KevsArcade Build your own miniature Arcade with Raspberry Pi's and a laser cutter 1 November 2024 4 minute read By Kevin McAleer Share this article on Table of Contents KevsArcade - a Raspberry Pi powered arcade cabinetBill of MaterialsAssemblySoftwareCustom joystick and button control panelDXF FilesWiring up the USB HID controllerRetroPieSetting up RetroPieUltimate Guide to Setting Up RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4 Tags: Lasercutting Raspberry Pi Arcade Retro Difficulty: beginner Category: lasercutting raspberrypi games retro Code: https://www.github.com/kevinmcaleer/kevsarcade Home Blog Kevsarcade KevsArcade Build your own miniature Arcade with Raspberry Pi's and a laser cutter 1 November 2024 | 4 minute read | By Kevin McAleer | Share this article on Video For every project I create, I often make a corresponding YouTube video. Sometimes, there might be more than one video for a single project. You can find these videos in this section. Explore more through this this dedicated video. KevsArcade - a Raspberry Pi powered arcade cabinet As a kid growing up in the 80s, I always loved going to arcades; the nearest arcades were in Manchesterm which was about an hours bus ride away. I remember seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Operation Wolf, Outrun and Pacman for the first time. I was hooked. I always wanted to build my own arcade cabinet, but never had the space or the money to do it. Now, with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, I can build my own arcade cabinet, and so can you. KevsArcade is a project to create my own Arcade (yes, with multiple machines) using Raspberry Pi and a laser cutter. The wood I’m using is 2mm basswood and one cabinet only requires 2 sheets of 300x300mm stock. Bill of Materials Item Description Item Cost Qty Total Raspberry Pi 5 Raspberry Pi 5 2Gb. £38 1 £38 2mm Basswood A 300x300 sheet of 2mm basswood. £1 3 £3 Arcade Buttons 2x arcade buttons. £1.50 1 £3 Joystick 1 KY-023 joysticks £1 1 £1 Display Hyperpixel 4.0 non-touch £50 1 £45 Stand offs 7x 10mm stand offs £8 1 £8 Screws 7x 6mm M2.5 screws £8 1 £8 Raspberry Pi Pico Raspberry Pi Pico £5 1 £5 Total Cost: £111 Assembly The cabinet is designed to be cut from 3x sheets of 2mm basswood. The front control panel is designed to hold 2 arcade buttons and a joystick. The Hyperpixel 4.0 display is mounted to the inside of the cabinet on top of the Raspberry Pi 5 (you can switch this out of a raspberry pi 4 or earlier if you prefer). The overall design is to use a tab and slot method to hold the cabinet together, with each panel being glued to the sides. Its easiest to add each peice to the left side panel, glueing as you go, and then finally marry up the right side panel (which can be a bit fiddlely at first). Software The software I’ve chosen is RetroPie, the controls are mapped to the joystick and buttons. Custom joystick and button control panel As the HyperPixel 4.0 display takes up all the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins, I decided to use a simple Raspberry Pi Pico running CircuitPython 9.2.0, as this can present as a HID (Human Interface Device) to the Raspberry Pi, and can be used to read the joystick and buttons. The code is available on my GitHub. Simply flash CircuitPython to the Pico, and copy the code.py, boot.py and hid_gamepad.py file to the Pico. The Pico will present as a USB keyboard to the Raspberry Pi. We can configure RetroPie to use this as the default controller. DXF Files File Description Qty to cut base.dxf Base of the cabinet 1 carosel.dxf Carosel for the joystick 1 control_plate.dxf Control plate for the buttons and joystick 1 front_plate.dxf Front plate of the cabinet 1 front.dxf Front of the cabinet 1 left_side.dxf Left side of the cabinet 2 pi_holder.dxf Raspberry Pi holder 1 right_side.dxf Right side of the cabinet 2 top.dxf Top of the cabinet 1 speakers.dxf Speaker holder 1 top.dxf Top of the cabinet 1 screen.dxf Screen surround 1 Wiring up the USB HID controller Connect the two arcade buttons to the Pico: A goes to GPIO-00 B goes to GPIO-01 VRX goes to GPIO-26 VRY goes to GPIO-27 SW goes to GPIO-02 RetroPie RetroPie is a great piece of software, and I’ve been using it for years. I’ve got a few Raspberry Pi’s running it, and I’ve always wanted to build my own arcade cabinet. I’ve got a few more ideas for this project, so stay tuned. Setting up RetroPie I’ve created a specific tutorial on setting up RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi, you can find it here. Ultimate Guide to Setting Up RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4 Code View Code Repository on GitHub - https://www.github.com/kevinmcaleer/kevsarcade Liked this article? You might like these too. C2Pi-O Laser cut Camera holder Build a laser-cut robot Robots and Lasers 10 Projects for your Raspberry Pi Pico If you've just got a new Raspberry Pi Pico and you're looking for some inspiration, then you've come to the right place. Here is a collection of projects that you can build with your Raspberry Pi Pico. Raspberry Pi Telegraf Setup with Docker "Learn how to set up Telegraf on your Raspberry Pi with Docker to monitor system metrics and integrate with popular time-series databases like InfluxDB or Prometheus." 