Problem: I really want an arcade machine at home, but I don’t have the space for it.
Solution: Build Alexandre Chappel’s giant two-player machine, which is sleek and hidden in plain sight on your wall.
Alexandre’s goal was to build something that looks like an ordinary piece of furniture, and that you’d have no idea is an arcade machine until you flip it open. It’s a fully functional two-player device and it requires no coding skills to set up.
Big build
It’s a big piece of furniture, so you’ll need a big space and a good table saw to get all the wood cut. Alexandre made the whole thing out of just one piece of oak plywood. He’s a woodwork perfectionist, and didn’t want any visible screws on the finished product, so he had to get fancy with biscuit joints. He also ironed on edge banding, to give an extra-smooth finish to the rough cuts of plywood.
Hardware
The electronics for the build arrived by way of a complete kit containing everything needed to make the joysticks and buttons. The kit came with a little circuit board which all the buttons and joysticks plug into, and the output is a simple USB which connects to the Raspberry Pi brain of the system.
Parts list
(These are all links to the actual products used in this project)
Software
Alexandre had never used a Raspberry Pi before, but still found the electronics the easiest part of this build.
This tutorial video made it easy to load up RetroPie software on the Raspberry Pi’s SD card and get some games onto a USB stick. And this video showed him how to run games from a USB device.
Sleek design
Everything is so neatly tucked away in this design. A slot for the USB cable and a Raspberry Pi reset switch are built into the wooden frame, so absolutely none of the electronics are on show.
Alexandre’s beautiful online shop allows you to buy full woodworking plans to recreate his projects. You can buy the design files for this project for $15.
Website: LINK
