Bar top arcade – digital plan pdf download

As an adult it became my dream to build an arcade cabinet for my home. So when I finally had the space to put one, I jumped at the opportunity and created my very own modernized version of an old-school arcade!

These modernized arcade cabinets use LCD monitors, run on an incredibly simple to setup Raspberry Pi , and allow you to not just run one old-school arcade game, but literally thousands of them! Originally, I focused on creation of a full-size stand-up arcade cabinet for my game room.

It was such a hit that friends started asking me to make cabinets for them. Of course, not having time to do that, I instead created plans that they could follow to build it themselves DIY in their own garage. Later on I was challenged by a good friend of mine to build a smaller bartop arcade that could be used in smaller spaces. Eventually I created YouTube arcade videos and the rest is history. This is the DIY arcade cabinet that started it all!

Some of the features include:. This was my follow-up to the full-size arcade. In fact, my bartop arcade sits in the conference room at my office. Some of the fantastic feature of this arcade plan include:. I finally did it!

After many hundreds of emails and requests… I built the cocktail table arcade! Because it is now my favorite arcade of everything I have! The glass top really makes it awesome. You should also check out the Cocktail Table Arcade build video. So I finally did it! A super cool slightly Mario themed version. I've shown how much I found each item for online, although bear in mind that quite a bit of this stuff was already lying around the house and I didn't actually go out and pay for.

This list should show you the total cost if you were to buy everything. You will also need the following tools. A lot of these are pretty common but if there's something you don't have - borrow it! I personally borrowed a great deal of tools and advice from my housemate, fellow retro gamer and all-round good egg Jonny from 1up Living.

He pops up in a few of the photos and generally helped a lot with the build. I did a lot of research before building this cabinet. Mainly looking at other people's designs. There are a lot of great instructables already for custom arcade machines - I've kept track of my favourites here - but none of them covered exactly what I was after. After taking in a lot of inspiration I decided the main criteria for my design would be:. I wanted to make something that would look vaguely 'real' with authentic controls for a convincing arcade experience at home.

A couple of sketches later and I was on my way! I designed several iterations of the cabinet using SketchUp , a free and easy-to-learn tool for 3D modelling. I already had a basic shape and style in my head, but the modelling process helped me figure out the angles and dimensions that worked best aesthetically.

I wanted a versatile setup that could handle all the main gaming platforms I was trying to emulate. This layout is perfect for beat 'em up games and has enough face buttons to adequately represent all the consoles the Pi can emulate. I knocked up an instructional poster to explain the control schemes for each console, as it can get a bit confusing for new players switching between systems otherwise.

This will be framed and hung on the wall as an official reference guide for arcade machine newbies. In terms of dimensions and button spacing I used a lot of trial and error and prototyping to see what felt right. I feel that the final design is wide enough for two players and with enough wrist support to be comfortable during long gaming sessions - very important!

The marquee is the backlit title graphic found at the top of all arcade machines. I chose the name 'Galactic Starcade' as I felt it evoked the somewhat cheesy feel of classic cabinets while also being at the time of writing an entirely unique name. Hence the zero results on google. I found a great resource for hi-res arcade graphics, Arcade Artwork , and photoshopped some iconic videogame characters into a spacey marquee graphic.

The starry background is from the original Space Invaders cabinet and the title style is a kind of homage to classic arcade game logos. I would highly advise full-scale prototype modelling if you're designing a cabinet yourself.

That said, if you want to work from my designs exactly, feel free to skip this section! Using some spare cardboard, I taped together a pretty rough mockup of the cabinet design.

I had only really designed the arcade machine digitally and wasn't certain it would look and feel right in the real world. The full size mockup allowed me to assess the size of the cabinet in context i. I ordered a full control panel set from ultracabs which included two Japanese-style i.

After designing my control panel layout on the computer I drilled a few holes in some scrap wood and set up a standalone controller to test out the setup before committing it to the cabinet. This is a great way to test the ergonomics of the design with some actual factual game time. I wired up the test controller and played a good few games on it to see how it felt. See later sections on how to wire up and configure the controls.

Overall I was pretty pleased but the prototype taught me that the buttons should go a little closer together and that a little more space at the bottom for wrist support was needed. I then fed these realisations back into the final design.

Better to tweak now than when its too late! I left the prototype wired up and used it to play games on my computer to scratch that retro gaming itch while I was working on the rest of the arcade machine.

If you made it look nicer the standalone controller could be a full project in its own right! Let's get dusty! Armed with a dimensioned print out of the design IKEA style because, well, why not? Big shout out again to 1up Living who helped a lot with the next few stages of the operation. First up we cut some 12mm MDF into mm wide panels on the table saw. Once one edge of each was squared on the mitre saw, we simply worked through the panels base, rear, monitor face, control panel, little strip on the front, and marquee , setting the fence and blade angle on the table saw for each cut.

