

I loooove emulating on my M1 Max MBP. I play PS2 a bunch on it, and it’s so solid and fun, and the physical HDMI out makes it perfect to run out to my TV

[@Butterscotch_96]

I prefer the real consoles but emulation is great for when I'm not home and just have my MacBook Air.

[@leobetosouza]

O! Thanks! I just bought a M4-Pro MBP and emulation wasn't on my plans... But now my eyes are open! Please, make more videos about emulation and configuration on a Mac.

[@dimas.8300]

I could not find the button that says "Yeah man, I wanna do it" 😀

[@mmjcmm]

Thanks

[@wvx]

شكرًا جزيلاً 🎮

[@davidbeenjammin]

As someone who has struggled a lot with ES-DE for Mac (adding additional cores, directory headaches, etc.) I would LOVE a full guide.

[@anthonyh2884]

Same here!

[@udance4ever]

yeah ES-DE is a version of ES that focuses on portability. I've been working on porting Batocera ES by leveraging the work ES-DE has done - the goal is to get it working similar to RetroBat but for macOS. y'all are inspiration to keep working on it :)

[@mobypixel]

Another way to open those files for the first time is to navigate to the app in Finder, right click, and select open. This should give you the same alert popup you get through the Settings menu method. Great video!

[@DanielTBM-oo4wk]

Gatekeeper was changed on macOS Sequoia, so the right-click trick, unfortunately, no longer works. That dialog will now only appear for notarized apps.

[@mobypixel]

@ Thanks for the heads up!

[@retro_rat90]

Imperial ❌ Metric ❌ Kerrygold butter ✅

[@bronxandbrenx]

This is commendable. Thank you. And youtube for showing me your channel.

[@DekuMav]

Finally someone did it! I've been waiting

[@erpatt]

Thumbs up for the Cursive shirt!! Just bought tix to see them next year!

[@Zx30]

It always makes me nervous when you mention anything related to Nintendo or Switch! lol..

[@stefanschuchardt5734]

Understandable. Nintendo will break your legs if they want to. And they do want to.

[@sahamal_savu]

There will be no broken legs. They're rich Japanese guys, not Yakuza 😂😂

[@re5onance244]

​@@sahamal_savu no they won't break your legs but they will put you millions in debt for it

[@emperorfaiz]

@@sahamal_savu They'd break your bank account instead.

[@jameslee5380]

Yes, I would love a tutorial on setting up an emulator and doing exactly what you did in this video. Thanks!

[@Quizack]

It really is insane just how much compute power you can fit in such a tiny form factor. Man I’d love to get a sneak peak at 30 years in the future to see where we’re at. It’s really exciting to watch tech continue to improve.

[@RusticRonnie]

honestly phones are heading towards replacing the modern computers for all consumer tasks.

[@StreetyKing]

I literally bought this Mac today! Setting it up now! I hope the devs tap into the M4 Power!

[@KyleDodds]

Since I saw the leaks of how small the Mac Mini would be I thought this is actually the apple TV I have always wanted! Would love an Apple TV mode for the Mac Mini but then have it running as the file server for the house, some automation tasks & essentially as a gaming console for the TV with decent games from the past.

[@toogee]

7:55 Gamecube and Wii*

[@piplup10203854]

👀 Dang this looks better than I expected it to. It’s nice to see Apple products have better components under the hood. I been thinking of a Mac mini for a while 😊

[@franciscopagan5820]

Bro haven’t watched yet but a video like this was needed thank you 🙏🏼

[@natas-6747]

You spoil us with your knowledge. The best Retro game YT channel hands down, Thanks Russ!

[@ryanbane]

Awesome video and walkthrough. Thanks, Russ!

[@YourWishes]

21:45 "Some hidden gem" - Plays DOA Xtreme Volleyball

[@erlgr]

Damn, this could be a perfect (probably overly fancy) living room emulation machine in a couple of gens. Small, quiet, discreet, low consumption... yet surprisingly powerful

[@ziaul1991]

Never gets old 🔥👊🏻 “Do you really wanna do this?” “Yeah man I wanna do it” 🤣 Legend

[@MrMurmandramas]

when I saw that manual drag-n-dropping of game files, I thought: 'this is where Mac terminal knowledge would shine'.