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KevsArcade Build your own miniature Arcade with Raspberry Pi's and a laser cutter 1 November 2024 4 minute read By Kevin McAleer Share this article on Table of Contents KevsArcade - a Raspberry Pi powered arcade cabinetBill of MaterialsAssemblySoftwareCustom joystick and button control panelDXF FilesWiring up the USB HID controllerRetroPieSetting up RetroPieUltimate Guide to Setting Up RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4 Tags: Lasercutting Raspberry Pi Arcade Retro Difficulty: beginner Category: lasercutting raspberrypi games retro Code: https://www.github.com/kevinmcaleer/kevsarcade
KevsArcade - a Raspberry Pi powered arcade cabinet As a kid growing up in the 80s, I always loved going to arcades; the nearest arcades were in Manchesterm which was about an hours bus ride away. I remember seeing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Operation Wolf, Outrun and Pacman for the first time. I was hooked. I always wanted to build my own arcade cabinet, but never had the space or the money to do it. Now, with the advent of the Raspberry Pi, I can build my own arcade cabinet, and so can you. KevsArcade is a project to create my own Arcade (yes, with multiple machines) using Raspberry Pi and a laser cutter. The wood I’m using is 2mm basswood and one cabinet only requires 2 sheets of 300x300mm stock. Bill of Materials Item Description Item Cost Qty Total Raspberry Pi 5 Raspberry Pi 5 2Gb. £38 1 £38 2mm Basswood A 300x300 sheet of 2mm basswood. £1 3 £3 Arcade Buttons 2x arcade buttons. £1.50 1 £3 Joystick 1 KY-023 joysticks £1 1 £1 Display Hyperpixel 4.0 non-touch £50 1 £45 Stand offs 7x 10mm stand offs £8 1 £8 Screws 7x 6mm M2.5 screws £8 1 £8 Raspberry Pi Pico Raspberry Pi Pico £5 1 £5 Total Cost: £111 Assembly The cabinet is designed to be cut from 3x sheets of 2mm basswood. The front control panel is designed to hold 2 arcade buttons and a joystick. The Hyperpixel 4.0 display is mounted to the inside of the cabinet on top of the Raspberry Pi 5 (you can switch this out of a raspberry pi 4 or earlier if you prefer). The overall design is to use a tab and slot method to hold the cabinet together, with each panel being glued to the sides. Its easiest to add each peice to the left side panel, glueing as you go, and then finally marry up the right side panel (which can be a bit fiddlely at first). Software The software I’ve chosen is RetroPie, the controls are mapped to the joystick and buttons. Custom joystick and button control panel As the HyperPixel 4.0 display takes up all the Raspberry Pi GPIO pins, I decided to use a simple Raspberry Pi Pico running CircuitPython 9.2.0, as this can present as a HID (Human Interface Device) to the Raspberry Pi, and can be used to read the joystick and buttons. The code is available on my GitHub. Simply flash CircuitPython to the Pico, and copy the code.py, boot.py and hid_gamepad.py file to the Pico. The Pico will present as a USB keyboard to the Raspberry Pi. We can configure RetroPie to use this as the default controller. DXF Files File Description Qty to cut base.dxf Base of the cabinet 1 carosel.dxf Carosel for the joystick 1 control_plate.dxf Control plate for the buttons and joystick 1 front_plate.dxf Front plate of the cabinet 1 front.dxf Front of the cabinet 1 left_side.dxf Left side of the cabinet 2 pi_holder.dxf Raspberry Pi holder 1 right_side.dxf Right side of the cabinet 2 top.dxf Top of the cabinet 1 speakers.dxf Speaker holder 1 top.dxf Top of the cabinet 1 screen.dxf Screen surround 1 Wiring up the USB HID controller Connect the two arcade buttons to the Pico: A goes to GPIO-00 B goes to GPIO-01 VRX goes to GPIO-26 VRY goes to GPIO-27 SW goes to GPIO-02 RetroPie RetroPie is a great piece of software, and I’ve been using it for years. I’ve got a few Raspberry Pi’s running it, and I’ve always wanted to build my own arcade cabinet. I’ve got a few more ideas for this project, so stay tuned. Setting up RetroPie I’ve created a specific tutorial on setting up RetroPie on the Raspberry Pi, you can find it here. Ultimate Guide to Setting Up RetroPie on a Raspberry Pi 4