September 11th, 2014 - LCD screen and thoughts of speakers

Going to pick the MDF parts tomorrow.
Bought a 2nd hand 19" screen for ~40$.
Warming up...

My friend mention I should get speakers. Of course.
Looking for some cheap stuff online. These go as low as 5$.
We should take them out of the box and install them old-school, with just the membrane - retro style.
We should extend the volume potentiometer by wires to be installed outside the box.
OK. I need to check tomorrow an open computer place nearby.

September 6th, 2014 - Carpenter

Visit to the carpenter.
Design should be ready in few days...
Exciting!!!

September 4th, 2014 - Package has arrived!

Got the joystick and controllers from ebay - that was fast!
Checking that it works on my laptop. Bingo, windows identify it as a GamePad.
We're getting close...

September 1st, 2014 - Cabinet plans

Starting to zero in on planning the cabinet. So many options.
That's the cabinet layout:

Found a decent carpenter to cut it for us. Going on Friday.

August 22nd, 2014 - First ebay order. Joysticks. More dilemmas.

Decisions are made. First order from ebay.

Joystick set, 2 players, 8 buttons each. Why? Because I can :)

The raspberry pie will be used to power the machine.
It will be a bar top based on a design known as Weecade:


Cool!

August 19th, 2014 - Research phase, so many options

2 days digging the internet.

Not ordering anything. Checking costs, weighing-in different options.

Bartop vs. full cabinet?

1 player vs. 2 players?

Should I use PC or Raspberry Pie? PC has a lot more options, but is more expansive and prone to heating up. The pie is cheap, available and need no fan or heat sink. mmmm. On the other hand, can pie run all the newer games out there?
Some cool projects are already out in the internet:
Picade

Ignition

RetroPie

August 17th, 2014 - It starts here

Fast forward 13 years later.

A friend tells about an idea to build a small arcade machine, a so called bartop machine:

After a quick search in the internet, I see that this thing is actually quite popular with buzzing communities and samples. And with today's ebay and AliExpress, there is nothing out of your reach.

I am hooked.

Arcade Journals

For many years I have been toying with the idea of building a retro arcade machine.

Back at 2001, I first discovered MAME, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator and has set upon building a full cabinet with a PC engine to run games. However, some quick monetary calculates proved that the poor student I was, I cannot afford the spending. I dropped it.