As the pandemic continues to rage many people find themselves spending a lot more time at home. The silver lining for the gamers of the world is that they’ve been able to complete games they didn’t previously have the time to play, make new games for the original Gameboy, and for one Redditor in particular, build their own custom arcade cabinets.
Of course, in recent years arcade machines that contain several games have become commercially available. Arcade1UP has a popular line of cabinets available at various retail chains like Walmart and Target, and a few months ago a Classic SNK machine was listed on Amazon that houses 50 retro games, but Redditor oldasemprie wanted to build their own machines.
The custom bar top cabinets run on a Raspberry Pi computer kit using RetroPie to play roms of classic games and feature unique, custom artwork based on popular games like Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man. On top of that, oldasempire also created a Cyberpunk 2077 machine, though the Raspberry Pi is far too underpowered to run such a modern game.
For the cabinets that oldasempire has already produced, they state that they intend to give them away to friends, but plan on continuing to refine the production methods to get building costs under $150 and eventually release building instructions online. The Arcade1UP machines can cost between $300-$700, and proper arcade machines cost even more than that. The Star Wars Battle Pod arcade machine sells for $100,000, so with prices like that, a $150 DIY alternative will certainly be a welcome addition for arcade enthusiasts.
Of course, anyone looking to build their own version of these amazing arcade cabinets will have to enter the murky, legally grey world of roms. With Nintendo constantly seeking out and shutting down the websites that host these roms, many gamers may wish to steer clear of the whole thing and spend the extra money for an officially licensed Arcade1UP cabinet.
Regardless, anyone looking to play some classic Pac-Man certainly have some options, from official Arcade1Up cabinets, the Pac-Man Monopoly set that comes with a mini Pac-Man arcade game, to the custom, homemade machines. For many gamers spending extra time at home during quarantine, going the DIY route and building the cabinet themselves is likely to be a big part of the fun.
Source: Reddit
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