[@DosBlade]

Thanks mate. You know I had just lol bought the M2 in aug.. so yeah had to HAD to get this one. MAN I LOVE IT

[@robertchen4673]

M1 mac mini user here. The latest M4 mini looks good, maybe going to buy it on Christmas sales or Black Friday sales

[@chrisireland3602]

Excellent video, thank you! As a complete beginner, a separate video guiding through the download and installation of roms, patches to enhance the colour grading, and box art would be incredibly useful! Thanks again 😊

[@luiscazares6408]

This is the video I was waiting for to pull the trigger on a new Mac mini

[@cloudless987]

Thank you for the detailed info about the experience with the launcher - good to know it’s not far from emulation-focused devices you usually test, still not fully there it seems. For me more detailed guide would be nice. And also a comparison to M4 Pro on the hardest games.

[@toanthlp]

my M1 Macbook Air already plays Switch games really well. I can only imagine the M4 with proper cooling and stuff

[@kibiz0r]

Imagine how well they'll run once they're optimized for ARM, unified memory, and Metal. I imagine there's a ton of wasted time doing VRAM ops that aren't necessary with an M-series.

[@Butterscotch_96]

Didn't watch the video yet but everything for me runs fine without upscaling on M1.

[@ben-tendo]

Been playing Wii games at 4K with texture packs and is 60fps on the M4 so far. Gorgeous visuals. Would second the comments regarding a new M4 guide on your site for emulator versions, overlays, etc.

[@BeauBeashore]

Would love to see an Emulation Station video to go through settings, themes, box art, etc! 🙏🏻

[@plumshy5558]

As a Mac emulation user I would love a Mac guide, somethings I have been able to brute force or figure out, but an official guide would be wonderful.. If you ever get the time, IT WOULD BE AMAZING.

[@eazizoll]

Russ- thanks! Please a More detailed Setup guide for Mac OS next

[@JetSpiegel88]

Kerrygold Butter - your good taste extends beyond retro handhelds

[@DavidMalcolm]

It's worth noting that there's the M4 and the M4 Pro, both SOCs can go into that tiny case. If somebody wants more performance in any of those games and the issue isn't strictly caused by the emulator then the M4 Pro can give you literally twice as many performance cores and 60% more GPU cores, or you can opt for the unbinned M4 Pro which gives you twice as many GPU cores.

[@ArjunSudhakar]

Unfortunately, the games that need improvement are almost always the issue with emulator, and not raw performance. I don't see a reason to buy M4 pro for emulation, but It's still an amazing PC.

[@Spiderjin]

Alright, so a Mac Mini the size of two sticks of butter can run PS2 at 4K? Mind blown. Killer guide, you got me wanting to try this out. You're the man as always!

[@harrybaque5502]

Was going to pick one up for my wife… looks like she is getting my old 2018 Mac Mini instead…

[@tristangourdet6084]

😂😂😂

[@mitzyhustle1578]

,😂😂😂

[@Quizack]

If she’s anything like my missus, you could tell her it’s brand new and she’d never know the difference.

[@ILoveBouncies]

Full setup guide for Mac in particular, please and thank you! 😊

[@cdxx6770]

Bro, you should branch out (or at least have a channel) to mainstream tech. We love listening to you, you're very helpful as a tech reviewer, very detailed, and you don't just read the tech specs like some mainstream reviewers do.

[@ikity99]

Thanks for Warrior Boy Wanders test hope to see more of it in future

[@MarkMark]

whoa. playing Animal Crossing New Leaf 3DS on a large screen sounds amazing. this is a great reason to get a new mac mini. thank you! ; )

[@FloatingOnAZephyr]

Great video, full of info. Thanks!

[@MuscleMMan]

So I once was at some game shop and found many retro consoles including Mac mini devices for some reasons That convincing me to buy one Thanks for the video

[@sirlordcomic]

I wasn't expecting to see Kerry Gold Butter in this video. Good Irish butter. Had it on my toast this morning.

[@xmaverickhunterkx]

The one video I was expecting. Thanks!

[@expensivebuddah]

@23:34 i can almost hear the game say "SMASHING!!!!" THANK YOU for testing MGS4 saved me the trouble of doing it m'self! Subbed

[@macporteiro]

incredible video! had no idea the m4 could do so much in retro gaming. But as you said, still a pc could do better in performance, right? What I like about the Mac is that I can download the files with few to no worries about viruses and trojans. Thanks for sharing this and happy holidays!

[@justinhorning6079]

Please make a full Mac emulation setup guide! I’d love you forever!

[@jacksoncooper12]

Madlad for showing switch emulation again

[@uncontrollablefire]

You know, this is genuinely impressive, I never thought I'd see the day where WiiU and PS3 emulation on a Mac was possible, the new Mac mini might be worth the pick up when I can afford it

[@Kirky64]

"might be some hidden gem" as he starts showing Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. I'm with you, I was a young teenager when XBox came out and I glad I had a job where I could buy this game myself.

