Tabletop Arcade Machines

[Ouenben]

I'm considering buying a tabletop Arcade machine to play.

Quite liked the look of something like this :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WR61RV5/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_T364EbVB65WGB

but I'm struggling to find any reviews or videos or anything of it.

Anyone got any advice for buying smaller tabletop Arcade units?

[Escape-To-88]

I'd assume there aren't any reviews as they are kits that someone or other has made up. My advice would be make one. Do they have to be table top? Pretty sure Numbskull made mini replicas of certain Namco cabs. Alternatively what about an Arcade 1up?

[Yakumo]

I'm considering buying a tabletop Arcade machine to play.

Quite liked the look of something like this :

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07WR61RV5/ref=cm_sw_r_wa_apa_i_T364EbVB65WGB

but I'm struggling to find any reviews or videos or anything of it.

Anyone got any advice for buying smaller tabletop Arcade units?

Don't buy that. I had one. Total crap. It was so bad I never even got around to reviewing it. The speed of the thing was pathetic. It wouldn't run Capcom cps2 games full speed. Neo Geo had issues and the screen was bad.

Keep away from that. In fact, it was so bad I binned it.

[paulus]

Buy a used gaming monitor, an MDF tabletop kit from eBay (with monitor mounting board) , 1 or 2 decent sticks and corresponding buttons. Paint or decal the outsides and lightly hammer in some T Moulding. Now fit a DE10 Mister (best) or a Pi (more games, more lag), now add your, cough, legally owned roms and sit back and bask in your own glory.

Then come on here with pics

[hudson]

I bought a Picade from Pimoroni a while back and it was fun to build and mod. I installed mine with a Pi3 and retropie. Swapped out the stick and buttons for sanwa parts. Redid the atrwork and put a strip of USB powered LED lights in the marquee. I still need to get a 10" screen upgrade though.

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Any excuse to show this off again

[Yakumo]

I bought a Picade from Pimoroni a while back and it was fun to build and mod. I installed mine with a Pi3 and retropie. Swapped out the stick and buttons for sanwa parts. Redid the atrwork and put a strip of USB powered LED lights in the marquee. I still need to get a 10" screen upgrade though.

Embedded Tweet

Any excuse to show this off again

Looks cool but yeah, you've got to do the screen upgrade. What I'd do is buy an old 4:3 tft monitor and gut it. . Good colour, refresh rate and 14 to 17 inches. Best of all it's the correct aspect ratio.

[QualityChimp]

I bought a Picade from Pimoroni a while back and it was fun to build and mod. I installed mine with a Pi3 and retropie. Swapped out the stick and buttons for sanwa parts. Redid the atrwork and put a strip of USB powered LED lights in the marquee. I still need to get a 10" screen upgrade though.

Embedded Tweet

Any excuse to show this off again

Absolutely love this!
I should really push myself to try making something like this.

[Ouenben]

Buy a used gaming monitor, an MDF tabletop kit from eBay (with monitor mounting board) , 1 or 2 decent sticks and corresponding buttons. Paint or decal the outsides and lightly hammer in some T Moulding. Now fit a DE10 Mister (best) or a Pi (more games, more lag), now add your, cough, legally owned roms and sit back and bask in your own glory.

Then come on here with pics

Sounds great in theory, but I could just see me messing it up. I'd rather just spend the money for a pre-built one if it's decent.

https://www.monstershop.co.uk/table-top-arcade-machine

Struggling to find reviews for this one apart from a couple on Amazon

[paulus]

I built my double joystick version with zero lag gaming monitor for less. I also reckon that the Pi 3B+ inside offers better Emulation than a Pandoras Box with infinitely more customisation.

I'm not a DIYer at all, if you can put together an ikea bedside cabinet and wire a plug you would manage. Even scraping the carbon fibre like sticky plastic on and cutting off the excess with a razor blade was easier than I thought. I then just added some of these all over it for effect:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/361592361444

[samanosuke]

This thread inspired me to build something for the summer house we’re putting up in the garden. Wanting a full upright, I came across this:

https://classicarcademachine.com/product/full-upright-arcade-machine-flat-pack/

Has anyone here built an upright?

[MENTION=7370]paulus[/MENTION] - you can’t tell us about it and not show us! Can we see a pic, please?

[QualityChimp]

[MENTION=7370]paulus[/MENTION] - you can’t tell us about it and not show us! Can we see a pic, please?

This!

[paulus]

I'll pop some pics up on Flickr later including my Hand-built Space Invaders Pinball machine which also plays a few Mame games.

[paulus]

Here you go :

Mame Cabinet Front - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...posted-public/


Mame Cabinet Side Decals - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...posted-public/


Dual Monitor Pinball Table Front - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...posted-public/


Pinball Table Side Art Low - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...posted-public/


Pinball Table Side Art High - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...posted-public/


Space Invaders Bar Stool - https://www.flickr.com/photos/773779...posted-public/

[Atticus]

Loving that dual monitor pinball [MENTION=7370]paulus[/MENTION]

[paulus]

Loving that dual monitor pinball @paulus

Cheers bud, that was my summer project last year. It mainly runs the complete FX Pinball Collection but I do also have Visual Pinball X on there along with the actual Bally Space Invaders Pinball Table (see pic below). Its not that great to play but a nice bit of history?

https://vintagearcade.net/wp-content...-Invaders3.jpg

I deliberately built in some white buttons on the top for use with Mame & to feel like the original Taito Space Invaders Controls (I'm old enough to have played it like this before the Joystick version was developed

http://arcadeamusements.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/arcadeamusements-space-invaders.jpg