After my 1st Raspberry Pi Project (The Photo Frame), I decided to attempt to make a "RetroPie Arcade." I first heard about this project towards the end of April, and in October decided to look more into making one. I gave myself a finish date for Christmas, and would give it to the kids. After all, aren't the best gifts hand-made?
On Christmas Eve 2015, we gave the arcade to the kids. Here's them playing it for the first time!
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I've put some of the photos and time-lapse videos on this post. They're in reverse-chronological order, starting with the most recent video.
By this time my little helper figured out what I was up to, so I decided to have him give it a test-drive. Keep in mind that he has never played Super Mario Brothers and is used to touching the screen.
After hot-gluing the T-Molding that wouldn't stay in place, I cut out the posters that I'd printed at Sam's Club to use on the sides of the cabinet. Once they were in place, I screwed in the bottom panel.
I put the monitor in place in this step using Velcro. I then caulked the edges (to give it a more finished look).
I put the marquee sign in place and attempted to put a screen over the monitor. I couldn't quite get the plastic screen over the monitor to work, so I decided to not use one.
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| AFTER zip-tying the button wires. |
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| The insides. |
I put the T-Molding, Joysticks and Buttons on in this step. While I remembered to label the "Player 2" up and down access points, I didn't for "Player 1." Because of this, I had to hook up the buttons and figure out which way was up.
In this step, I put primer on the cabinet, then painted it black. I originally purchased Black Spray Paint, but it was too cold to paint outside, so I painted in the basement. When the paint was dry, I put the piano hinge on the back access door and attached it to the cabinet.
Part of the project was to create a power switch that would turn on everything in the cabinet: the computer, the monitor, the speakers and the LEDs for the marquee. I'm a novice when it comes to electrical wiring, so I relied heavily on the Internet for wiring. Unfortunately the switch that I bought didn't come with any instructions. To add some complication, I bought a back-lit button that needed to be wired correctly as well. This button remains lit as long as there is power going to it. I tested it out in the kitchen on the outlet next to the sink. I did this because if there was a short, the outlet would trip and I could reset it easily.
I used a jigsaw to make the marquee frame, which will make the back-light marquee sign possible.
Because of my error from Day 1 of cutting the wood, I needed to have a Day 2. The cutting got easier as I went along, as I learned how to use the battery-powered circular saw more.
I used MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) for the paneling of the arcade. This stirred up A LOT of dust, and if I ever make one of these again, I'll either use more expensive wood (The MDF board was 1/2 the cost of the next step up of wood) or make one in the summer when I can cut outside. Everything went well with the cutting right up until the last cut, where I cut the bottom piece the wrong end, so it would be shorter than 20 inches wide.
One of the challenges that I faced was how to attach the T-Molding. This is the flexable plastic that goes around the edges. Because I don't have a router or the router bit that I'd need, I tried to make the groove using a battery-powered circular saw. The trial worked, I'd just have to be a little more careful on the final project in getting a cut in the center.
I've downloaded a few games (28) and I tried out "Donkey Kong." There is no sound because I haven't attached the speakers yet.
Part of the project was to have a lit marquee sign above the screen. I tried this out on the prototype with an LED strip. I choose to back-light a print that I had printed at our local Sam's Club by sandwiching the "photo" in between two pieces of plastic. For the plastic I used a $5 frame from Wal-Mart and cut it to size.
After wiring the joysticks and buttons, I tested the control panel on my Windows computer. Posting this video proved to be helpful. It took me almost a month to realize that two of the buttons were always being "pressed," or in the "on" position. Once I realized this, it was a simple re-wiring of two buttons. The error that I was getting was that the start button on two-player games wouldn't work because the "start" and "insert coin" were constantly being pushed (or so it thought). .
I hooked up the wires to the controller (this is what tells the computer which button is being pressed). It didn't take very long. I first daisy-chained the ground then connected each of the buttons to the USB controller.
Because I still had some spare plywood laying around, I decided to attempt to make another control panel, this time with measurements that I plan on using in the final build (20 inches wide). Also, I'll be able to test the joystick and button functions with the Raspberry Pi.
I received the buttons and joysticks that I bought on eBay. My next step was to build a control panel to see if the buttons and joysticks work. In my attempt to assemble the control panel for the arcade, I realized that the buttons didn't fit because I used the wrong bit. After I used the correct bit, the joystick was too close to the buttons, and would not fit. My next attempt will be to make a wider control panel, allowing more room in between the joystick and buttons.
I was looking in the garage for some cardboard to tape together a simple prototype of the tabletop arcade. While searching for this, I noticed that we had some extra drop-ceiling panels in our garage. I had always thought that it was extra drywall, which would just crumble if I tried to piece it together. After cutting a sample of the ceiling panels (ironically with a drywall saw), I decided to use this instead of piecing together cardboard. The ceiling panels are also 1/2 inch thick, which is what the blueprints call for. I also used the time-lapse function of my camera to speed up the prototype-building process:
End of October - I searched locally on Craigslist for a 19-inch NON-widescreen monitor to use for this project, that I've now decided to tackle. The closest monitor under $50 was for $20 in North Prairie, WI (2 hours away). Coincidentally, my parents live in North Prairie. I emailed the seller and he had two monitors, so I offered $30 for both. The next day my dad picked up both monitors.
Mid-October - I sold two old Roku Boxes that were going to be out-of-support. I was looking at getting the new Roku 4 with the money that I sold them for, but decided to spend the eBay money on a bar-top arcade cabinet for the kids for Christmas. I found the detailed instructions on an instructable web site: Bartop Arcade Instructions. I downloaded the PDF that had the measurements for the front panel (which would hold the screen) and decided that the first thing (and hardest to find) would be an old monitor.
April 29th, 2015 I first heard about the arcade cabinet on TWIG (This week in Google). I thought that it would be a good idea to make for the kids.
