Arcade with low budget

[evinK]

Hi! Initially, excuse me for my English, I'm Italian and I can't speak English very well I would like to know some informations on the building of an Arcade "machine" and an Arcade controller (i'm a nostalgic of the arcade games that I played when I was young ahahahah) with a very low budget. Which alternative do you advise? Raspberry? Or a cheaper alternative (if it exist)? How much should I spend? Excuse me if I'm vague, if you want to know other informations, ask me.

Thank you!

[RetroGreg]

I've seen plenty of low budget cabs turn out pretty decent. Don't rush to get it done. Find an old empty cab instead of building new. Try to find a cheap or free old pc. They can run most mame games. I haven't used a raspberry pi yet so I'm not sure how well they run most mame games. Use simple sticks and regular buttons. It can be done. You just have to be more resourceful and willing to put more time and effort into it. Good luck 

[ark_ader]

Not to mention the wealth of arcade cabs in Italy.  I'm sure you could pickup one for a few Euros.

[evinK]

Thank you

[Miskatonic]

I spent around 25 euros on this cabinet. used an old netbook to run the games (I only wanted to run very old games so it works fine). I got an old 4:3 monitor from a street market for 5 euros.

For the buttons, instead of hacking a joypad (which I usually do) I got lazy and bought something that really saved a lot of time http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zero-Delay-USB-Encoder-PC-to-Joystick-2pin-Happ-Push-Button-For-Arcade-MAME-/191558261745?
(I had a box of joysticks and buttons lying around anyway, I have a lot of these)

here's a video of the cabinet, I'm also building a spinner (in the middle of the panel) but it's not finished yet...

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=156skd2&s=8