The Icrontic arcade cabinet
primesuspect
Beepin n' BoopinDetroit, MI Icrontian
in Gaming
Looking for recommendations:
We're going to build a MAME cabinet for ICHQ. I know there are kits and shit and the entire retro arcade game movement has become very polished and accessible. What's the current state of the union when it comes to building your own?
Suggestions appreciated!
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Requirements: It has to have support for two players. Maybe, just maybe, we could go full crazy and build a 4-player cabinet for games like TMNT and Simpsons, etc.
Raspberry Pie hardware and RetroPie software should get you 80% of the way there, the rest is screen, memory and sticks, of which I have no recommendations.
Can be done cheaper than the kits, but the all-in-one's will run you about $80.
Howto guide on the retropie subreddit:
https://howchoo.com/g/n2qyzdk5zdm/build-your-own-raspberry-pi-retro-gaming-rig
First Installation - RetroPie Docs
https://retropie.org.uk/docs/First-Installation/+1 for retropi.
I'll be interested in seeing where this goes because I've been torn about what I'm going to do with my basement gameroom. We close on a house in three days, it has a nice little basement area, where we have decided on one of those flip 3 in one air hockey, pool, ping pong tables, now the question is what kind of arcade. I was leaning towards just keeping it cheap and easy and getting a few of those little Arcade 1up machines, Pac Man, Galaga, the new Marvel Super Heroes one and saying, good enough. I don't think I can reasonably get a commercial machine down there, it's just too heavy, but my ideal machine would have been the Pac Man pixel bash chill. Anyhow, there is a company call Rec Room Masters, they make ready to build cabinets with good hardware. I thought about one of those knowing that I could take it down a part at a time and assemble it, but I'm not sure I'm as interested in Retropi because my experience messing around with emulation has always been a bit of a headache, I've never been that big a fan of emulators and ROM's and wonky front end interfaces with a too many choices. If I did one, I'd have to discipline myself to be extra selective.
That said, a four player NBA Jam machine would be rad as hell. Let's compare notes on this.
I just picked up a RasPi 4 for the sole purpose of making a RetroPi machine. I am going to start with Xbox controllers, but I'm hoping at some point to get an arcade-style controller.
Something like this:
Amazon.com: Hikig 2 Player led Arcade Buttons and joysticks DIY kit 2X joysticks + 20x led Arcade Buttons Game Controller kit for MAME and Raspberry Pi - Red + Blue Color: Computers & Accessories
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JFXQSM5I would install the controllers in something like this:
Amazon.com: Bartop Arcade Kit: Kitchen & Dining
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0741NRCGGOur build:
RaspberryPi loaded with roms on a touch screen DELL, and lots of glowing stuff.
Although it's only a 1 player set-up, there's 2 USB ports that can take extra controllers.
I've always wanted to do something like this. I'll be watching with great interest. :)