"Fantastic Arcade"- A Noobs 18 month journey to build a home arcade - Overview

[cowboyscott]

It was December 2015 and I was looking for a project to do that did not involve repairing something else in house. I was looking for something I could work on with my kids (age 11 and 13 at the time) and that would be “fun” and educational. I had heard of Raspberry Pi and after seeing an article on how to use a Raspberry Pi to build your own retro arcade system, I decided to build my own, full sized, home arcade system with a Raspberry Pi.

I had done some woodworking (framed in our basement) and am the default IT support person for my family, but have never worked with Linux.  I was had no schedule, so I would take my time and figure it out as I went. 

It is pretty overwhelming to start as there seems to be an endless number of decisions that need to be made and directions you can take. I have spent more time reading and researching what and how to do things and why you would do it that way, than I spent on actually designing, building, and debugging the arcade.

I broke down the project into the following big items….
1. Get Raspberry Pi with RetroPie up and running with an existing game controller so we could actually play some games.
2. Add in a working test control panel with buttons, spinner, trackball, etc.
3. Design, model, then build the stand up arcade enclosure, control panel, marquee etc.;
4. Design the graphics for the arcade enclosure
5. Final assembly of all the components
6. What I would do different next time

Not knowing what to do and how to do it, combined with travelling for my job quite a bit and other general family and work commitments; there were often long gaps between the big steps.

It is now June 2017 (18 months later); and I can now say I have pretty much finished the project (although I will continue to tweak some small things).

I am pleased with how it turned out and I am looking forward to starting another project soon- maybe a bartop arcade system or my son suggested a miniature streaming jukebox. We’ll see.

I’m not sure I created anything unique, but instead was a systems integrator of many great ideas from all over the world. I’ve listed many of the links in this document, but here are a few links that I used extensively, and would not have gotten very far without them…

- RetroPie setup Wiki (absolutely invaluable) https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki
- RetroPie Forum https://retropie.org.uk/forum/
- And, of course, Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum (so many good discussions and suggestions)

All design and artwork files are located here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B0eZfIbZc2RhYXJ4TXJsZ01nSzQ?usp=sharing, including...
- Sketchup file
- Swift Publisher Graphics
- JPEGs of graphics
- Gameplay video previews
- Console cost spreadsheet
- And the Build Blog

Here are some pics of the finished arcade...

[cowboyscott]

Control Panel Pics...

[cowboyscott]

Designing the Graphics...

I was a Marvel comics fan growing up and my kids love the MCU movies as well. We decided to do a Marvel themed comic book cover collage for the graphics and I designed the marquee to mimic an Fantastic Four logo from the 1960s. 

downloaded many comic books covers from the Web. Used Gimp to color correct and size accordingly. Then used SwiftPublisher for Mac to design the graphics, then had them printed at posterprintshop.com- self adhesive vinyl for the sides, front, and control panel; and backlit film for the marquee.

For the marquee, I found a “Fantasti-font” online that mimicked  the old Fantastic Four font and found another font called “Marvel Heroes” that had the silhouetted Marvel figures on the Control Panel. You can find them at FontSpace (http://www.fontspace.com/category/marvel).

[cowboyscott]

For the electronics, I used a Raspberry Pi 3. When I started the project, they were on RetroPie v3.4; and are now up to v4.2. The feature set is substantially better now and the documentation is vasty improved.

For the Control Panel, a bunch of Ultimarc www.ultimarc.comequipment- U-Trak, Spin-Trak, Mag-Stik Plus, I-PAC Ultimate IO, and their Ultralux buttons.

I found the Coin button from Groovy Game gear http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=89&products_id=295.

I went with the 8 button + joystick Sega button layout found on Slagcoin http://www.slagcoin.com/joystick/layout/sega2_l.png, but only used 6 of the buttons.


 

[cowboyscott]

For the actual Arcade Cabinet construction, many decisions needed to be made. Here are some of the many...

1. Material to use for the sides?
- I have read a lot of arcade cabinet build posts where people used MDF and even OSB. I have used MDF and it is really really heavy. Also, my limited experience with cutting and screwing into OSB was bad, so ended up going with ¾” plywood.

