My 3rd Gen Rev A Apple TV (Model A1469) has been sitting around in a drawer for a long time and I was considering recycling it. But it works perfectly (minus the drawbacks of it having old technology) and I can’t stand the idea of wasting something useful.

What can I put on this to repurpose this? I like the idea of first using it for network storage and eventually using it as a retro gaming console (is that possible? Can it recognize wireless controllers?) but I don’t know any applications or OSs that I can use. And what else is possible that I may not have considered? Has anyone else successfully done something like this?

Is there another community that I may benefit from posting this into? Here was my first thought because I’ve seen how resourceful everyone here is and I am a big supporter of open source software (which has me rethinking all of my future technology purchases 🙃).

Any help that explains like I’m 5 will also be especially appreciated since I am still learning these things 🙏🏻

Thanks!