In-house Retro Arcade Game Cabinet
Contents
- 1 Proposal
- 2 Research materials
- 2.1 Which emulators and games are available?
- 2.2 Which front end for emulator meets the requirement and why?
- 2.3 How can the Raspberry Pi can be connected to which peripherals?
- 2.4 Requirements for Display
- 2.5 Requirements for Joysticks & Buttons
- 2.6 Requirements for Audio/Speakers
- 2.7 Requirements for Cabinet & Mounting gear
- 2.8 Items and Materials needed broken down
- 2.9 Cost of items
- 2.10 Labour and possible roles broken down
Proposal
We propose a retro arcade game cabinet machine to be built and situated in the hackspace.
Description of retro arcade game cabinet
Arcade games from the last 40 years have been preserved on the internet and are freely distributable as ROMs. These ROMs can run on various platforms, via an emulator.
One of the cheapest and low-powered machines to run it on is the ARM processor powered Raspberry Pi. It would also require:
- A screen that could be mounted in the arcade game cabinet easily
- Speakers mounted in the arcade game cabinet
- 8-way arcade stick and various buttons mounted in front of the screen
- The arcade game cabinet itself
The electrical equipment all needs to be powered.
The screen would need the most power, and may be mounted on steel parts, made using a CNC developed and built in-house, see Plasma_CNC in projects in this wiki.
Overall, the arcade game cabinet must be built to be clean and safe to use as well as durable.
Why do it and how would it benefit the Hackspace?
Norwich Hackspace already have plans for a games corner. This would be an amazing start to it.
The arcade game cabinet can help relieve stress, give people a place to do something non-working in the hackspace and may make the hackspace more popular.
Similar projects have been finished and very referenced/documented on the internet, making it a very achieveable project.
The project would directly benefit those planning and working on it by developing their skills and their selves.
Research materials
Which emulators and games are available?
Currently the Raspberry Pi runs a very decent emulator named RetroArch which is cross-platform.
The most extensive game list with most desired games belongs to Final Burn Alpha, which also incorporates the MAME ROM games and many more. For a full list of included emulators in Final Burn Alpha (FBA) see http://www.lakka.tv/doc/Arcade/
A full game list of compatible roms can be found here.
Which front end for emulator meets the requirement and why?
After a test, Lakka was superior and more customisable than the RetroPie front end. This includes locking away the advanced options, so when the final arcade cabinet is built, the menus will be for purposes of playing the games and starring the HackSpace members most played games for a Favourites Game List, which is needed as there are too many games to choose from initially. Password protection can be added for advanced options, servicing the arcade cabinet system settings. The GUI menus, front-end are also more suitable, as RPi RetroArch will be used and Lakka front-end was developed by the RetroArch team.
How can the Raspberry Pi can be connected to which peripherals?
Requirements for Display
The Final Burn Alpha games run typically on a 4:3 ratio screen. We need a display which is this ratio, lightweight so it can be installed in the cabinet safely. Also a larger screen is preferred, as long as it does not exceed the cabinet's requirement in dimensions - width and height. A suitable screen can be installed and mounted, we can even recycle a non-used screen donated to the HackSpace.
It was suggested a screen that can be detached from it's stand, back elements could be very suitable.
