My brother mentioned that he would love an arcade table for Christmas. I had a look online and the cheapest were £800 plus. I wondered if it was possible to build one. I have no carpentry skills but can print on aluminium board (like street signs are made of) and using a suitable glass topped mdf table as a frame, thought it might be possible.
The most important thing is of course the games. And I have found that a raspberry pi (£35 with power supply) with software called retropie fits the bill. It is a bit of a technical challenge getting everything working and I still have a few arcade games to get running, but I have on it every game for many computers and consoles including the Spectrum and C64 to the Snes, Megadrive, PC Engine. I also have every NEO GEO game working which are 100% arcade games. In terms of other arcade games, I have got the simple ones running, but have work to do on some of the more complex ones. I loved playing my old favourites Astro fighter and Carnival! So now the games have clearly ticked the box, I have ordered the glass table and arcade buttons and joystick.
Anyway, I'll update this thread with some photos as the project progresses. I have posted on here because I thought maybe somebody else has completed a similar project or is thinking of doing so. If the former I'm sure it would be helpful to talk through some issues I still have to crack and if the latter, I may be able to provide some advice.
I haven't received the table or buttons yet, and when I do, careful measuring is going to be required to get the aluminium board cut right. I still need to work out the best way to mount the monitor (I have a plan but not 100% confident it is the best way yet) and switching it on. I have an old LCD Techneka tv that is perfect - the analogue areal connecter is broken but the hdmi port is fine (what the pi needs).
Anyway, any advice or questions are most welcome. It does feel a bit of a challenge!
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Also if you wanted arcade games like Street fighter maybe get a Jamma Board, they're pretty cheap and run all those types of games but stick with Raspberry Pi if you wanted SNES games and stuff, I'm sure it can handle most non-3d arcade games as well through MAME.
With the arcade games you can define a button a the coin button so it is nice playing an arcade game with teh ability to keep stuffing money in it. The Neo Geo is great for fighting games and 1943 type games. Many of them probably share the same code. There are some real gems in there, but I have to spend less time playing them and more time planning and fixing. I am using an Xbox 360 wired controller. Had a sneaky go at Sensi on the Megadrive, but made sure it was only a quick one.
https://retroarch.com/index.php
Have to echo what MrOneLung said, you are a good brother for doing this, this is quite a project.
EDIT: Just spotted that it's not for your brother, that is more like it
https://timleland.com/raspberry-pi-turn-tv-onoff-cec/
You would just need to schedule the command to run as part of startup, maybe on init.d or whatever the equivalent pi startup routine was.
I also have to get to grips with retropie. I can play the games on it, but I need to look at different display options and mastering the turning on and off of the system. Lots of You Tubing and googling this weekend I think. Currently one player or two player is selected using the joystick, I want it to be a button - that sort of thing!!! I was wondering whether individual games can be allocated their own controls outside of teh generic controls - just to optimise playability.
As for the TV, assuming power will always be supplied to the table and never turned off you should be able to send it the standby command as part of the shutdown/kill processes using CEC.
Sounds like a lot of fun, I'd love to see some pictures as you make it.
Part of me is thinking I should just have made it into a console. Far less issues to resolve, but I have bought the bits now at some cost. If anybody is a fan of arcade games and wants to build a console, it is very simple -talking minutes here - and you could be playing 1,000s of arcade games plus megadrive and snes for under £100. All what is needed can be found on ebay. Setting up is pretty easy. If anybody wants ebay links to the different things they will need to make the far easier console, they can PM me and I'll send them to them.
It isn't quite nothing but you can buy a Pi for £43 with power supply, a case for it for £3.50, Joypads for £5, a 32GB SD card for £7 and you have what you need. It is a bit of work still. I think I will make up a few consoles for Christmas presents - I can just copy the retropi and games image fromn sd card to sd card.
I decided not to have N64 and Playstaion games on my cabinet as they do not run perfectly and require more complex controllers which I don't want on the cabinet. I am really happy with the software side and have solved all the issues on display and getting the screen to come on. I have purchased a 4:3 ratio vga monitor and an VGA HDMI adapter which works well. I also have some external speakers that are powered using the Raspberry USB port. Two other ports of the four are used for the arcade joysticks and buttons.
The laminated Aluminium housing is fully printed with a dragon's Lair theme. I am building this around a wooden frame for strength. Anyway, I expect it to be finished in a few days and I'll put some pictures up. I have save and volume options as well as display choices like CRT etc... I don't want too many as it gets silly.
Great I can play and save Sensible Soccer and many other console games.