Here you will find how to build an arcade games machine in a retro style upright cabinet from scratch. Although our example looks and feels like a coin-op arcade video game from the late 70's or early 80's it is actually a self build m.d.f. cabinet housing a PC and a 21" television. 

 

Now that computers are relatively cheap it is feasible to buy one new just to run a games emulator, which is the software needed to run the original arcade games. Amost synonymous with arcade emulation is the wonderful MAME software (MAME  = Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) This emulator aims to allow your computer run just about every arcade game manufactured, provided you have a copy of the original game ROM. The ROMs (read only memory) are the computer chips that contain the arcade games programs. Each game ROM can be dumped onto a special file that MAME can read

 

If you want the arcade games to play like the originals you need arcade controls, such as joysticks, pushbuttons, spinnies and trackballs, and a way to wire these to the PC. The controls need to be wired to an encoder, which is a circuit board that converts the arcade controls signals to keyboard or mouse inputs that the computer can understand.

The games will look much more vibrant too if they can be displayed at the original games resolution which is usually much lower than that of a computer monitor. The original games used low resolution arcade monitors that display a dot of bright light for every pixel of the game. However a TV can be used instead if it has an RGB input or a SCART input which is then wired to a low resolution VGA video card such as the ArcadeVGA by Ultimarc. This video card plugs into the normal graphics card slot in the PC.

 

You will need to hear the game sounds too, and the simplest way is to plug in some powered stereo computer speakers into the audio output of the PC. There would be nothing to stop you using the televisions speakers of course.

For the authentic arcade experience a printed marquee with back light (that's the illuminated sign advertising the game, a printed control panel overlay and artwork can be added.  You'll need a way of turning the machine on from the outside via a single external power switch. 

 

Unlike some of the fantastically well crafted arcade cabinets seen on the internet ours was made with basic tools, the only power tools used being a drill and sander. We limited the size of the control panel and number of buttons and joysticks to keep the classic cabinet look and feel. What this cabinet lacks in craftsmanship, finish and having a panel with every known controller it hopefully makes up for in ease of construction, reasonable cost, retro feel and usability. 

 

 

 

A few years back I came across a program called MAME™ that could run arcade games on a PC, which looked to me identical to those classics I played on the coin-operated machines in my youth. After accidentally hitting the windows key during a really tricky level in Space Harrier, my son suggested we make our own arcade machine with buttons and joysticks with the computer housed inside a box. A brief search of the internet revealed we were not the only ones who had thought of building such a cabinet and we found a head spinning amount of useful information to set us on the road of creating our retro-dream. 

 

The project proved to be much more complex than we originally thought and we made a few mistakes on the way. However sometimes the journey is as rewarding as reaching the destination and we found building the machine was as much fun as playing the games. 

 

The aim of this site is to document our design aims, show how we constructed the cabinet, what it was made with, how the software is configured and acknowledge those who influence our design. 

 

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