**Building a Retro Arcade Console with Raspberry Pi 3**

I'm excited to share with you my latest project, a retro arcade console built using the Raspberry Pi 3. This is a fun and easy-to-make project that can be completed in about an hour, provided you have some basic soldering skills and tools. The goal of this project is to create a compact and functional arcade console that can play a variety of classic games.

The first step in building this console is to order all the necessary components, including the Raspberry Pi 3, screen, buttons, speaker, and power supply. I've chosen to use a 7-inch 1024x800 display, which provides a good balance between size and resolution. The screen comes with its own control board, which allows me to turn it on and off, as well as adjust the brightness and color. I've also added an 8-ohm speaker for improved sound quality.

The arcade bonnet is a small, compact component that houses all the electronics, including the Raspberry Pi 3, screen, buttons, and speaker. The GPIO adapter is soldered onto the arcade bonnet, allowing me to connect it to my Raspberry Pi 3 or Raspberry Pi 3 B+. I've chosen not to use micro USB for power, instead opting for a 2.5mm barrel jack that provides a reliable and safe connection.

One of the challenges of building this console is soldering the headers onto the arcade bonnet. This requires some basic soldering skills, but it's definitely doable with practice. I've also had to drill holes for the buttons and analog stick, which can be a bit tricky if you don't have access to a drill.

The power supply is another crucial component of this project. I've chosen a 4A power supply with a 2.5mm barrel jack, which provides enough power for both the screen and Raspberry Pi 3. The screen comes with its own power jack, so it can be powered directly from the console. Overall, I'm really happy with how this project has turned out, and I think it's going to make a great addition to my gaming setup.

**Assembling the Console**

Once all the components are received, it's time to assemble the console. The Raspberry Pi 3 is placed in the arcade bonnet, along with the screen, buttons, and speaker. The GPIO adapter is soldered onto the arcade bonnet, allowing me to connect it to my Raspberry Pi 3 or Raspberry Pi 3 B+. The power supply is connected to the barrel jack, which provides a reliable and safe connection.

The arcade bonnet is then screwed into place, creating a compact and secure enclosure for all the electronics. The buttons and analog stick are attached to the console using screws and adhesive, ensuring that they stay in place securely. Finally, the screen is placed on top of the Raspberry Pi 3, completing the assembly process.

**Software Requirements**

One of the challenges of building this console is installing the operating system and games. While I've included a script from Adafruit to get everything up and running, there are still some software requirements that need to be met. The Raspberry Pi 3 requires a Linux-based operating system, such as Raspbian or Fedora Core 33. The screen also comes with its own control board, which allows me to adjust the brightness and color.

In order to play games on this console, I've downloaded a few classic arcade games, including Pong, Breakout, and Space Invaders. These games can be played using the buttons and analog stick, or by connecting a controller directly to the Raspberry Pi 3.

**Conclusion**

Overall, building a retro arcade console with Raspberry Pi 3 is a fun and rewarding project that can be completed in about an hour. With some basic soldering skills and tools, you can create a compact and functional arcade console that plays classic games from your childhood. While there are still some software requirements to meet, the script from Adafruit makes it relatively easy to get everything up and running.

