How to Build an Arcade Machine – DIY System Guide & Instructions
DIY Home-made Arcade Machines & Plans
So you have decided to take undertake the adventure of building your own Arcade Machine! Awesome! If you have been following my blog you will already know how obsessed I am with the idea myself.
In my previous two posts I have covered many different designs and ideas for building your own arcade machine. In my first design post I shared the considerations I made when designing my system along with the plans I will be working off of when I build the machine.
Build Your Own Arcade Machine - Plans, Designs & Guide
In my following article I looked at some of the best visual examples of home built Arcade System and compiled a list of some great websites with pictures that outlined the planning and construction of a home built Arcade Machine.
Home Built Arcade Plans & Designs from the Internet
In this post I would like to share some of the sites I have come across that offer good written explanations of the planning, design, and construction of a DIY Arcade Machine. These are sites that I have across that may not have had the best pictures outlining the project, but had a look of good written content that gives you insight into what is involved with a home built Arcade Machine.
Below are some of the links to each site, feel free to add any other sites you feel should be on this list, You can leave a comment with a link for the site and I will get it added onto the list.
DIY Arcade Machine Links to Home Built Systems
Build a MAME Arcade Cabinet in 24 Hours
http://chris.polymathic.net/cabinet/part1.shtml
NY Build Your Own Arcade Cabinet
http://members.tripod.com/nylatenite/nylgpbuild.htm
Build Your Own Arcade Controls
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Main_Page
Build Your Own Arcade Game Player and Relive the 80’s
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9732
Tombstones Build Your Own Arcade Machine
http://www.tombstones.org.uk/~lob/
TMSoft How to Build Your Own Arcade System
http://www.tmsoft.com/article-arcade.htm
IGN Build Your Own MAME Machine
http://au.retro.ign.com/articles/867/867066p1.html
Kevin’s Arcade Machine Guide
http://sites.google.com/site/kumbach/arcade-machine
Popular Science – Make Your Own Arcade
http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/article/2004-06/make-your-own-arcade
MAME Cabinet - Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
http://hackedgadgets.com/2008/04/04/mame-cabinet-multiple-arcade-machine-emulator/
My MAME Cab Arcade Machine
http://www.diyarcade.co.uk/MAMECAB.htm
TechTV - D.I.Y. Arcade Cocktail Cabinet
http://www.arcadedepot.com/HTML/TechTV/techtv_writeup.html
Arcade Controls Insanely Huge List of DIY Arcade Information
http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade_examples.php#uprights
(Some of the resources from “Arcade Controls” are pretty dated but still offer some good ideas for building your own arcade machine.”
Home Built DIY Arcade Machines Summary
These are just some of the great resources I have come across on a daily basis while researching how to build my own Arcade Machine. While these sites do not offer the best images, they have great explanations about time lines for their projects, and the different steps that were taken while creating their own home built arcade system.
I will be adding to the list as I come across more useful resources and as always feel free to share any resources you think should be on the list also.
A DIY Arcade Machine is a lot of fun, but it also takes a fair amount of planning and preparation to make something you will truly be happy with. While I am somewhat of a perfectionist by nature, I also want to ensure that if I spend time and energy on something I will be happy with the end result.
I think a lot of people feel the same way which is why most of pour over a lot of the information that is out there. As always thanks for checking out my site, and if you enjoy the articles and information share it with a friend who you think will also enjoy it.
I will hopefully be starting the construction of my system soon so keep checking back for more updates on my progress! ^_^
Home Built Arcade Plans & Designs from the Internet
Examples of Other Great Arcade Machine Designs
Hey all! Since I haven’t had time to start building the Arcade System yet based on the plans I recently posted, I wanted to share some more great pictures and designs I have come across on other people’s sites.
It’s really cool to see how different a lot of the designs are, and also to see how many people are doing a “Build Your Own Arcade Machine” project.
Some of the sites I am linking to are older sites and they do not look like they are maintained anymore, but they have some good examples of Arcade Machine plans, including images of the systems being built.
If you know of any other good sites please make some recommendations down in the comments! I would like this post to act as a good reference that helps people find other examples of designs, to help get ideas for their home built arcade machines.
DIY Arcade Machine Construction & Design Images
DIY Arcade Cabinet: Version 2.0
Hardcore Playstation 3 DIY Cabinet
Jeff's Arcade - Supercade Classic Arcade System
Frostillicus Arcade - Home Built Arcade System
Doc's MAME Cabinet - How to Build a Arcade System
Robotron Seven Sided Dual Rotating MAME Arcade Cabinet
System 7 Home Built Arcade Machine
Neon MAME Arcade Machine by Knievel Kustoms
Tardis MAME Arcade Machine - Home Built System
Age of Steam - Steam Punk DIY Arcade System
Build a Home Arcade - System Guide
RetroBlast! - Metroid Mother Brain Super Console
DIY Furniture Grade Cocktail Arcade Machine
Lachlan's Arcade Cabinet - Home Built Arcade System
Stuarts's Home Brew Arcade System
Home Built Arcade Machine Resources & Feedback
There are so many talented & creative people out there that it is hard to check out every DIY Arcade site on the web. If you know of a good one I have missed please let me know and I will add it to the post.
