In this Instructable I’ll show you how to make your very own “classic” arcade table with a Raspberry Pi for hours of retro-gaming goodness.
The design for the table is inspired from 1980’s cocktail arcade tables, the kind you might still find in the dark corner of a pizza parlor. These tables were rather bulky and incredibly heavy due to the clunky power systems and hefty CRT. Thankfully, electronics have slimmed down to the point where we can easily recreate the arcade without the bulk.
Before making anything, I made a 3D model in Fusion 360. The final cabinet is solid black, but I changed the appearance of the model to more easily distinguish the separate components. From this model I was able to create accurate dimensions that I would be able to easily cut with woodworking tools.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!