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Build an arcade machine at home

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Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#11

Post by JKCalhoun »

If this gets people making and playing with Raspberry Pi's — awesome.

Over 15 years or so I've built perhaps 9 or 10 MAME (later Retropie) cabinets because I enjoy iterating. Often I begin the cabinet in cardboard. Perfect way to prototype.

If you get people to that stage, the cardboard-aided-design stage, the next step (replacing with wood) is easy.

I think people who have never built anything of significance often find the very thought of it daunting and so never begin.

In fact, skip the cardboard, I would try to get people just to install RetroPie and play emulated games with just their USB keyboard.

Then you can move up to cardboard + arcade controls.

Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#13

Post by pantaloony »

hedora wrote: post #9

Fairly accurate USB clones of NES/SNES/Sega/etc controllers were about $20 on Amazon last time I checked. I have some for my Raspberry Pi. They’re great.

The NES and SNES classics come with excellent controllers (side-by-side then with the originals and it’s hard to tell the difference) and aren’t hard to “hack” to run an expanded library. Disk space is limited but you can fit about as many games as a person’s realistically likely to ever play on them.

There are adapters for the controllers but I’ve owned a couple over the years (to use the Wii Classic Controller over USB) and they barely work to begin with, then break after a bit, it seems. Dunno why.

Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#14

Post by madengr »

You can get unfinished cabinets of furniture grade plywood. I wanted mine to look like a nice piece of furniture (wife approved for living room), and it does, after much sanding, staining, and sealing. Extra modifications too, replacing plastic with glass and aluminum.

https://youtu.be/rl0-a76yN0M

I don’t see how a RPi is going to work that well. I’m running a 4k monitor at over 60 Hz (freesync) with CRT emulation, and it looks gorgeous. The bezel artwork looks like it was painted.

Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#15

Post by munificent »

glxxyz wrote: post #5
falcolas wrote: post #2

I can't see that cardboard lasting more than a month of regular use. Arcade buttons are hit hard , and the substrate needs to be able to withstand those forces. Given that you can source basic hand tools (which can do almost everything power tools can do) for a low price, this particular cost saving measure doesn't have a great ROI.

I thought it was a prototype until I got to the end of the article, I was looking for the finished version in something more permanent. Yes there's no requirement to own a circular saw etc.- as well as hand tools the hardware store will accurately cut wood to sizes you specify for a small fee.

> the hardware store will accurately cut wood to sizes you specify for a small fee.

Home Depot and, I think, Lowes will cut for free here in the US. But I wouldn't rely on that for any kind of precision sizing. If you need tolerances within, say, 1/4", you're rolling the dice if you rely on a near-minimum wage employee who couldn't care less doing the cutting for you.

Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#18

Post by throwanem »

pantaloony wrote: post #13
hedora wrote: post #9

Fairly accurate USB clones of NES/SNES/Sega/etc controllers were about $20 on Amazon last time I checked. I have some for my Raspberry Pi. They’re great.

The NES and SNES classics come with excellent controllers (side-by-side then with the originals and it’s hard to tell the difference) and aren’t hard to “hack” to run an expanded library. Disk space is limited but you can fit about as many games as a person’s realistically likely to ever play on them. There are adapters for the controllers but I’ve owned a couple over the years (to use the Wii Classic Controller over…

Switch Pro Controllers are a bit spendy, but once you tape mod them to reduce D-pad mishits, they're as good as (first-party, non-counterfeit) Wii Classic Controllers ever were - I always favored those for Super Metroid speedrunning, and happily used their newer counterparts for the same purpose until my arthritis got to the point where it's no longer comfortable to speedrun with any controller. In particular, I've found Switch Pro Controllers to work well with the Raspberry Pi 4's onboard Bluetooth. So that might be a workable option, if you don't mind spending a little more - that said, I've had the older of mine for something like five years now, and it's stood up very nicely so far.

Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#19

Post by dfxm12 »

falcolas wrote: post #2

I can't see that cardboard lasting more than a month of regular use. Arcade buttons are hit hard , and the substrate needs to be able to withstand those forces. Given that you can source basic hand tools (which can do almost everything power tools can do) for a low price, this particular cost saving measure doesn't have a great ROI.

You don't just need hand tools, but also materials, space to work and the wherewithal to do some woodwork. I agree, it's better to do something right the first time, but I don't think it's wise to let constraints like this get in the way of starting & finishing an exciting project for fun.

At the end of the day, even with cardboard, you'll still have a working videogame setup, as well as some new, transferable skills (even if woodworking isn't one of them).

I guess what I'm saying is, it doesn't have to be about the thing lasting longer than a month, it's about the process, what you learned along the way, getting something completed and the feelings of accomplishment that go with them.

Re: Build an arcade machine at home

#20

Post by nlh »

I'll join in on the show-and-tell portion of this discussion ;)

I built a MAME machine for a group summer house about 6 years ago and probably went WAY overboard, but man was it fun. My favorite piece was the cabinet, which I ordered from someone in North Carolina who builds these for a living. IIRC it was about $500, but wow - was it high quality (and it had to be delivered via freight - it was probably 200lbs):

https://imgur.com/a/IHKnJeo

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