The Arcade with Pi: Lets get Physical:
So, I have the software I needed and confirmed it would run the games I wanted. It boots the machine into an Arcade menu like I wanted. Now it is time to get some Arcade controls!
This was all originally inspired by an Adafruit blog Retro Gaming with the Pi. This article had a full tutorial on how to achieve what I wanted and even supplied the parts with a handy list on the side for easy purchase (clever bastards). There were a few things I didn’t like/wanted to change about this tutorial so I modified the plan a bit to make it my own.
First, I used PiMame instead of stock Raspbian. PiMame was tailored to what I wanted already as I covered previously here.
Second, I did not like that they glued a keyboard on top of it. It looked Silly, It broke immersion in what I was trying to do. After reviewing the GPIO table and the parts they were offering I determined I could add 2 more buttons to the controller and achieve a no keyboard solution. The extra buttons would facilitate the “Insert coin” and “1Player” buttons….
Featured Adafruit Tutorial!
Retro Gaming with Raspberry Pi – Authentic sights, sounds and feel of 1980s arcade gaming: Thanks to the super affordable Raspberry Pi and some clever software, anyone can re-create the classic arcade experience at home. Adafruit brings the genuine “clicky” arcade controls, you bring the game files and a little crafting skill to build it. (read more)
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