The UNITRON 1984

[miazga]

Hey guys! I've been watching this forum for some time and, being inspired by many great projects by all of You guys in here and - most notably - by the Pixel Kabinett 42, I decided to attempt to build my own and - well - here it is

The UNITRON 1984.
(Unitra was a polish electronics manufacturer back in the days of communism, hence the name)

I don't have many photos documenting the process, as it was very random and relied on trial and error more often than not

Initially, I was going to build a PC-based cube. I even bought an old C2D main board complete with ram, a hdd, power supply and what not. The rest of the electronic parts remained pretty much the same as in the very beginning:
- a used 5:4 NEC lcd monitor. Completely stripped of the casing, all the metal parts, with nothing but the screen and the electronics left
- a set of low-end 2.1 Creative speakers. I ripped them open, not sparing the sub. I also unsoldered the original potentiometer (as it was attached to the amp board itself) and replaced it with a slide potentiometer I could put in the control panel
- two sets of joystick + button + usb board sets, courtesy of Aliexpress
- some extra cables and such (like double usb extension cords for being able to plug things into the rPi)
- since putting a PC inside seemed to pose nothing but problems: cooling, air circulation, mounting and placing all this stuff inside, I finally opted for a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
- a 64gb SD Card

I also intended to cut the entire box myself, but - to be honest - I've never done any SERIOUS carpenter work, nor did I feel up to it. It turned out that an affordable way to do this is to design and then order a laser-cut plywood set. And even though it needed some touch ups here and there - it still proved to be the best way to build the box. Meanwhile, since I've decided to use the raspberry instead of a PC, I changed the design - so that - instead being a clunky box (which was supposed to be on wheels), the arcade would now stand of vintage legs (acquired from an auction site). What I'm especially happy with is that I managed to build most of the box just with glue, only using screws for the lid, the control panel (so the detachable parts), the hinges and such. Everything is coated either with oak-coloured or black paint.

As a final touch, I redesigned the Pixel skin for Emulationstation to more closely fit the style I had in mind. It runs nice, having only 8/16 bit systems + the MAME romset installed and looks like a cool eighties piece of furniture when not in use

Hope you like it!

The building process:


Complete project:


Emulation Station custom skin complete with sound effects:

[J_K_M_A_N]

Very cool. I like the slide volume and the red cord. Looks way better than my first attempt.

J_K_M_A_N

[rablack97]

you should market that to IKEA

[stigzler]

Like it - great aesthetics.

[sealcouch]

Love it. Super classy.

[menace]

I like the idea of this--but those spindly little legs really have me wondering how it would actually perform if someone used it.  I think form got ahead of function here.

[miazga]

I like the idea of this--but those spindly little legs really have me wondering how it would actually perform if someone used it.  I think form got ahead of function here.

I figured noone would fancy standing in front of the machine for an hour or two (not to mention the space it would take), so the idea was for the control panel to be at a comfortable height while sitting on a couch. That being said - for a moment or two I wondered if it was a good idea (and even considered using hairpin legs instead), but the legs provide a really stable base. I put some thought into balancing the stuff out- there are two extra thick plywood panels at the bottom of the box. They provide enough weight to the box not to wobble and make the base heavier than the lid, so it doesn't flip back

Still, I get your point - it might look like it was going flip any second, or wobble while playing.

[stigzler]

Still, I get your point - it might look like it was going flip any second, or wobble while playing.

...like me and my spare tyre.

[Wyo]

Very cool! I love the retro modern design!

I could see how this piece you created would easily be wife approved as well.  Great job!

[ugleymatt]

That is fantastic, such a nice design, would happily sit in a living room waiting to be unvieled to a guest.