The most popular retro gaming project? Gotta be the DIY arcade console—an all-in-one gamer’s paradise that can replicate hundreds of vintage video games from stand-up arcade machines, home consoles, and PC titles from the 2000s back to 8-bit classics of the 1970s and 80s.
Most makers start with a Raspberry Pi mini computer running RetroPie emulation software. Built atop a full Linux OS and arcade interfaces EmulationStation and RetroArch, plus lots of open-source emulators, RetroPie runs on Pi 4 and earlier models and can reproduce 50+ vintage consoles and PCs from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Apple, Commodore, and many more. Just add vintage controllers or a keyboard. Popular alternative arcade OSes include Recalbox and its offshoot Batocera — good for beginners.
(Note that the new Pi 5 can emulate 5th- and 6th-gen consoles like Wii, GBA, and Dreamcast. RetroPie hasn’t caught up yet, but you can install separate emulators; K.G. Orphanides wrote a great guide at magpi.raspberrypi.com.
Arcade games work differently than console emulation, so choose your arcade-specific emulator (MAME or FinalBurn), then download ROM files of your desired games. Get started with the tutorial at retropie.org.uk.
To build a real arcade machine, get an arcade controller board like Pimoroni’s Picade X Hat or Adafruit’s Arcade Bonnet (both with a 3W amp for a speaker), or PetRockBlock’s ControlBoard or Ultimarc’s I-PAC (without). Then plug in your heavy-duty arcade buttons and analog joysticks. Try Adafruit, Pimoroni, Ultimarc, and The Geek Pub, or Amazon stores EasyGet and EG Starts.
Here are some favorite DIY arcade builds, from full-size Pi machines to tiny Arduino kits.
Full Size Vertical
Easy Arcade Cabinet by University of Idaho Tech Club
Retro Arcade Cabinet by Bob Clagett
1. Easy Arcade Cabinet
by University of Idaho Tech Club
Straightforward and serviceable, this 2-player stand-up cabinet has a hidden keyboard/mouse drawer for those PC games too. Dimension drawings are provided, and the edges are even finished with arcade-accurate plastic T-molding.
2. Retro Arcade Cabinet
by Bob Clagett
With today’s tiny electronics and flat screens, a full-size cabinet is mostly empty space. YouTube legend Bob Clagett took full advantage and designed this one with hidden storage shelves and drawers, plus extras like a light-up marquee, vinyl graphics, and a proximity sensor and Arduino to drive automatic RGB LED lighting. It’s inspirational and super well documented, and he’ll sell you his plans for $22.
Bartop
2-Player Bartop Arcade Machine by Tom Rolfe
Picade Kit by Pimoroni
3. 2-Player Bartop Arcade Machine
by Tom Rolfe
More than 150 people have shared their builds of this popular DIY cabinet with a 19″ screen. Designer Tom Rolfe provides a parts list, dimension drawings, printable templates, even a list of other helpful arcade tutorials. A great place to start.
4. Picade Kit
by Pimoroni
Beautiful 1-player bartop kit includes cabinet and a 10″ display, buttons, joystick, and Picade X Hat controller that stacks onto your Pi 4.
Mini
5Galagino by Till Harbaum
Easy Arcade Cabinet by University of Idaho Tech Club
5. Galagino
by Till Harbaum
This clever DIY project has ported Pac-Man, Galaga, and Donkey Kong to run on an inexpensive ESP32 microcontroller and 2.8″ color TFT LCD display (320×240); contributors have added Dig Dug and Frogger too. Grab the vectors for a laser-cut cabinet at the GitHub repo, or try John Bradnam’s 3D-printed version at hackster.io.
6. Cupcade Rev 3
by Adafruit
This cute RetroPie-based kit comes with literally everything but the Pi. You get a cool mini joystick and mini arcade buttons, Arcade Bonnet board, laser-cut cabinet panels, and a nice 2.8″ color PiTFT Plus touchscreen (320×240) to mirror the Pi’s HDMI output. It’s a full retrogaming system in a very small package, supported by Adafruit’s excellent build instructions and tutorials.
Micro
Microcade by Jack Daly
Tiny Arcade by Tiny Circuits
7. Microcade
by Jack Daly
A brilliant kit made entirely of PCB! You solder the 0.96″ monochrome OLED display (128×64), speaker, and LED to the main board, then snap off the PCB panels to assemble your micro arcade machine, based on an 8-bit Microchip ATmega32U4. Enjoy 30+ games from the Arduboy and Pokkito communities, including Choplifter — wow I used to load that off a cassette drive in 1983! — and online tutorials for coding your own.
8. Tiny Arcade
by Tiny Circuits
This no-solder kit gives you a playable palm-sized vertical machine, with a 32-bit Microchip ATSAMD21G18A and 0.96″ color OLED (96×64). It’s not an emulator but an open-source platform where makers develop games in Arduino. There’s a great tutorial and dozens of free games, including analogs of Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Flappy Bird. And it’s the tiniest we’ve seen!
This article appeared in Make: Volume 89.
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