For my friend David’s wedding, I built an arcade cabinet to run PiCade.
For my friend David’s wedding, he asked if I’d make him an arcade for the party. First, I said no—I’d tried making one once before moving to SF, and the process had been time-consuming and a little frustrating.
And yet, I’d always wanted to make one. I thought about it a couple days while traveling, and even though I had about two weeks to get it done, I was excited to have the excuse.
My build was modeled off of the awesome instruction set produced by rolfebox on Instructables, with joysticks and buttons from Amazon, a Raspberry Pi running RetroPie, a monitor from Goodwill, acrylic, LEDs, some cheap computer speakers, chrome T-moulding, and plenty of wood.
In addition to being a doctor, gamer, and excellent friend, David’s an aspiring photographer.
And when Christine isn’t saving the world, she loves cooking.
In this video, I get the buttons, Raspberry Pi, and PiCade software all working with the monitor, using a cardboard box as a simulated arcade.
In this video, I went to the Shop in SF (successor to TechShop!) to use a CNC router, the table saw, the table router, and lots of glue to cut out and put together the cabinet itself.
With the cabinet is painted and glued, in this video I add wood to support the monitor, wire and test all buttons, laser cut, glue, and attach a back panel, add lights, cut apart and install speakers, and design the marquee.
One week before the wedding, this is what I’d gotten working.
After a few rounds and iterations of CNC design, I placed the pieces together and glued them in place.
Obviously this was the first software test I ran.
Before the wedding, David and his brother put it through its paces.
Congratulations on the wedding!!