The Retro-Arcade Machine

Austin and I undertook a project to build a home arcade machine. We had several requirements:

  1. It must use real arcade controls (joysticks and buttons)
  2. It must play hundreds of exact classic arcade games (such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Defender, Galaga, Dig-Dug, etc.)
  3. It must be half the size of real arcade machines
  4. It must be an upright (as opposed to a table top) design
  5. It must stand up to the serious abuse that only 13 year old boys (and men who often revert to boys in the presence of the Retro-Arcade) can deliver
  6. It must use a wood finish and be easily disassembled

We arrived with a design that passes the spouse factor but is still a boy magnet.

Construction Photos

I cut out the side panels with a jig-saw, sanded one side smooth, and then used the router with a flush trim bit to make the two sides identical.

The wood parts for the control panels are drilled and routed. I left the plastic covering on the Lexan until final assembly.

Here's the wiring on the control panel. I found a great product called the I-PAC that maps switches to a PC keyboard connector.

The panel with the graphic installed and the Lexan covering in place. I chose Lexan over acrylic because its easier to cut and drill.

We had an extra large flat bed color printer at work so I printed the marquee, instructions, and control panel there.

This is the light up marquee at the top of the machine.

I did some Photoshop work to create huge images for the instructions.

No quarters are required. Just press the button.

You can see the sub-woofer mounted on the bottom kickboard.

We used plastic T-molding to mask the edges of the oak plywood. To install it you must route a groove in the edges of the side pieces.

You can see the acoustically transparent cloth just above the monitor that hides the left and right speakers.

This is the final product. The finish is stained and polyurathaned oak plywood and black formica laminate.

Design and Resources

Design Tools and Ergonomics

We started on the design using TrueSpace as a 3D CAD system to come up with some accurate plans. We tilted the monitor so that full grown men could stand and still see the display, but the machine is short so boys can easily reach the controls.

Internet Resources

I searched the web and found an open source project called MAME (Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator) that can execute thousands of ROM images from old time arcade machines. I also discovered that lots of people are into building their own arcade machines using MAME. They've created a web site called BYOAC (Build Your Own Arcade Controls) that's full of great info and examples. They also talk about software emulators that can handle retro 64 games and Dreamcoast games too. I also found a site called Happ Controls that sells real replacement parts for the repair of arcade machines. We ordered all our buttons, joysticks, casters, and T-molding (plastic edging) from Happ Controls.

Budget

We built the machine for $800. This was the first PC I had ever built so I was a little nervous about it. We didn't need a PC case since I just screwed the motherboard to the inside of the arcade cabinet. We used a 12cm exhaust fan at the top of the cabinet for cooling. We used an AMD 1700+ processor, 128MB RAM, a 20GB HD, and a low-end ATI video card I had laying around. The motherboard has a built-in NIC so I connected the Retro-Arcade machine to our home network. Since this machine didn't require bleeding edge technology, we bought most of the electronics on eBay. Building the PC turned out to be easy...the woodworking was the challenge. Not that it is a hard design to build..I'm just a lot better at electronics than woodworking. The construction is all 3/4" oak plywood that's stained then finished with several coats of polyurathane and 1/2" birch plywood covered with black formica. Austin was a big help with critical design feedback, holding the wood while I was cutting, finishing, and by accompanying me on our many trips to Home Depot and Tap Plastics.