A lot of the best resources I have found have been from the recommendations of other people, and I love seeing all the sites they stumble across on the web.
Thanks for checking out my site, if you have any questions or comments please share them with me below.
Top 25 Arcade Machines – Arcade System Designs
Planning Out The Arcade System Design
Ok, so the first thing we will want to do when planning out our Build It Yourself Arcade Machine is study actual vintage Arcade cabinets to get a feel for how we want to design ours.
I think that this is an important step because I want my Arcade Machine to have a very authentic look and feel to it. I check around online for some good examples of Arcade Cabinets and found some great links on a website called Killer List of Video Games (http://www.klov.com/)
The site has a ton of pictures of Arcade Machine cabinets, Marquees, Screenshots and Artwork. For the purpose of this post we are going to be looking at the shape and dimensions more than artwork.
I have compiled a list of my top 25 favorite arcade machines from when I was growing up and I will be using these as examples for the study.
Top 25 Best Arcade Machines:
01. Asteroids
02. Bubble Bobble
03. Centipede
04. Contra
05. Defender
06. Donkey Kong
07. Final Fight
08. Frogger
09. Galaga
10. Ghost n Goblins
11. Lunar Lander
12. Marble Madness
13. Metal Slug
14. Missle Command
15. Moon Patrol
16. Pac Man
17. Paper Boy
18. Q*bert
19. Raiden
20. Rampage
21. Space Invaders
22. Star Wars
24. Tempest
25. Tron
(This list is basically arcade machines off the top of my head. If you have some better ones you think deserve to be in the list, or have a better example of a good looking cabinet please leave a comment and I consider adding it to the list!)
Observations of Arcade Machine Designs
From studying the similarities in most of these systems we can gain several insights into how to design an authentic feeling Arcade Machine.
The first thing we notice in all the designs in that while the controls and marquee layouts can vary, the display is almost always in the same spot, and same position. Some arcade machines make use of the display in two ways. On some it is horizontal like your standard 4:3 TV displays but on others it is turned on its side to give it a tall, narrow feel which would be good for games like Centipede and Galaga.
For my design I will be utilizing a 4:3 standard display setup as this applies to the majority of games out there. Considering that I am planning to do a miniature arcade machine this means my system will need to be at least 15” wide to accommodate a standard 17” (LCD) monitor.
I will be going with an LCD monitor for this project and will go into more detail on it when we discuss the PC hardware selection in a later post.
The next thing I notice with most of the arcade cabinets is that if you remove the marquee, the lower half and upper half of the cabinet is roughly the same height. For the miniature system I will be making the lower half of the unit about 1/3 the height of the system with the top half being roughly 2/3's of the total size.
I will be doing this to make the unit more compact so it is more convenient to play on a table or desk. This will also help create a smaller unit that is easy to store as it will not take up as much space as a full size arcade machine.
Because I will be making the bottom of the unit smaller I am going to ad a slight slope to the front of the system to create a little wider base on the cabinet for stability.
Another common feature we notice on a lot of these units is that the marquee is usually pushed back farther than the controls. I am guessing this is so people do not bump their head if they are leaning into the system. I will be designing my system with this in mind since on a miniature system this may get in the way of someone’s view if they are sitting over the unit.
A lot of the units we see here also have some sort of shroud around the display which helps block out light from glaring on the screen. I think this is a great idea and will be incorporating it into my design also.
The last major feature we notice on a lot of these units is how the controllers come out from the system at an almost horizontal angle. I would like to copy these designs and make it so my display and controls are at roughly a 120 degree angle from one another, similar to if you have a laptop open with the display tilted back.
Overall this gives us a great idea of where to start with our design.
I now have a good idea of common traits and design features from various Arcade cabinets and can begin to work up some sketches based on what we see here.
A few other things to keep in mind while I work on the design are the following:
- I would like a marquee on the system that actually lights up so I will need to plan for a light kit in the top portion of the system.
- The controls need to be comfortable to use so I will need to utilize the entire width of the system and possibly design them a little wider depending on how the initial mock up feels.
- I want the ability to use a third party controller with the system so I can play it like a console if the mood strikes me. I also plan on designing it so I can hook the system up to my television and play it like a true couch potato, so the ability to use a USB controller with it is a "needed" feature for me.
- Because I want to be able to hook up the system to the TV I will need some sort of “convenient” video out feature on the system so I can connect it to the video in connection on my television.
- I do not plan on using CD/DVD drives with the system so I will be transferring data via a network connection and a USB memory stick. Because of this I will need an accessible network port and USB port somewhere on the system.
- I would like to have a keyboard that is hidden from “normal” use but can quickly and easily fold out if I am doing admin stuff with the system.
- The addition of a track ball mouse on the controller would give the system a more authentic feel for games like pong, breakout, and more. This will need to be worked into the design of the controller.
So overall this covers most of the considerations I need to keep in mind when drawing up sketches for possible design ideas.
In my next post I plan to follow-up with some of the potential designs I have had floating around in my head and try to plan out some concrete designs to work from. Thanks for checking out the site and look forward to my next post on creating our arcade machine design plans.