Sunday 10 June 2012

How to make your own Arcade machine real cheap!

What a nice way to spend some of the summer holidays than to make a little Arcade Cabinet.  For this project you will need:
1. Raspberry Pi (About £25)
2. A version of Linux, no need for any fluffy windows, boot it straight into MAME. Details here.
3. An old Monitor / TV (An adaptor if no HDMI)
4. Joystick of some sort. You can buy USB pads for next to nothing. (May also need a 4 way adaptor)
5. Some design ideas for the cabinet and materials. Or you can buy ready-made ones.

You can comfortably do this for £200 and if you do everything yourself and haggle at every step, I reckon it's possible to do it for £100. Way cheaper than the £600 you'd have to pay for a ready-made one.  Plus you can change the games to whatever you fancy!

You'll be the envy of all your friends when they see your oh-so-cool Arcade machine!

1 comment:

  1. Definitely is a cool idea, but I am definitely not handy enough to put one together myself! Some of those are pretty intense! I actually have been looking for arcade machines for sale to finish off my man cave. I definitely have never considered building my own... I think I'll stick with a professional one!

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