Tabletop Arcade Rabbithole

[oldskoolboarder]

Oh no. What did I get myself into?

I started reading this.

fieldguide.gizmodo.com/12-ways-to-build-your-own-retro-game-machine-1791770932

I've been trying to come up w/ tech projects that I can do w/ my son so he can start learning how to program. I have a few DIY kits, LEGO EV3, and Arduino Littlebits kits that we are going to crack open.

Building an arcade cabinet sounded cool, was thinking of starting w/ the HH ones. But he wants to jump to the arcade ones. I like the ones w/ pre-built cabinets so that all the parts are there and cut. Then it's just assembly and paint. The dilemma is what kind of computing power to use. The simplest is Raspberry Pi but then we could also opt for a full PC inside there and have more options. Then someone suggested using an old Xbox and running COINOPS.

Have any of you attempted this? Suggestions?

[dschroll]

Like minds Cesar. I recently reached out to a guy near me that restores old arcade machines. I told him I've always wanted to do that and asked if I could basically assist in any way and he could show me how he does it. Right now I'm just doing some soldering, but my goal is to take a junk arcade cabinet and completely restore it paint and all. The guy even said that I could use his spare parts and such to build my own machine. It'll be a while before I'll be coming home with anything, but it's cool to have an outlet for this stuff

I've also gotten really into retro gaming and have been going a bit nuts picking up things. I already had an N64 and SNES, but now have Everdrives (i.e. flash carts) for both systems. I recently picked up a Sega Genesis and my friend in Texas sent me his Dreamcast and his old broken NES. I already fixed his NES by swapping out the 72 pin connector inside. I also picked up a 14" Sony PVM (high quality CRT) to play my retro systems on. It's an RGB monitor and systems like the Genesis and SNES actually output in RGB without any modification. Suffice it to say, with the right cables, the games look better than I remember.

Getting back to your question, I recommend getting a PC and making a MAME cabinet. The guy I bought the PVM off of had about a dozen arcade cabinets in his basement and he was selling most of them off because he said his MAME cabinet gives him the same experience and it didn't make sense taking all the space when he can play all the games from a single machine. For me? Personally, I'd love to get a NEO GEO, but we'll see...

[oldskoolboarder]

Back in '99 my friend worked at EA. His coworker was moving from the Bay to the NorthWest and had to clear some of his arcade machines and had a Stargate for sale for $250. I figured sure. I went to pick it up and his whole house was taken over. He had a Gauntlet and asked if that was for sale, he said no. The Stargate cabinet was in decent shape but some chips all over. The screen would cop out and you'd have to slap it to get it back. I sold it again when I moved in 2003. Would've been nice to keep the cabinet and make it MAME.

I 'would' be interested in a cabinet, but honestly, it's so big and not sure where I'd put it. I would be more interested in a cocktail table since I could 'hide' that. Surprisingly, my wife would actually happy w/ an actual pinball machine but that thing is MASSIVE and way too much maintenance. I went to the arcade show in 2015 and they had some tabletop size video pinball which were VERY cool but those were priced around $2K. At that price, I'd rather have a cocktail arcade machine.

I started looking at mini PCs and while that 'would' give me WAY more options, I think we're going to start w/ the Raspberry Pi. We can use the cabinet as our DIY and then program w/ Pi. He likes the idea of robotics and hopefully if the Pi thing sticks, he can use that knowledge going forward to learn other versions of Raspberry. PLUS, for the same cost, we can get different versions.

The Porta Pi looks to be a relatively complete set up to get us started. I also get the impression that we can swap out the Pi for different boards and possible an Xbox or PC if we choose to go further. Open to other ideas if you've run across them.

[oldskoolboarder]

www.adafruit.com/products/2706?gclid=CjwKEAiA8dDEBRDf19yI97eO0UsSJAAY_yCSkSMnnaMT8QlRBKKjC2TWmP4J34fO1H9jq3n_RQ0J7xoC4B3w_wcB

This one's a bit cheaper and I don't have to worry about staining/painting. I'm TERRIBLE at that.

For me, the tricky part is learning how to get Retropie on there and getting it to work with the Picade controller. Tricky as in I don't know what to do yet.

[oldskoolboarder]

So much for that. We've decided to pivot. My son's been bugging me to allow him to buy his own gaming laptop. I've been avoiding the conversation because I'd rather he not waste his money on a cheap PC.

Now we're planning on building him a budget gaming PC. <$800 for the tower. Looking at Kaby Lake, mini-ATX type. He's not a heavy PC gamer but I'd rather he spec it so it can at least handle Oculus/Vive 'if' that ever comes up. At the least, I want it upgradeable.

For projects, we're going to work w/ our Littlebits Smarthome Kit. I'm going to lead him to build a sort of Amazon Dash button. As an 11 YO boy, we have the inevitable arguments when something runs out and he forgets to tell us. I'm going to have him build an Arduino kit that he can use a dial to point at a product, push a button, then text us what he needs ordered. There is a customizable Dash button for $20 but that appears to require a paid AWS IoT account. Not ready for that yet.

[dschroll]

Haha! That's a bit of a 180. Still, glad to see he's getting into gaming.
Try as I might with my daughter, she's just not interested. She'd rather watch movies than play games.