50s Style Arcade Machine

This is a raspberry PI based arcade machine designed to fold down and look like a piece of furniture from the 1950s. the main purpose of the design is to allow the arcade machine to hide from site when not playing it.

4 sheets of 3/4 inch birch ply wood

95 lb rated brass chain

various screws

1 gallon of blue stain

1 quart of vintage brown stain

1 old 24 inch LCD screen. (i recommend saving one from recycling)

1 thin tv wall mount

1 Raspberry Pi

2 Mame Joysticks

20 Mame Buttons

2 Mame arcade stick USB decoder

2 female IEC power jacks (the power jack on the back of your pc)

1 male IEC power jack(the inverse of the last part)

1 male to female IEC cord.

1 IEC power cord.

1 Panel mount Ethernet jack

2 Panel mount HDMI jack

1 Panel mount RCA jack

1 Panel mount USB 3.0 jack

any small 8 ohm speaker amp

2 scrap 8 ohm speakers with RCA plugs

2 heavy duty hinges

2 smaller hinges.

Start by making a box thats 31 inches wide 28.5 deep and 48 tall. make sure to glue all of the sides together prior to screwing them but do not attach the front yet as it will become a door in the end.

now attach a front to the box making sure to not glue this wooden peice in place

next measure and mark 2 foot 10 inches from the bottom of the box and 6 inches back from the front. place a straight edge across that point at a slight angle. this angle is basically whatever looks comfortable to have as a control deck. use the straight edge again to continue the line at a 90 degree angle straight across the front and back of the box. then connect the two lines across the opposite side of the box. now you should have a line that wraps all the way around the arcade machine. use the line to cut the top half off of the box. then connect the top back to the bottom with a heavy duty hinge on the back of the machine. You should now have a box with a top half that can be flipped up. now unscrew the front panel from the bottom half of the console and reattach it with hinges so that it becomes a cabinet door. if you plan on adding handles to either the top section or front door add those now.

Use 2, 2 by 4s mounted 3/4 of in inch from the top of the bottom half of the box to mount a piece of 3/4 inch birch flush with the top edge of the box. you can then use a dremel tool to measure out and mark the buttons and joysticks. then drill a 1 and 1/8 Th inch whole at each marked location. a used a template to mark my holes but they just need to be marked 1.5 inches a part and can be measured by hand.

now it is time to test dropping the buttons into the holes you just drilled to make sure all of the buttons fit

once you are sure all of the buttons and the 2 sticks fit the board it is time to stain the control board

while the stain drys you can start to cut out and mount the i\o in the back of the system. notice that 1 of the IEC and HDMI ports are mounted in the top of the arcade for the screen. i also soldered leads onto the RCA jack connector

Pull the I/O ports back out of the console, as now that all of the holes are done the staining can commence. I choose for my machine to use a vintage blue stain but you could use something different. make sure to wipe the stain off of any metal components before it drys.

once the stain drys remount all of the I/O back into the holes you drilled out earlier

Its now time to create the wiring harness. I am assembling this harness outside of the machine do not do this as it has exposed 120V AC connections. cut the plug off of a 6FT extension cord and crimp some spade ends on the wires so the it can be connected to the male IEC plug in the top half of the arcade machine. this will be used to power the television.

for the bottom section of the arcade. cut a power stips wire in half and strip back the wires. put spade connectors on the plug and connect them to the female IEC jack. It is important that the female end be on the bottom half of the arcade and the male on the top. otherwise their will be live current going to exposed terminals. (this connector has thinner spade connections and will need to be soldered inside of the arcade machine). the jumper can now be used to attach the 2 half's together.

attach the other male connector to the power strip. this will be the main power supply input. (my main input plug is larger then the IEC connector in the top because i used a fused model.)

now that the wiring harness is done plug some sort of night light into the extension cord in the top half of the machine. now without touching any part of the harness, plug the harness into the wall and if the nightlight lights then unplug the machine. as the harness is now complete.

Cut out a piece of wood that fits just inside the top half of the arcade. then measure and drill pilot holes for the tv mount. Beside the tv mount drill a hole large enough for the power and HDMI cord to pass through (make sure this hole is close enough to the tv mount that it is hidden behind the TV). Stain the board with the same stain you used on the controll deck then using 2 2/4s cut to the same height, mount the wooden screen board as far back and as close to the I/O jack. as possible. this is to insure that the screen has space when closed and wont smash into the joystick. (goto the next step prior to screwing in the board.)

feed the hdmi and poer cords from the jacks to the tv through the hole in the TV back board. screw in the board then mount the TV.

solder the buttons to the plugs that came USB decoder. then mount the buttons in the controll board.

now take some 16 or 18 gauge wire and more spade connectors to connect all of the mame button leds up. connect this to the leads of any 5 volt power brick.

now connect the RCA leads to the amplifier and plug the amp into the raspberry pi. plug the control board into the pi. connect the Ethernet and HDMI from the jacks in the back to your pi. plug both the pi and amp as well as the controller into the power strip in the back.

now screw down the controll board. both the pi and the amp should be accessible via openning the front door of the console. simply load up retro-pie on the sd card via a PC and the arcade build is complete