Absolutely. While newer versions (4.6, 5.0) offer support for the S905X4 and RK3588, they require newer kernels that drop support for the S912 and older S905. The majority of cheap second-hand boxes are S905X and S912. These boxes cost as little as $15–20 on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.
Pair EmuELEC 3.8 with a $10 USB SNES controller, and you have a dedicated retro console that plays:
All of this for the price of a pizza. And the software? Zero dollars. emuelec 38 free
Create a 1GB swap file to help with memory-heavy cores (Saturn, Dreamcast).
Your SD card may only be 16GB, but your ROM collection might be 200GB. EmuELEC 3.8 supports NAS storage for free. Absolutely
Now you have unlimited free storage from your PC or a cheap NAS.
Installing EmuELEC 3.8 is a rite of passage. It involves imaging an SD card, navigating the specific key combinations to boot from external storage, and watching the Linux boot logs scroll by like Matrix code. It is a reminder that behind the pixel art and chiptunes, there is serious engineering at work. All of this for the price of a pizza
Once configured, the Bluetooth support—often a pain point in earlier versions—connects modern controllers to vintage ghosts. You can sit on your couch with a modern 8BitDo controller and dive into a Sega Genesis library without a wire in sight.
You will need: