Project Sharcade

[dalehitchy1]

** Image Removed **

I've decided I'm going to build an Arcade Machine for my sisters 3 kids. I was going to build it for myself, but as this will be a lowish cost build, I thought it would be a great gift for them. If it turns out well... I might just build another one for myself.

I found a cabinet design on the net. Unfortunatly I cant remember the site, but i did download this cabinet design from there:

** Image Removed **

At first, I was looking at Hyperspin software which looks fantastic. However, I dont really have many spare computer parts lying around and i wanted to keep it low cost.

I then started looking at the Raspberry Pi. Retropie seems to be a fantastic piece of software. So that's where I'm going to start. For anyone that doesn't know of retropie... see the below link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC3OdPdazeg


** Image Removed **

Ordered by buttons and Joysticks a few days ago and received them today. Good quality and seem to be a few diagrams I can easily follow to wire them up, and boy do they have a lot of wires! There is a satisfying click when pushing the joystick but eventually i think I will get annoyed with it. I'm Sure the kids won't mind but I think ill go with something else when I eventually build mine as the sound will get annoying.
** Image Removed **

I have 6x Red Buttons, 6 x green buttons. There all have LED's in them so will eventually wire them up. Also have a player one and player two button. I am going to test them tomorrow and connect them to my Pi before I start the actual cabinet.

 

[dalehitchy1]

On the head of the cabinet I do want Sharcade - Sharp are the kids surname so i think it fits well.

I've not settled on the painting design yet. Initially, I was going to go for a Mario and Luigi theme, hence the red and the green buttons. After browsing the web I've seen a few marvel superhero designed things and I may have changed my mind!

 

[dalehitchy1]

that retropie looks like a very capable piece of kit.
how easy is it to load emulators and games on to it ?

Very very easy. The easiest way of installing it without faffing about is to use the NOOBS installer and a Retropie image. An image with noobs can be found at the below link

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=78&t=115562

You would then need to literally drag and drop the files onto the sd card and put the card into the pi. Once booted up the majority of emulators will all be there. The only ones I've found so far not working straight away are the PSX and GBA emulators.... which need the Bios installing (again download the bios on pc... drag and drop onto the card. Playstation 1 runs great.... but the N64 emulator can be a little slow. I'm sure i could do some tweaking to get it running better. I would certainly recommend getting the R Pi 2 board because it does have that little bit of extra processing power and RAM needed.

Installing games is also fairly easy. Once your retropie is running and connected to your network, I used FileZilla and typed in the Ip address of my pi. All you need to do is drag the roms to the correct Folder (which is nicely organised within the OS).

 

[dalehitchy1]

Just testing the buttons on a scrap piece of wood. Not wired them to light up yet... just wanted to test if they are working... which they are.

** Image Removed **

** Image Removed **

 

[dalehitchy1]

Another purchase arrival today

** Image Removed **

My amp and speakers and speaker grill.

The cable arrived to illumante the buttons, just waiting for my 12volt mains power supply.

The pieces of plastic are T moulding, I just ordered some snippits to see the quality and look. I actually like the complete chrome and may go for that in the final design.

Ive also ordered some posters which I will be pasting onto the board. My MDF wood should be arriving at the weekend.

 

[dalehitchy1]

I got my buttons and joysticks from a website called ultracabs. It came with the wires (except for the cables to light them up).... And the little usb interface.

The 14 buttons and switches, along with the 2 joystick, leds.... Were about £40. They are in pacs and you can mix and match the button colour.