Making an Arcade Cabinet

In this Instructable, I made an arcade cabinet out of a computer and some other components, and I'm here to show you how you can too!

Supplies

Required Tools:

Multiple screwdrivers
A drill
Multiple sizes of drill bits/driver bits

Required Materials:

Setting Up the Cabinet

What you are first going to need to do is assemble a working frame for your arcade cabinet. Arcade cabinets can have many different designs and be made from many different materials, but the one I'm making has a frame made from steel and aluminum bars. It then has a floor and shelf made from 2x4s, and wooden panels that make up the sides, doors, and top.

The Internal Organs of the Cabinet

Next what we have to do is install the actual electronics into the arcade machine. We would first drill some holes into the 2x4s being used as a shelf. These holes are used to mount the monitor stand, which is then attached using wood screws. Next what we do is add the monitor, which will be mounted on the monitor stand and plugged into an outlet on the wall for power. Then, we need to add the PC, which is going to not only be attached to the monitor via VGA/HDMI/Display cable, but also be plugged into the wall using a power outlet. What we are then going to do is install the speakers, which in this case are attached to a large subwoofer. For the speakers I am using, they do not have a modern 3.5mm audio port. They have the red and white RCA cables, which are for right and left/mono audio respectively. Then, we must use an adapter, due to modern computers not having the capability to interface with RCA cables. Once all of this is set up, now we have to add the controllers. This arcade cabinet needs a keyboard and mouse, due to it requiring a password or login on startup. This is standard on almost all windows operating systems. More things we'll need are the standard arcade machine-style fight sticks.

The Games

It took a bit of effort to put the different games onto the arcade machine. What I had to do was get the URL, because most of the games that I put on the machine were made in scratch, and then run a script that would open the website in Google Chrome in fullscreen mode. Some of the games weren't made in scratch, such as the ones made in Gamemaker by Logan Meister and Ethaniel Cabrera, would need to have specific files made to launch them. The way the games would be controlled was through the two joystick controllers mounted on the front of the arcade cabinet. These controllers would then have their inputs converted into mouse/keyboard inputs by a program called xpadder, which is very easy to set up and use.

Beautification (optional)

This step is optional because the process of making an arcade cabinet has no impact on the performance or gameplay of the cabinet, instead just making it look cool. The only real cosmetic adjustments I made to the machine was signing my name on the inside, but you can change yours however you want.