emulation box

[BEN!!!]

i would like to build myself an emulator box to run old game systems, such as SNES and SEGA Genesis, and im asking for any how to info.
basically i want it to be a basic system with just a text-based OS to run the emulators, but i cant seem to find (if there are) any text-based emulators.
anyone know of any? also has anyone else made one of these emulator boxes?
the computer being used is an intel celeron 667 mHz w/ 384 mb ram. when complete, i would prefer the system to be just a motherboard, hard drive, psu, video card with s-video out, and a couple usb controllers.
any information on this would be very helpful. thanks!

[doorknob60]

Text based system for emulators? No. Put a lightweight Window Manager like Openbox on there, so it will still be a GUI, but it won't use a ton of RAM. If you're up to it, I recommend a Debian Netinst, Arch, or Ubuntu Server install, and build it up from there. Here 's a good wiki page that will be useful for any distro. Also you can IM me and I can help you set it up if you want. http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openbox