DIY Arcade Box With Raspberry Pi and RetroPie
Introduction: DIY Arcade Box With Raspberry Pi and RetroPie
Hello everyone!
In this Instructables project I will show you how to make your own Arcade Box!
I designed it to fit a 15" and 17" 4:3 Monitor and kept its dimensions small so that it does not take up much space.
The "heart" of this game machine is the Raspberry Pi running the RetroPie, a front end management application for launching your games!
Tutorial updates can also be found here: https://www.ardumotive.com/arcadegameboxen.html
Here you can see a video from our Arcade Box! The video is in Greek language but I believe that you will catch the main idea...
So, lets get started!
Step 1: Part List
Main Hardware:
For this project you will need:
1. 15 or 17 inch 4:3 Monitor (with max width 37.8mm) (Example: 17" Dell E176FPC)
2. Raspberry Pi 3 or 3B+ (example)
3. 16 or 32GB Micro SD card Class 10 (example)
4. 5V 3A Power supply (example)
5. HDMI to VGA Converter (example)
6. Zero Delay Arcade USB Encoder & USB Cable (example)
7. 6x Arcade Push Button (Color: Red, Blue, Yellow, White, Black, Green) (example)
8. 2x Arcade Mini Push Button (Color: Black, White) (example)
9. Arcade Joystick (4 ways) (example)
10. USB Mini Speakers (with 3.5mm audio jack) (example)
Optional Hardware:
a. 16/32 GB USB Drive (for storing your game roms) (example)
b. 848
USB hub (example)
c. USB NES Controller (or any other usb controller) (example)
(you can also use a power on sw, but only if you know how to connect it)
Arcade Box: You will find the drawings in next steps of this guide
Software:
Download the latest version of RetroPie from here: https://retropie.org.uk/download/
You will need the Win32DiskImager to burn the image file to your micro sd card. If you don't know how to do it, follow the steps at "Write the OS image on SD card" section : https://www.ardumotive.com/raspbianosen.html
You will also need some games roms - RetroPie doesn't include any of them - so just search your game tittles in Google.
Step 2: About RetroPie
I want to give some special thanks to this team for their great job!
From RetroPie:
* What is RetroPie?
RetroPie allows you to turn your Raspberry Pi or PC into a retro-gaming machine. It builds upon Raspbian, EmulationStation, RetroArch and many other projects to enable you to play your favorite Arcade, home-console, and classic PC games with the minimum set-up. For power users it also provides a large variety of configuration tools to customise the system as you want. RetroPie sits on top of a full OS, you can install it on an existing Raspbian, or start with the RetroPie SD image and add additional software later. It's up to you.
* What is an Emulator?
An emulator is software that makes a computer behave like another computer, or in the case of RetroPie a computer that behaves like a video game console such as the Super Nintendo. The RetroPie SD image comes pre-installed with many different emulators. Additional emulators may be installed from within RetroPie.
* What are ROMs?
ROMs are digital versions of game cartridges. Loading up a ROM in an emulator is the equivalent of putting a cartridge in a game console. ROMs are copyrighted content and as such are not included with RetroPie.
* Is RetroPie illegal?
No, the RetroPie software itself is completely legal. Calling it illegal is like calling a video player illegal because it can play illegally-downalod movies.
Some useful links:
Official Website: https://retropie.org.uk/
Documentation: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/
Forum: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/
Donate: https://retropie.org.uk/donate/
What consoles are supported? 848