For the screen cut out, we carefully measured the screen and cut a hole in the panel using the jigsaw. The screen was then laid in place and chunky bits of wood were glued and screwed up against the edges to provide a tight fit.

That's the prep work done - more detail on the monitor mounting later. For the sides we taped a printed template onto a bit of 9mm MDF and cut through it with a stanley knife to mark the shape. This was cut out using a jigsaw, and given a little love with some sandpaper to round off the edges and suchlike. Its important none of the corners are too sharp to ensure the T-molding will fit properly later.

The other side was cut from this using a template bit in the router so we knew they would be identical.

The side panels are thicker than the rest of the cabinet at 15mm, with a 3mm channel running along the edges the whole way around the perimeter. The channel needs to be completely central and will house the plastic trim T-molding later on. The side panels are a bit chunkier than the rest of the cabinet because they also act as legs and will be supporting the weight of the whole machine.

Also T-molding just so happens to come in 15mm but not 12mm. There are a couple of ways to achieve this but with the tools at our disposal we found the simplest way was to form the 15mm panels using two pieces of thinner wood 9mm and 6mm sandwiched together. The 9mm piece was cut and sanded exactly to size as explained above.

The 6mm piece was cut out very roughly with a few cm of bleed all the way around and then cut accurately using the router's template bit again to ensure it would fit its other half exactly.

We then set the router to a depth of 3mm and cut a rebate all the way around the edge of the 9mm panel, making sure to cut into the inside edge rather than the face edge. Once happy with that we got some heavy duty wood glue on the go and sandwiched the 9mm and 6mm pieces together, ensuring the rebate was in the middle to form the 3mm channel.

The two sides were held together overnight with as many clamps as we could lay our hands on. Time to put all these panels together into something vaguely resembling an arcade machine! This stage uses a lot of wood glue, clamps and caution. The first step is to knock up some little batons to act as internal bracing for the rest of the panels. These won't be seen in the final piece so can be made of any scrap wood. My batons were cut from lengths of 20x20mm wood that was lying around.

Drill a few countersunk holes in all of the batons to make it easier to screw them into the cabinet panels from the inside - it can get pretty fiddly otherwise, and possibly split the wood. These will be screwed and glued to the panels along each edge that was joining the side panels. We printed out a full scale sectional diagram of the cabinet and used it to trace all the important points on the side panel in pencil.

Then by laying the panel flat on the floor the other pieces can be placed on top of the drawing. Once we were sure everything fitted together and the angles were right, each piece was glued carefully in place, getting a clamp on there wherever possible.

This was then turned over and placed on top of the other side, lined up with marks from the same template, and glued and screwed in place.

It takes a pretty small screwdriver to get to some of the screws around the control panel and it gets a bit fiddly, but it leaves the outside with no visible screws so I think it's worth the effort. Before applying any paint I used white surface filler to fill in the 'seams' between panels.

I rubbed the filler in with a finger along any edges that had a slight gap - corners too. This needs to dry and can then be sanded smooth with grit sandpaper. I also applied a thin layer of filler all around the inside edge of the screen cutaway to give it a smoother and nicer finish, again carefully sanded down before the next step.

I spread out an old blanket to protect the rest of the shed and went at it with some white primer. I used a little roller for the most part and a small brush to make sure all the corners and edges got enough coverage. I did my best to avoid brush marks though as I was aiming for a smooth finish. A little sanding between coats can sort out most of the marks though.

Two coats should do the trick. Next up was the black finish which was achieved with a few coats of spray paint. It's worth having a read to learn how to apply spray paint properly. In a nutshell, hold the can about 20cm away, keep the can moving, and try to do a lot of thin coats rather than generous coats. It's also important to wear a good quality mask, and work somewhere well ventilated.

T-molding is the plastic trim which really gives a cabinet that genuine arcade look. Installing the T-molding is fairly straightforward but it does take a bit of time. Start from the bottom to make sure any seams remain hidden. Slot the plastic into the groove a little section at a time, with a tiny drizzle of glue to hold it in place.

Use masking tape to hold the T-molding fully in place while each section dries, although be careful to use tape that won't wreck your nicely painted finish. In theory the channel should be tight enough for the T-molding to pop into and then hold firm by itself, but the way we made the side panels necessitated some use of glue just to be sure. Plenty of people are selling old monitors on the cheap on ebay though. Buy Now. Global Plans.

Everything You Need. Tutorial Videos. Printable Templates. Customization Options. Access to Lifetime Updates. Email Support. Wiring Diagrams. Sketchup Files Included. Complete Parts Lists. Add to Cart. Thousands of Happy Customers. Our plans are the best on the internet.