The most popular retro gaming project? Gotta be the DIY arcade console—an all-in-one gamer’s paradise that can replicate hundreds of vintage video games from stand-up arcade machines, home consoles, and PC titles from the 2000s back to 8-bit classics of the 1970s and 80s.
Most makers start with a Raspberry Pi mini computer running RetroPie emulation software. Built atop a full Linux OS and arcade interfaces EmulationStation and RetroArch, plus lots of open-source emulators, RetroPie runs on Pi 4 and earlier models and can reproduce 50+ vintage consoles and PCs from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Apple, Commodore, and many more. Just add vintage controllers or a keyboard. Popular alternative arcade OSes include Recalbox and its offshoot Batocera — good for beginners.
(Note that the new Pi 5 can emulate 5th- and 6th-gen consoles like Wii, GBA, and Dreamcast. RetroPie hasn’t caught up yet, but you can install separate emulators; K.G. Orphanides wrote a great guide at magpi.raspberrypi.com.
Arcade games work differently than console emulation, so choose your arcade-specific emulator (MAME or FinalBurn), then download ROM files of your desired games. Get started with the tutorial at retropie.org.uk.
To build a real arcade machine, get an arcade controller board like Pimoroni’s Picade X Hat or Adafruit’s Arcade Bonnet (both with a 3W amp for a speaker), or PetRockBlock’s ControlBoard or Ultimarc’s I-PAC (without). Then plug in your heavy-duty arcade buttons and analog joysticks. Try Adafruit, Pimoroni, Ultimarc, and The Geek Pub, or Amazon stores EasyGet and EG Starts.
Here are some favorite DIY arcade builds, from full-size Pi machines to tiny Arduino kits.
ADVERTISEMENT