Arcade Machine, April 2020

[el3venth]

So I am "working" from home.
I was on a tight budget, and only have handtools at home.
Got half a sheet plywood at R200, and the controls I bought years ago, and the PC (Pentium Dual Core, socket 1150) I got at a charity shop for R500.
The 32" screen I got for free after my borther-in-law upgraded his.
The rest of the wood bits and pieces was offcuts from my mom redoing her kitchen.

So the basics are working.
Woohooo.

No just to clean up.

 

[llewellyn4237]

Hi. What do u need to built this? Where to buy the joysticks and buttons? What else do I need? Always wanted to built my own arcade box.

 

[el3venth]

I bought my parts from ebay while I was in the US.
But there are a couple of places locally that stock parts. A quick google search revealed the following:

PiShop

Welcome to PiShop; your one stop shop for Single Board Computers and accessories!

www.pishop.co.za

Arcade Games Coin Operated Machines for Sale South Africa

Supplier of game arcade consoles, Pandora box 5s, bartop & full size arcade machines, DIY kits build your own arcade time machine. Visit our online store today

homeofarcadia.co.za

DIYElectronics

DIYElectronics - Make It Your Way!

www.diyelectronics.co.za

Universal Joystick - gaming controls

Universal Joystick, manufacturers of gaming joysticks

www.universaljoystick.co.za

Otherwise, aliexpress has loads of cheap options.

You can probably make the entire cabinet from a sheet of 16mm MDF wood.
The tools I used was a circular saw, jigsaw, 28mm spade bit (button holes), 20mm saw bit (joystick hole and router substitute), screwdriver, some screws, glue.

Of course I still need to add the plexiglass and paint/vinyl mine.

 

[el3venth]

And I should have added:
Best overall reference on the web is Slagcoin

Joystick Controller - Introduction

Site that gives information on arcade parts and home joystick controllers.

www.slagcoin.com

 

[llewellyn4237]

Thank you very much for all the info. Will see how soon after lockdown I can start with mine.

 

[el3venth]

If you are looking for a some reference projects:

The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls - Index

The NEW Build Your Own Arcade Controls - Index

forum.arcadecontrols.com

 

[Havok1977]

So I am "working" from home.
I was on a tight budget, and only have handtools at home.
Got half a sheet plywood at R200, and the controls I bought years ago, and the PC (Pentium Dual Core, socket 1150) I got at a charity shop for R500.
The 32" screen I got for free after my borther-in-law upgraded his.
The rest of the wood bits and pieces was offcuts from my mom redoing her kitchen.

So the basics are working.
Woohooo.

No just to clean up.

 

[Havok1977]

Hi, Try running launch box, you would need your mouse

 

[el3venth]

@Havok1977 I'm using Attract Mode for the front-end.

Attract-Mode Emulator Frontend

Attract-Mode is a frontend/launcher for command line emulators such as MAME, MESS and Nestopia. It hides the underlying operating system and is intended to be controlled with a joystick, gamepad or spin dial, making it ideal for use in arcade cabinets. Attract-Mode is open source and runs on...

attractmode.org

Works great. And it runs in Linux without issues.

Made it a lot prettier.

 

[MatthieuP]

very nice.
I'm quite keen to get one started with a Pie3 I have lying around. I guess it is probably best to gather all the components before starting the build wouldn't you say?
Regarding the screen. all screen we find these days are 16x9 format. I guess all the games are still 4x3. Do they fill the screen and look streched or do they have black bands on the sides?

 

[el3venth]

Pi or PC
I like the PC more. More power.
Pi is great, but the newer games will suffer.

16:9 or 4:3
It's your choice. You can stretch, pillarbox, pillarbox with echo, add artwork on the side, whatever you like.
Some newer games are widescreen, but pi will not handle that.

 

[Nicgun]

Wow, thats impressive man. Wish i had the knowledge to do something like this.

 

[MatthieuP]

Pi or PC
I like the PC more. More power.
Pi is great, but the newer games will suffer.

16:9 or 4:3
It's your choice. You can stretch, pillarbox, pillarbox with echo, add artwork on the side, whatever you like.
Some newer games are widescreen, but pi will not handle that.

Thanks. I guess the Pi would be ok with Retropie for the older classic arcade games and a PC might be better for the more recent emulations

 

[el3venth]

Wow, thats impressive man. Wish i had the knowledge to do something like this.

You really don't. All I used was a jigsaw, circular saw, some woodscrews and glue.
I have now gotten some black plastic 1mm sheet, that I will bend and use to cover things up.
Will update with pick shortly.

 

[iamgigglz]

You just need some half-blown paper cone speakers mounted in the top & a slightly sticky floor and the experience will be complete.

Nice work dude.

 

[el3venth]

I actually didn't varnish it fast enough and my 2 years old decorated it for me using crayons.
In two minds if I should keep or sand it.