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I'm planning to buy a Raspberry Pi to set up a classic console emulator.

This is my spec:

Raspberry Pi 3B+
32GB MicroSD (temporary, to be upgraded)
Bluetooth Joypad (likely an XBox One Bluetooth Joypad)
DVD Drive (optional)

The whole thing will be connected to my HDTV (HDMI) and to the internet (via cable)

I have some questions:

1: What is the highest spec of console I'm likely to be able to emulate at full speed? I've heard PS1, is that right?

2: What benefit, if any, will there be from running games directly from their discs?

3: Do you have any suggestions to improve this setup?

From my experience with a Raspberry pi (not for emulation) and with PS1 emulation itself, I think you're being a tad optimistic for PS1 emulation on a Pi. You should be able to flawlessly run 4th Gen Consoles (SNES era) however.

Should PS1 emulation be viable, you want to run them straight off the SD card. A good speed SD card will be faster than the emulator can handle since a PS1 has a maximum speed of 300 KB/s.

PS1 emulation isn't a game breaker. I still have my PS2. I'm more interested in knowing what the top end is. Mid 80s to mid 90s coin-ops is the stuff I play most anyhow.

I backed the Dreamcade Replay on KS, and I received it a month or so ago and I'm loving it.

Some people have had issues with it, but I haven't at all, really.

And I'm playing everything from Arcade through all the first consoles (2600, Coleco, etc.) then NES and SNES, Genisis, PS1 and Dreamcast.

I really do play mostly 80's and 90's Arcade too though.

 George Spiggott wrote:
PS1 emulation isn't a game breaker. I still have my PS2. I'm more interested in knowing what the top end is. Mid 80s to mid 90s coin-ops is the stuff I play most anyhow.

Anything that isn't run on a disc or an N64 cartridge is easy to emulate.

Well I got this the other day and I've been tinkering. I'm still running off a wired Xbox 360 pad at the moment as I haven't had the opportunity to pick up a blue tooth Xbox One pad but otherwise the spec is as described above. Plan is to pick up the afore mentioned pad and a 128GB SD card asap.

Anyhow PS1 emulation is possible I have successfully run both Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Hogs of War and the both seem to run fine without glitches or lag. I realise they're both older games so I'll try a few others as well.

Added a few more PS1 games to my collection and every one I have tested seems to run at full speed.

I've also got a couple of N64 and Dreamcast games. Some of them run fine (Soul Reaver, Mario Cart 64) but the rest are slow or glitchy (Rogue Squadron, Panzer Front).

Glad it's working out for you mate

Thanks. I've been upgrading my system since last I posted and I am now running on a 128GB SD card and using an Xbox One Blue Tooth joypad. 128GB should give me plenty of room to store disc based games (PS1 ROMs are often 500MB+). I had a little trouble setting up the Bluetooth joypad but it works fine now.