Project:Arcade Gaming Cabinet "Retro-Cade"
| ProjectInfoBox Arcade Gaming Cabinet "Retro-Cade" | |
|---|---|
| |
| Status: | finished |
| Release Date: | March 2025 |
| Initiator: | Björn |
| Team: | Leo (help with CNC),
Finno (help with vinyl prints), Johannes (help with wiring the spinner) |
| Materials Used: | MDF |
| Tools Used: | CNC Router, |
| Software Used: | Autodesk Fusion, |
I had been toying with the idea to create a retro gaming arcade machine ever since an old friend had invited me to one of his "Retro-Zock"-nights. In order to save space, I decided to create an arcade machine that can be placed anywhere: stand on a desk, hang on the wall or at the front of a sturdy shelf etc (using a french cleat hanging system).
For the arcade's overall design, three things were a must-have:
- 🕹️ Appearance: shape and design like classic 1970s/1980s arcade cabinets
- 🔩 Minimalism: no visible screws
- 📦 Easy storage: no wood glue on the side panels, so everything can be disassembled for storage if need be
Bonus-challenge: combining points 2 and 3 should turn out to be fun 🙂
ClassicArcadeCabinets.com has DXF files for original arcade cabinets, including the 1982 Atari Classic Space Duel. Since I planned to mount it on the wall using a French cleat, I shortened the cabinet depth to reduce the pull on the screws. This saves space, but of course leaves less room for the side graphics.
All angles and fillets are true to Atari's original Space Duel cabinet, but I widened the cabinet to 70 cm to fit two adults plus:
- joysticks (Seimitsu LS-32-SS) + shaft extenders (some people seem to like them for more joystick travel / bigger hands etc)
- 8 translucent buttons per player (Seimitsu PS-14-KN); no LEDs to light them up as I don't like too much blinky-blinky, but I can add a basic LED spot inside the cabinet for a subtle light effect and better visibility
- 4 illuminated service buttons (to start games, "add coins", enter emulator settings etc)
- central spinner (optical encoder + 3d-printed head)
- an old 27" LCD screen I already had
✏️ Cabinet Design & Woodworking
CAD / Side-Panels
I designed the entire cabinet in Fusion 360, using Atari’s original angles for the side panels. All panels are made from 19mm MDF. The side panels are milled with our Workbee CNC Router. On the inside of the side panels, I added recesses (~ 2 mm) so timber beams could later be fitted precisely, in order to keep all screws hidden from the outside: The MDF side panels attach to the internal timber, which connect them to the horizontal MDF.
It'd been a few years since I last used our "Workbee" CNC Router. Besides, the router had since received a big update / new interface. Big thanks and shoutout to Leo, who helped me transfer my CAD design to the CNC Router.
After CNC milling, I used the router table with a flush trim bit to remove the CNC tabs/bridges, and a T-slot router bit to add the grooves for the T-molding profiles.
Horizontals
All horizontal MDF pieces were cut with a table saw. Due to the lack of 90-degree-angles, most of them needed mitre cuts on one or both sides. The lower front part includes a 65° angled recess (cut with an angled handheld router) for the removable control panel (joysticks + buttons) to rest on. The hole for the display bezel was cut with the same router and then rounded with a roundover router bit.
For the control panel layout, I opted for 8 buttons per player, following one of Slagcoin's classic layout suggestions. To add joystick + buttons to the 19mm MDF board, I first had to reduce the material thickness. So I used our lasercutter to create a guide bush template for the handheld router.
The panel above the screen has 3 holes cut in for speakers and maybe a light source. (I'm currently using an old set of USB-stereo-speakers, so closed the holes with a 3d-printed grid to hide the speakers).
🎨 Paint / Side-Panel Graphics
Prior to assembly, I primed and painted all visible parts using water-based acrylic paint and a paint roller: black for all "insides" (horizontals, bezel etc) and white for the outside. 2-3 layers in total, with in-between sanding.
The side panels would later have a design printed on vinyl stuck to them, but a decent and even paint job would allow for the vinyl to later be replaced if need be. I also primed the side panel's insides, though that probably wasn't necessary.
The side-panels and the control panel graphics are all hand-illustrated (I'm a graphic designer): I wanted the overall look & feel to be like Atari's Space Duel, but with characters from my favourite childhood cartoon series Captain Future. There never was a Captain Future arcade game, but hey... who cares 🙂
For the comet spaceship on the sides, I wanted a very particular perspective and angle. I found a suitable 3d-print STL-model-file and used a 3d-software to change camera angle / focal length to get what I want.
Finno helped me print the side-panel and control-panel graphics onto self-adhesive vinyl. The vinyl contains a tiny "air canal" texture on the back, which made it straight-forward to apply without any air bubbles.
⚡️Electronics
🕹️ Joysticks and Buttons
Joysticks and buttons are from Seimitsu. To connect and encode joystick + buttons to USB, I'm using Ultimarc's I-PAC2. The controller is super fast, offers flexibility for various 2-player configurations and add-ons (like a spinner, for example), and the customer service is really fantastic. (I had a few post-sales questions, and always received an answer within less than a day).
Talking of spinners (for games like Arkanoid, for example): I don't really understand why dedicated (and expensive) arcade spinners are advertised as "fast spinning". I wanted something with a bit of resistance, so it doesn't spin too quickly. Even a cheap €15 spinner was still too fast for playing Arkanoid... so I tried to add some friction by laser-cutting the spinner's hole in the control-panel's cover acrylic a little tighter.
🎮 Additional control pads (for games with more than 2 players) or a mouse (for some computer games) can be connected via a USB-hub or bluetooth.
💡Marquee Lighting
To light the marquee from behind, I glued an old USB-powered LED-strip onto some sheet metal. The marquee graphics are printed on paper, which diffuses the LED strip for even lighting.
👾 Game Emulation
To emulate games, I'm using Batocera. My first setup was on a Raspberry Pi 4b, and now on an old 2012 Mac Mini, which allows for more realistic shader setups (to emulate CRT-Screen scan lines, glow etc).
With Batocera, there's no need for a mouse or a keyboard (although they do work), as it boots straight into the so-called "emulation machine". This can be operated with the arcade's joysticks and buttons. Batocera is open-source and can emulate pretty much any arcade, games system or computer that's ever been produced: MAME and FBNeo (=classic arcade games), Atari, Sega, Nintendo, C64, Commodore Amiga, Apple II, Apple Mac, Playstation 2, etc. – full list here.
💾 Commodore Amiga
For me, the Commodora Amiga was one of the most important machines to emulate. The old Amiga ROMs are still copyrighted, so I purchased them hereand added them to the Batocera/ROMs directory. To convert my old Amiga 3.5" Disks, I've used Rob Smith's DrawBridge, which converts modern USB-Floppy-Drives to read and write the native Amiga disk format. So with the help of a Windows-Amiga-Emulator, I could convert my disks into .adf files for Batocera.
Once a game is installed, Batocera can scrape the game's metadata, graphics, user manual etc for the Emulation Station's beautiful and intuitive front-end.
Hanging System (French Cleat)
My initial idea was to hang the arcade cabinet to a wall with a french cleat hanging system. After the cabinet was finished, I found an even better spot: "inside" my Ikea IVAR shelf wall: I fastened one part of the french cleat from behind the shelf's verticals (with an in-between piece of timer the depth of the verticals, so to meet the front of the shelf).