If you're interested in building one of these consoles, I recommend checking out the links provided in the description below for all the necessary components. Keep in mind that this project does require some soldering skills and tools, but it's definitely doable with practice.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's going on guys is ETA prime back here again today I wanted to just show you my new Raspberry Pi powered baby bar top arcade so this is the Raspberry Pi baby bar top super small I got a few items to show you a little size comparison here here's a 12 ounce can of soda right next to the arcade I also had a killer instinct cartridge laying around I figured I'd show you a little size comparison here because a lot of people have held one of these cartridges so as you can see it's a pretty small bar top arcade there are six action buttons there's also a start and select but for my joystick I actually chose to use an analog stick because I couldn't find a joystick that's small enough the analog stick is set up just like a joystick it's not really using any analog inputs it has up-down left-right and you also have your down left down right things like that so it works just like a real joystick but it does feel a little odd but it does work great for a small bar top like this and like I mentioned I just couldn't find a joystick that's small enough if you do know if something please let me know in the comments because I would love to swap it out but for now the analog will have to work I am running retropie on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ inside of here the newest Raspberry Pi 3 handling all the inputs and sound is the Adafruit Arcade bonnet this is an awesome little arcade hat for the Raspberry Pi it's easy to program I have all eight buttons hooked up to it plus a 3 watt 8 ohm speaker underneath the speaker actually sounds really good and it gets really loud for the case I'm using a Nintendo switch arcade now you can get these on Amazon for about $13 you just put it together with little rubber bands you can buy all of these parts on Amazon I'll leave links in the description I also have a build video on the way I just have to get everything in order I did document the full build but I figured I'd make a video and show you this thing in action the only downside to this whole thing is actually the case itself it's made out of a really thick cardboard but I do have a local company that has laser cutters I've contacted them they're actually cutting me 10 of these out I'm gonna put a couple of these kits together and possibly give them away on the channel so let's see this thing in action it does have a 7 inch 1024 by 800 screen it looks pretty good in person I'm not sure if the cameras gonna do a justice or not let's start a game now one of the main things I built this for was little arcade games but I'm gonna test out FBA and I want to play some Marvel vs. Capcom here we'll get right in here it's gonna load up for us I want to see if I can pull off some special moves with this analog stick throw a couple coins in here yeah maybe one more and we should be able to start the game up you choose my favourite characters here war machine and Ryu like I mentioned the analog stick does take a little bit of getting used to but these 16 millimeter buttons actually feel really decent they're a little harder than I wanna be you have to press on them a little harder than you would a regular Sanwa button but for being so small this is what I was able to use I was gonna go with 24 millimeter Sanwa buttons but there's just not enough room on this front panel here for 6 buttons at 24 millimeters so I went with these 16 millimeter buttons and they work decently the analog stick as pretty much a d-pad is actually working out pretty well I'm able to pull off these special moves pretty easily it's not bad I miss one every once in a while but I'm sure I could get used to it I do have some acrylic cases coming and wood now I'm really into wood so that's what I want to use but we won't have any flex here on the front panel when you try to push these buttons in should make life a lot easier overall I think this is a really cool little project I will have a video coming up this week but I'm gonna leave links in the description if you want to get started on ordering everything you need it does require a bit of soldering you do have to solder the GPIO adapter onto the arcade bonnet that way you can slide it on to your Raspberry Pi 3 or your Raspberry Pi 3 B+ now I didn't want to go with micro USB to power this whole thing so what I'm using is a 4 amp power supply with a 2.5 millimeter barrel jack since the screen and the Raspberry Pi run on 5 volts you can use a battery bank to power this with and the screen does come with one of these barrel jacks to USB so you can't power this whole thing with a battery bank like this this one actually does put out 3 amps so it's sufficient for the screen and the pie itself and it works great let's take a look at how this thing's put together so over on the side here I have my Raspberry Pi 3 B+ I do have the USBs up against the back panel because I'm not going to be using them I just use Wi-Fi in the arcade bonnet you could turn this around or mount it in a different position the art kay bonnie is mounting on the top of the Raspberry Pi for the screen I'm using a geek PI 5 volt 7 inch 1024 by 800 display it does have a control board here so you can turn it on and off you can also control the color and brightness for the power I do have a 2.5 millimeter barrel jack and I have the Raspberry Pi and the screen connected to this barrel Jack so as soon as you plug it in everything comes on you could add a switch if you'd like to a 3 watt 8 ohms speaker here and I have all of my 8 buttons connected to the arcade bonnet that's connected to the Raspberry Pi let's start and select down there the analog stick and the speaker are also connected to the arcade bonnet Adafruit does offer a really easy to use script to get all that up and running but I think it's pretty cool I know it's really small it's not very practical but it's an awesome little project to make on the weekend now this here with some soldering skills and the tools you can make this in about an hour seriously it's really not that hard and I will have a video coming out this week on how to build one but like I mention all the links for everything you need are in the description if you want to get started on buying everything there's a few issues that some people are gonna run into while making one of these like drilling the holes for the buttons themselves and the analog stick some people just won't have a drill available to them the other issue will be soldering the headers on to the arcade bonnet now one thing I really thought about doing was creating kits with everything pre soldered pre-drilled along with a better case than this switch case here either wood or acrylic I do have a local laser cutter that can help me out here if you're interested in something like that please let me know in the comments below I just think it's such a cool little project I can't really let it go to waste now on the other hand I don't want a lot of people getting mad at me because I'm trying to sell them something but it actually helped the community out if I could pre solder everything pre drill everything it make it much easier for everybody to be able to build one of these no it wouldn't come with ROMs pre included and it actually wouldn't even come with the operating system you would have to download the OS I could build a little image that anybody could download just flash it to your SD card it'll be ready and set up for the screen and controls if there's enough people interested in something like this I could definitely get something going but in the meantime if you have access to a soldering iron and some power tools be my guest you can build one now pretty much everything I used here can be gotten on Amazon and I'll leave links in the description that's pretty much it for this video guys I really appreciate you watching and we'll have a build video coming up very shortly and like I