2. Frame or no frame?
- Hardly anyone uses a frame on the inside, but I decided I wanted a frame to connect things to.
- I was very glad I did as it squared things up nicely and gave it a good structure, especially for the TV mount and drawer.

3. How tall to make it, height of the control panel?
- I read a few posts (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=144365.0) where it said the control panel should be at your belly button, so I designed it that way. What was interesting  is that I read a few posts where this method resulted in a ~35-38” height for the CP.  I’m not that tall (barely 6’1”); but my belly button is at 42-43” off the ground, so I designed the front of my control panel to be at 42-43”
- However, as you can see from the frame sketch above, I “modularized” the bottom of the frame so I could reduce the pretty quickly by removing some of the bottom 2x4” and then cutting the bottom of the sides, front, and back plywood panels shorter.   

4. Wheels or no wheels?
- I went with wheels so that it would roll more easily

5. How to mount the TV Monitor?
- I had an inexpensive TV mount that came with the 32” 720p TV I bought on Craigslist and I decided to use that.
- I ran into multiple issues with this approach as I would not hold the right angle of the TV and it wobbled quite a bit. I rectified this by adding additional TV supports for it to rest on.

6. How to power up the TV? (peripherally related to the cabinet construction)
- What I didn’t realize when I bought a TV instead of a computer monitor, is that my TV does not turn on when you apply power; but, typically, computer monitors do. You had to hit the Power button (or use a remote control) to power up the TV after power was applied.
- This created a conundrum because my TV had the power button on the right side and once the TV mounted in the full arcade, you could not reach the power button.
- My Craigslist TV did not come with a remote, but I bought an $8 Universal remote from Walmart (RCR414BHZ3V) and it worked great for volume, power, menu, etc.
- However, my concern was (as with most of our remotes in our house), the remote would disappear on occasion, and we wouldn’t be able to turn on the Arcade TV. So, I decided to put a small hole in the right side of the cabinet where you could push the TV power button. This was not ideal, but came out much less intrusive than I thought (helps to paint the inside of the hole black).

7. Should I cover the control panel with plexiglass?
- I went back and forth on this before deciding I wanted to do this to keep the artwork on the control panel clean.
- This resulted in my control panel using ⅝” wood + ~⅛” thick acrylic plexiglass; This would allow me to use ¾” T-molding to conceal the seam between the wood and plexiglass (because I decided to not try to heat and bend the plexiglass down over the front panel- seemed like too much work for my initial cabinet)
- I built this up in the final build and did not like it because dust kept getting between the plexiglass and wood. So I recut the control panel with ¾” plywood. 

8. Do you use acrylic or polycarbonate plexiglass for the marquee, bezel and control panel? And, what thickness of plexiglass?
- Found this concise comparison article (http://www.hydrosight.com/acrylic-vs-polycarbonate-a-quantitative-and-qualitative-comparison/) that made it pretty easy to choose acrylic- more scratch resistant, won’t yellow over time, and better clarity.
- As for thickness, went with ~⅛” all around. 

9. Keyboard drawer or no drawer?
- I wanted to be able to easily use a keyboard (and mouse) with the system for debug and to play some some games (e.g. Quake and Baldur’s gate)
- Would have been a much easier design and woodworking project without the drawer, but thought I would be forever regretting it if I did not have a drawer. 
- So, I included a pull out drawer. I now know what rabbet and dado joints are and different ways to make them with a table saw and router.

10. How to make the Control panel secure, but allow it to be removable to be able to do work on it?
- Solved by using a simple wood peg on the bottom of each end of the control panel, and the guide holes on the control panel supports that the pegs guide into. This holds the control panel in place without using any screws. If can be lifted straight up and off to work on the wiring underneath.

11. How to secure the marquee?
- Lots of forum discussions on this (http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=119998.0) and everyone has their own way.
- I went with a 3/16” x 3/16” rabbet on the top of bottom of the ¾” thick plywood pieces that the marquee sits against. I will put the marquee graphic between two ~⅛” clear acrylic sheets and install ¾”  T-moulding to hold in place.

