The life of a homemade arcade machine

Lyrical introduction

I just love the aesthetics of buttons, joysticks and large screens.
In my childhood, in my hometown there was a hall with arcade machines based on Sega, and, despite the fact that I had Sega myself, I constantly ran to play there. But then I did not yet know all the charms of Galagi, Donka Kong and Pakman.

My first box

A year ago, I decided to make an arcade machine with my friend. It turned out that in Russia an intelligent machine does not buy at all, but to order from America or China is very expensive. It was a volitional decision to buy components, make a 3D model and give the drawings for laser cutting.

Components bought on the Internet were simple and not so expensive:

• We had to start with the game board and we took the one that met our requirements in terms of price, number of games and number of games for 2 players. We took Happy Fish. This board has no direct monitor output. I had to take a video conversion fee. The second piece of iron went to the basket.
• The game board is designed for the Jamma connector. This is a large 28-pin connector that connects to the board and sends wires to the buttons and joysticks of both players, to the coin acceptor, sound, and ground.
• It is time for buttons and joysticks that need to be taken with a margin, because we buy everything in China =)
• Then we select the coin acceptor. It is enough for us to operate a device with one standard. After all, wallets are sometimes very nice to save from the benefit of ten-ruble coins. But in the future we plan to order a batch of unique tokens.
• We finish with power supply and screen. They are already purchased in Russia and are waiting for the cherished package from China, which will turn them into something more than the usual BP and monitor.

I do not insert pictures at this stage, since for a further photograph all the components will be clearly visible and unlikely to cause difficulties in their identification.
')
While there was a parcel, I sketched a model of the future machine.




A snag popped up where we didn't expect it. Cut parts from MDF and org. glass, paint them and glue film with prints we found beyond their means.

While we were looking for an adequately operating cutting office with adequate prices, we received a package wrapper from China. We could not tolerate and decided to assemble a machine based on the first thing that caught our eye. It was a cardboard box. And even the automatic at the base of the box could kill a few days of our life.

She looked like this:







Somewhat far from the original drawing, right? And the fortress design left much to be desired. While we continued our search for the office for cutting wood, the box began to burst stronger and stronger, and the excitement for arcade games became more and more.

We decided to improve our design, transferring it to a more solid wooden base. Ikea came to the rescue with his cheapest bedside table, which everyone can find in their catalog.

Arcade games for everyone

For several months, our nightstand stood in the IT bar KLÜTCH, you can read about this in their website , but the Chinese board failed us and failed. Now I am trying to re-solder it while waiting for a new one from US suppliers. So, unfortunately, now it’s impossible to play the only machine gun in St. Petersburg. I hope that soon I will put the nightstand back into operation.

While the “nightstand” was working, we even managed to hold a real arcade event with contests, a quiz and of course a Street Fighter tournament.



At the moment we do not leave hope that someday we will finish the machine gun of your dreams. For this, we will most likely turn to crowdfunding.