Building KODI box for theater, Which OS should I start with?

We’ve recently completed our home theater room in the basement and I want to build a media center for it. In the past I’ve always just used my laptop, but I want something more dedicated. As a plus it can help me really clean up some of the clutter. Most of my movies are currently hosted by my primary windows 10 machine. Some are still on an older Vista machine that my wife uses. I will need to be able to access the windows 10 machine from the media center with the Vista machine being a bonus.

We are also both avid gamers. Both played games starting in the late 70’s and have never stopped. As such we have a HUGE older game system and game selection that I’d like to consolidate as much as possible. I’ve thought about something like a Retron5, but that still leaves the clutter of literally hundreds of games I’ll need to organize. I’d prefer to just dump them all on the media center box…or at least what I can. We currently have a 2600, NES, Master System, SNES, Genesis, N64, PS1, Game Cube, PS2, Xbox, Wii, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. Obviously, some of this is too new to include in the media center, but I’d like to incorporate as much as possible.

I am re-purposing older equipment to get the project off the ground and if all goes well, I may get some newer equipment for the Media Center at some point in the future. Proof of concept I guess?? Have to get the significant other sold on the idea. Anyway, CPU is a Core2Duo, on a Gigabye P35C-DS3R MB with 4Gig of RAM and an nVidia 8800GTS 512mb for the video card. Spare 320Gig HD, 600Watt PSU, and DVD reader/CDRW. For now, I’ll keep using the Blu-Ray player for anything new I purchase.

That brings us to my issue. Which OS should I base the box on? Keep in mind that I need working emulators for whatever is possible. I’d prefer to use Linux (although I am unfamiliar with it) to keep the cost down. However, it appears Windows has a better support in the emulator arena. I’ve read about KodiBuntu, but can’t locate any current downloads for it. Has it lost favor? I also thought About OpenELEC, but decided I’d rather go with KODI.

Any input is appreciated. I look forward to replies. Thanks in advance.