mention if you're interested in buying a full-blown kit like this with everything ready to go let me know in the comments below like always thanks for watchinghey what's going on guys is ETA prime back here again today I wanted to just show you my new Raspberry Pi powered baby bar top arcade so this is the Raspberry Pi baby bar top super small I got a few items to show you a little size comparison here here's a 12 ounce can of soda right next to the arcade I also had a killer instinct cartridge laying around I figured I'd show you a little size comparison here because a lot of people have held one of these cartridges so as you can see it's a pretty small bar top arcade there are six action buttons there's also a start and select but for my joystick I actually chose to use an analog stick because I couldn't find a joystick that's small enough the analog stick is set up just like a joystick it's not really using any analog inputs it has up-down left-right and you also have your down left down right things like that so it works just like a real joystick but it does feel a little odd but it does work great for a small bar top like this and like I mentioned I just couldn't find a joystick that's small enough if you do know if something please let me know in the comments because I would love to swap it out but for now the analog will have to work I am running retropie on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ inside of here the newest Raspberry Pi 3 handling all the inputs and sound is the Adafruit Arcade bonnet this is an awesome little arcade hat for the Raspberry Pi it's easy to program I have all eight buttons hooked up to it plus a 3 watt 8 ohm speaker underneath the speaker actually sounds really good and it gets really loud for the case I'm using a Nintendo switch arcade now you can get these on Amazon for about $13 you just put it together with little rubber bands you can buy all of these parts on Amazon I'll leave links in the description I also have a build video on the way I just have to get everything in order I did document the full build but I figured I'd make a video and show you this thing in action the only downside to this whole thing is actually the case itself it's made out of a really thick cardboard but I do have a local company that has laser cutters I've contacted them they're actually cutting me 10 of these out I'm gonna put a couple of these kits together and possibly give them away on the channel so let's see this thing in action it does have a 7 inch 1024 by 800 screen it looks pretty good in person I'm not sure if the cameras gonna do a justice or not let's start a game now one of the main things I built this for was little arcade games but I'm gonna test out FBA and I want to play some Marvel vs. Capcom here we'll get right in here it's gonna load up for us I want to see if I can pull off some special moves with this analog stick throw a couple coins in here yeah maybe one more and we should be able to start the game up you choose my favourite characters here war machine and Ryu like I mentioned the analog stick does take a little bit of getting used to but these 16 millimeter buttons actually feel really decent they're a little harder than I wanna be you have to press on them a little harder than you would a regular Sanwa button but for being so small this is what I was able to use I was gonna go with 24 millimeter Sanwa buttons but there's just not enough room on this front panel here for 6 buttons at 24 millimeters so I went with these 16 millimeter buttons and they work decently the analog stick as pretty much a d-pad is actually working out pretty well I'm able to pull off these special moves pretty easily it's not bad I miss one every once in a while but I'm sure I could get used to it I do have some acrylic cases coming and wood now I'm really into wood so that's what I want to use but we won't have any flex here on the front panel when you try to push these buttons in should make life a lot easier overall I think this is a really cool little project I will have a video coming up this week but I'm gonna leave links in the description if you want to get started on ordering everything you need it does require a bit of soldering you do have to solder the GPIO adapter onto the arcade bonnet that way you can slide it on to your Raspberry Pi 3 or your Raspberry Pi 3 B+ now I didn't want to go with micro USB to power this whole thing so what I'm using is a 4 amp power supply with a 2.5 millimeter barrel jack since the screen and the Raspberry Pi run on 5 volts you can use a battery bank to power this with and the screen does come with one of these barrel jacks to USB so you can't power this whole thing with a battery bank like this this one actually does put out 3 amps so it's sufficient for the screen and the pie itself and it works great let's take a look at how this thing's put together so over on the side here I have my Raspberry Pi 3 B+ I do have the USBs up against the back panel because I'm not going to be using them I just use Wi-Fi in the arcade bonnet you could turn this around or mount it in a different position the art kay bonnie is mounting on the top of the Raspberry Pi for the screen I'm using a geek PI 5 volt 7 inch 1024 by 800 display it does have a control board here so you can turn it on and off you can also control the color and brightness for the power I do have a 2.5 millimeter barrel jack and I have the Raspberry Pi and the screen connected to this barrel Jack so as soon as you plug it in everything comes on you could add a switch if you'd like to a 3 watt 8 ohms speaker here and I have all of my 8 buttons connected to the arcade bonnet that's connected to the Raspberry Pi let's start and select down there the analog stick and the speaker are also connected to the arcade bonnet Adafruit does offer a really easy to use script to get all that up and running but I think it's pretty cool I know it's really small it's not very practical but it's an awesome little project to make on the weekend now this here with some soldering skills and the tools you can make this in about an hour seriously it's really not that hard and I will have a video coming out this week on how to build one but like I mention all the links for everything you need are in the description if you want to get started on buying everything there's a few issues that some people are gonna run into while making one of these like drilling the holes for the buttons themselves and the analog stick some people just won't have a drill available to them the other issue will be soldering the headers on to the arcade bonnet now one thing I really thought about doing was creating kits with everything pre soldered pre-drilled along with a better case than this switch case here either wood or acrylic I do have a local laser cutter that can help me out here if you're interested in something like that please let me know in the comments below I just think it's such a cool little project I can't really let it go to waste now on the other hand I don't want a lot of people getting mad at me because I'm trying to sell them something but it actually helped the community out if I could pre solder everything pre drill everything it make it much easier for everybody to be able to build one of these no it wouldn't come with ROMs pre included and it actually wouldn't even come with the operating system you would have to download the OS I could build a little image that anybody could download just flash it to your SD card it'll be ready and set up for the screen and controls if there's enough people interested in something like this I could definitely get something going but in the meantime if you have access to a soldering iron and some power tools be my guest you can build one now pretty much everything I used here can be gotten on Amazon and I'll leave links in the description that's pretty much it for this video guys I really appreciate you watching and we'll have a build video coming up very shortly and like I mention if you're interested in buying a full-blown kit like this with everything ready to go let me know in the comments below like always thanks for watching\n"