3D Printed 2 Player Arcade

Welcome to my project! My name is Vincent Paulines and I am a student at San Jose State University majoring in Mechanical Engineering and a member of our university’s American Society of Mechanical Engineers Club (ASME).

For this project, the main goal is to make a retro arcade that can be used with two players at the same time. This is great for playing co-op games and fighting games like the original Street Fighter games. Furthermore, for the look of the arcade, MatterHackers' Galaxy Black Light PLA was mainly used, along with their Light Blue ABS and Golden Yellow PETG.

• VisionOwl 15.6 Inch Portable Monitor
• Blue and Yellow Sanwa Buttons of 8 each
• Blue and Yellow Sanwa Joysticks
• Reyann Zero Delay Arcade USB Encoders
• 3D Printer (Mainly the Creality CR-30 and Bambu Lab P1S in my case)
• Computer with Fusion 360
• M3 screw inserts
• M3 Screws

For the Portable Monitor, this was a vital component to get the dimensions of for the design of the entire arcade. Thus, Screen Tolerance tests were made to get the dimensions exactly right. As the screen was huge, I split my test prints in half and printed two of them. After printing them, I did indeed learn that my initial measurements were indeed slightly off, really showing how useful test prints are for a designing process!

For the design of the arcade, I first started with the base controller where the buttons and joysticks would be held. Here I did online research on arcade button layouts for how the buttons and joysticks would be placed. Furthermore, indents were created on the base plate as so I could add "START" and "SELECT" prints with multiple colors on it, along with the SJSU logo in the middle. This is so that the base controller can be printed on the CR-30 and the multi colors be printed on the Bambu. In addition, heat vents were added at the end to allow for ventilation.

Afterwards, the front, side, and top plates for the arcade were made around the base controller. This was relatively simple as classic arcade designs are very "boxy" in nature. To match my University's color, the arcade was designed so that one side was blue and the other side was yellow! One problem that came up was that due to the size of the arcade, it would be difficult to print the large plates at once. Thus, as a solution, the plates were separated and would be connected via fasteners at the sides. Also, for this project, the bottom and back plates were not done due to time constraints and saving filament, however these improvements can be done at a later time.

For actually mounting the screen on the arcade, screen mounts were made that can be screwed into the front screen plates. This was made possible as the portable screen already had M4 screw holes at the back that could be used. One lesson that I learned while making the screen mounts is figuring out the specific dimensions of the screw holes with a test print as I had to make redesign another pair of screen mounts due to the holes not aligning.

After this design is to printed, the next step is assembly. To do this, heat inserts were added to the holes of the plates where they are to be screwed. For this I plan to use the club's soldering iron. Moreover, once the build has been assembled, the next step is to do the actual wiring for games. This can be done easily as the buttons and joysticks are wired to the encoders. The encoders can be powered via USB and the monitor is hooked up to a PC with it.

Here, once the wiring was done, the testing process began and the arcade worked perfectly. With a set of controls for two players each, the arcade was able to recognize both controllers at the same time. Thus, now you can play 2 player arcade games with this setup!

For future improvements, I would love to use the indents at the sides of the arcade to place either fighting game art or 3D-printed thunderclouds with lighting. Along with that, I would also like to make it vertically long to make it a fully sized cabinet arcade like the actual arcades to make it even cooler. Furthermore, I would like to add LED lights and title to the top of the arcade as for now there is not much.

If you would like to print this arcade as well or design a similar arcade, here are my files!