[@Butterscotch_96]

I should add that everything up to Switch runs great on my base model M1 MacBook Air, although that's without upscaling since I don't like to upscale stuff.

[@wilty5]

Yes, a full Mac guide would be very helpful

[@etmasikewo]

Great overview. I think it would be great if you do make a tutorial video for a detailed setup and use process

[@deadpandan9594]

Yes please for a full Mac OS setup guide :)

[@andrewT23]

Videos like this are my favorite that you do

[@giantbear829]

Good video. Am interested in the mac setup detail video

[@plsampaio]

I was looking forward for a review of the new mac mini as an emulation device. Thank you.

[@Dinosaursof]

This is pretty good for $600. What’s comparable on windows that will play switch just as well or better with a similar price and size of hardware?

[@PB1300]

Right-click then Open will also run the app if you get the error, as it is similar to right-click, run as system admin, for Windows.

[@DIEFH]

Will be waiting for the mac setup tutorial!!

[@TheHandlebarGamer]

I've given Wii a run (Mario Galaxy). Anything over 1440p it would tank the fps. nightly dolphin. did you make any changes?

[@IcoKirov]

you can 'right click' -> 'open' the apps instead of opening them once and then going to system settings. i find it way easier this way. (not sure if it works from the launchpad tho, not a long time mac user)

[@roknboker]

So the M4 Mac Mini and the Pro model of the PC you recommended ( the GMKtec M7 Pro) are pretty close in price. Which do you think does a better job? If you could only build out a retro game collection on one of them, which would you pick?

[@MatTeague]

Great video thanks for posting. I might try this with my Mac Mini. I would definitely like a proper setup tutorial

[@technologyaddict1857]

Pretty impressive to see this out perform the m3 pro from last year with less CPU and GPU cores and we get the additional ram, starting at 16gb.

[@DaBigCheeso]

I moved off the Apple ecosystem a few years back, but the mini was always one of my favorite Macs. A 2006 mini was my first Mac desktop and I had a 2018 model as well, which was easy to pop open and tinker with (for a Mac in 2018). Not going back to Apple any time soon, but if I were, that base mini is a pretty sizeable machine for $599

[@DaBigCheeso]

Addendum: I used to use OpenEmu for emulation on Mac, is that even still a thing?

[@OptimizedSelfNinja]

I wonder how an M4 Mac Mini would compare to a BeeLink Ser8 or Ser9 and or a MinisForum Neptune HX99 or 100G 🤔 I’m guessing for emulation, compatibility wise, the Windows mini PCs would perform better. I just wonder how much better and what the pros and cons of each would be. Might be time for an updated video on best mini PCs for different price categories and use cases.

[@minixtvbox]

He said Ryzen mini can do PS3 god of war iii, this cant

[@HoffmansHoopties]

Yeah I feel like if your #1 goal is gaming emulation a base M4 might not be the best option on price/performance. But as a general computer, hard to argue the M4 mini is damn good. The emulation is just icing on the cake. My M1 mini is still fast as hell 4 years later. I still recall the 24 month grind of replacing my Windows machines because they became antiquated trash. Feels like these are going to be "decade machines" for the vast majority of users who are just web browsing and doing office style work.

[@dtigue]

Would love to see a Mac specific guide. Would also love to know where you’re getting your ROMS.

[@LawsonSoward]

Joining the chorus that a setup video would be awesome Really enjoyed your Retrobat installer video and would be especially interested in a way to get that simple of a setup on an Apple computer. Thanks for all the videos!

[@ahmedp8009]

LOL at Gun & Sword Lady 2! Well played.

[@williambillbillywill]

As an Irish person I got very excited to see a 'Kerry Gold Butter ' size comparison.

[@ray4us53]

Thank you that’s all I needed 😂 getting mines Friday

[@joeschmidhofer2674]

Yes please detailed setup video! Trying to get ES-DE going on macbook and need some help...

[@nickkalister6291]

g-damn I love that theme music :) fyi for bypassing the gatekeeper malware prompt, you can also right click the app, choose open from the right-click menu, and you'll get that same screen where you can tell the OS to launch it anyway. you have to right-click the actual app though, NOT a dock icon.

[@jusatin]

Just FYI: If you want to play Halo: Combat Evolved, you can play the PC version of it using CrossOver.

[@Dansoo]

I love Gun and Sword lady 2, one of my favorite games lmao haha, great job russ love the videos.