When I saw the High Score series on Netflix, I was filled with nostalgia. I used to play Mortal Kombat in the arcade, but nowadays it is very hard find arcade cabinets.
Initially I wanted to buy an arcade cabinet, but prices start at around 500€. So I set out to build an arcade cabinet, preferably as cheap as possible.
Construction
Some time ago I used my Raspberry Pi for retro gaming. But an arcade cabinet is something else entirely. Luckily, I found a really good tutorial on instructables, and used that as the base for my cabinet.
I found all my arcade parts on arcadewinkel.nl, and I bought a Raspberry Pi 3 and a pair of speakers on kiwi-electronics.nl.
I also had some parts I could reuse: an old 19 inch screen, a Hifiberry Miniamp amplifier (from my Wicked Witch project), some cables, …
All together, it cost me 175€:
- Raspberry Pi & speakers: 50€
- Wood & screws: 40€
- Arcade joysticks and buttons: 85€
Ready to play!
And here’s the end result! It’s soooo cool!
The buttons & joysticks are of a good quality, and the arcade cabinet is really sturdy (and heavy!). The playing experience is very comparable with the arcades.
Other uses
Due to the Corona-crisis, I’m mainly working from home now. My arcade now serves as a second screen as well!
