30 Mar 2015
Retro gaming is very fun. Unfortunatly, the vintage consoles and games will break the bank. Emulators are a great place to start, but simply running them on a PC sort of takes away from the game. I set out to build an all-in-one machine to play every game from Asteroids to Halo.
About
Specs
- 8 core 64-bit processor
- Runs custom Linux distrobution
- 8GB RAM
- 1TB HDD and 128GB SSD
- Raedon R7 graphics card
- Liquid cooled
- WiFi and Bluetooth Capable
- 1x NES Controller
- 2x Original XBox Controllers
- 7x USB
- 1x Playstation 1 Controller
- GameCube Memory Card
- MMC/SD Card
- CF/MD Card
- XTREME Card
The Build
To minimize cost, I planned on only buying two sheets of medium density fiberboard and all the pieces would then be cut out. Below is the template for a 4' x 8' sheet that includes everything needed to make a simple cabinet.
To make the pieces fit together, each will need to be cut with angled edges. Finding and cutting these angles can be very tedious, but is worth it.
I also began to work on the internals and the monitor. HAPP makes great arcade parts and can be purchased for not a lot of money. I did have to fabricate a bracket for the monitor.
A fresh coat of black paint does it justice and with the blue trim it looks even better. Due to a time crunch to enter this arcade machine in a showcase, I did not quite finish it and the computer was a Raspberry Pi running PiMAME [since renamed to PiPlay]. Casters were added to help roll it around.
Finished
Once I finished building the arcade machine initially, I began to think of many different things I could do to it to make it even better. Next I proceeded to modify what I had already made.
