Project Arcade: Build Your Own Arcade Machine (ExtremeTech)

You can go back, and here's howRemember the days--and quarters--you spent pursuing aliens, fleeing ghosts, and gobbling dots in that beloved arcade? They're hiding in these pages, along with diagrams, directions, plans, and materials lists that will enable you to build your very own arcade game. Construct joysticks, buttons, and trackballs; build the console and cabinet; install and configure the software; crank up the speakers; and wham! Step across the time-space continuum and enjoy all those classic games, plus dozens of new ones, whenever you like.

Start Here

1. Plan for your space and budget
2. Design and build the cabinet
3. Construct the controllers
4. Build the console
5. Pick an old game's brain
6. Install the emulator
7. Convince a PC it's a game
8. Connect a monitor and speakers
9. Add a marquee
10. GO PLAY!

Includes diagrams, detailed instructions, essential software, and more

CD-ROM Includes
* Complete cabinet plans and diagrams
* MAME32 software
* Paint Shop Pro? evaluation version
* Links to hundreds of arcade cabinet projects

John St.Clair, like most children of the ‘80s, spent much of his childhood immersed in arcade games. Although he’s now a respectable network engineer, he remains an avid gamer and serves as Webmaster for www.arcadecontrols.com, the favored site of hobbyist game builders.