Where do I start, and what communities should I get involved in, in order to achieve the following?

Ideally, I'd like to have a box that does the following (doesn't have to do this out of the box, I'm just looking to be able to achieve these goals through configs and necessary dependencies):

• Either bypasses login, or auto login
• Auto-start FCEUX with options that will (a) automatically start a ROM of my choosing, and (b) go into full-screen mode. You can assume that before I get that far, I've already configured the input devices and video options.
• I'd like to create (or install, if it exists) a full-screen app that takes a list of ROMs, allows me to select one with a gamepad/arcade stick, and press a button to open that game
• Be able to map a button on a gamepad/arcade stick to the "Power off" or exit function of the emulator, such that it will take me back to the ROM selection screen.

I've already successfully installed FCEUX and tested it with an arcade stick I own, so I'm not looking for an emulator installer guide. I don't know if the ROM selector app exists already, but I'm a Java developer, and could probably create one (so long as it's not too difficult to support controllers - I was thinking of using Slick2D for this - a gaming library that I'm already pretty familiar with).

The goal would be a dedicated box that I have connected to my TV. I power it on. It boots up and starts the ROM selection app, which passes the proper parameters to FCEUX (or another emulator that I might switch to at a later time), and I'm ready to go. Basically an NES emulator as a real, living room console.

Also, as far as mapping a controller button to functions in the app, well, I've also played around with hardware, and it would be pretty trivial for me to modify a gamepad to trigger key presses. I just don't want to go to that length if it's not necessary.