Welcome to my little place on the web.

I'm a software developer and occasionally when time allows, I like to blog about my various coding project here. I also like to tinker with home automation, retro gaming and more.

I have also shared some of my software, which I hope may be of use to others. It's on my software page.

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Displaying entries for #arcadeclear filter

New marquee and surround artwork

I thought it was time to update the cabinet artwork and finally add some instructions on how the game select buttons works. So photo below is the new design, what do you think? Can’t beat classic Street Fighter 2!

It was printed on A4 photo paper, cut with a craft knife then stuck together with sticky tape.

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Update Arcade Machine to use a USB Joystick Encoder

I recently switched the hardware within my arcade machine from a x86 PC to a Raspberry Pi 3. The reason for this was that I was getting fed up with the maintenance required for a Windows PC.

I’m pleased that I did, as I can now just download a new pre-configured Raspberry Pi image and I’m pretty much done! The only issue I had was getting the IPAC interface to work. It kinda worked but struggled with mapping some of the ... read more

Shopping list for building your own Arcade Machine

It can be a lot of work to build your own arcade cabinet, but it can also be a lot of fun! I still have not finished mine completely, as the base still needs painting! I’m sure i’ll get around to it at some point. You can see my progress last year from my past entries here

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Arcade games list

With all the thousands of arcade games, what games are on your list? Here are my favourites. What have I missed ? Comment below.

Ms. Pac-Man
1942
'88 Games
1941 - Counter Attack
64th. Street - A Detective Story
720 Degrees
A.B. Cop
After Burner II
Alex Kidd: The Lost Stars
Alien Syndrome
Aliens
Altered Beast
APB - All Points Bulletin
Arkanoid
Arkanoid - Revenge of DOH
Arkanoid Returns
Asteroids
Asteroids Deluxe
Bad Dudes vs. Dragonninja
Bad Lands
Bagman
Balloon Brothers
Batman
Blasteroids
Bloo... read more

Arcade build - Marquee and bezel fitted

The cut perspex has arrived from acrylic-online.co.uk. I'm pleased to say that it fits the marquee and bezel gaps perfectly.

For the marquee I borrowed the great design from angel88888 over on the overclock.net forums. His post is here: http://www.overclock.net/t/1436501/hyperspin-arcade-machine-lots-of-pics

arcadebuild4_1.JPG

I had to crop the image a bit of fit my cabinet. Cropped version is at the bottom of this post.

To print, I just used my inkjet printer, it came out pretty well (in 2 piece's). You can just see t... read more

Arcade build - Games!

I have finally ordered the Perspex bezel and marquee for the arcade machine. So while I wait for them to arrive, I thought it would be a good time to talk about the software that I am using for my arcade machine.

My original plan was to use the fantastic HyperSpin frontend. If you have not heard of it, I would highly recommend you check it out here - http://www.hyperspin-fe.com

I have spent a fair bit of time downloading and configuring this frontend for MAME and various old game consoles. It has been running really quite well on my main computer. However when I copied the files... read more

Arcade build - Painting and wiring

The monitor arrived and I'm pleased to say it fitted perfectly. Next step was to paint the cabinet before fitting buttons etc.

For painting, I used a wood primer then a black gloss, applied with a mini gloss roller. I am fairly pleased with the result. However the paint was a single coat gloss, so went on a little thick. I think a liquid gloss may have given a smoother result. But still, I'm pleased with the outcome.

arcadebuild2.jpg

Keeping my costs down, I had an old arcade joystick that I made many years ago. This allowed ... read more

Arcade build - Construction

Happy new year everyone. I hope everyone has had a great break.

For a long time now, I have been planning to build an arcade cabinet, but never got round to it. This was partly due to not really having the space for it and also the amount of time to create the plans, cut the mdf, etc. However, while on eBay a few months ago I came across a seller called 'richsbartoparcades'. He sells quite a few flat pack cabinet designs. I was sold on his slim version which comes in two parts. Sounded perfect. So that was my Christmas present from the wife.

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