[cowboyscott]

For the Arcade Woodwork, it gave me an excuse to buys some new tools (Table saw, Drill press, new router bits, etc.)

I decided to go with a 2x4 frame inside to help make the cabinet more stable to give me something to mount the TV and wheels on. It took my Christmas vacation to almost complete all the cutting and assembly...

 

[cowboyscott]

After all the work, there were many many things I learned; most of them just resulted in additional time to fix or just do differently. However, there were a few things that did not turn out quite like I thought and would change the next time I want build a home arcade machine…

1. Make the base deeper to minimize risk of tipping over
- My cabinet is 75” tall by 34” wide by 25” deep (deepest part where the control panel is), but my base is only 16.5” deep.
- On uneven floor, the cabinet is a bit tippy. I would make the base deeper to minimize this.

2. If using a trackball, I would move the trackball further away from the monitor.
- The center of my trackball is 6” away from the monitor bezel
- For games where you need to move the trackball forward fast (e.g. Golden Tee Golf- which is the only one I have that needs this), if I move my hand fast forward hard and fast across the trackball my hand sometimes hits the monitor bezel

3. I didn’t need all the functionality of the Ultimarc Ultimate IO I-Pac and could have used a less expensive control board like the I-Pac 2 and a LED driver board.
- However, the Ultimarc Ultimate IO I-Pac is a great board and does everything I need and more. 

4. Go with the Ultimarc ServoStik or U-Trak 360 to have an easier way to switch between 4 and 8 way arcade games.
- I went with the Ultimarc Mag-Stik, which allows you to switch between 4 and 8 way restrictor plate from the top of the console by lifting up the joystick and turning it. This has never really worked the way I imagined- it is hard to lift and turn and you don’t know which position the stick is in.

Some additional final pics...

[Titchgamer]

Looks like you have had fun

The only critique points I would of made looks like you have sussed out yourself so I wont bother :p

Well except the artwork, but thats a personal preference thing.

Good build

Just to add, the mag sticks switch ok once you are used to them.
If you are finding they are not "bitting" properly you may not of done the lock nut on the bottom tight enough.
You should be able to tell if they are set to 4/8 way with a quick stick wobble.
Can you hit diagonals? Yes = 8 way no = 4 way :p

[cowboyscott]

Thanks a lot.

You're probably right on the Mag-Stik Plus; I'll take a look.

[KenToad]

I think it turned out great! The comics theme resonates with me. I recognize many of those covers. It looks a bit busy on the photos, but I can imagine that it's great for a comics lover to scan the cover art up close.

How do you like the Coin drop buttons? How do they feel compared to the Ultralux, for example?

[cowboyscott]

I think it turned out great! The comics theme resonates with me. I recognize many of those covers. It looks a bit busy on the photos, but I can imagine that it's great for a comics lover to scan the cover art up close.

How do you like the Coin drop buttons? How do they feel compared to the Ultralux, for example?

Thanks a lot.

On the comic covers, it's a great conversation piece as people start looking at them and wonder what the story is behind the cover. The good (or bad, depending on how you look at it), is that I know the story behind most of them. 

Like the look of the Coin button quite a bit and it functions well. Has to do some some careful routing to get it to sit flush on the CP, but managed to do that with a 1/4" straight bit and a careful hand on the router, and a bit of chisel work for the corners.  I just bought a new compact router- the Dewalt DWP11, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet. Need a new project!

[rtkiii]

Nice job on getting this knowcked out!

[Slippyblade]

Welcome to the forums.  Great way to introduce yourself!

[luizw81]

Love the build.  And I can dig the side art.  I had the same idea but settled for a CP collage



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[barrymossel]

I was a Marvel comics fan growing up and my kids love the MCU movies as well. We decided to do a Marvel themed comic book cover collage for the graphics and I designed the marquee to mimic an Fantastic Four logo from the 1960s. 

Nice build! May I suggest the Emulationstation/RetroPie theme Comic Book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6skqBiKk6rA. I think that would suit the build quite well!

[Ian]

Congrats on your build. I am sure you learned a lot. Not a fan of the art choice, but it's something that resonates with you, and that is cool! Good job.