The Making of a Mini Arcade Machine: A Step-by-Step Guide

The creation of a mini arcade machine is a fun and rewarding project that can be completed with minimal equipment and expertise. In this article, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of building a mini arcade machine, from mounting the control panel to adding LED lights and finishing touches.

First, let's start with the control panel. The control panel is the main interface for interacting with the machine, and it consists of several buttons that are mounted on a wooden board. To mount the buttons, one needs to attach them to the back of the board using screws or adhesive. However, this method has its drawbacks, as it makes it difficult to access the underside of the buttons in case something goes wrong.

A better approach is to mount the control panel firmly in place and then cut an access panel on the bottom of the machine to allow for easy repairs. This can be done by cutting a section around the perimeter of the board and creating a removable panel that can be accessed from underneath. To secure the control panel, CA glue was used instead of wood glue, which would not have provided sufficient support.

To add logo goes to the buttons, a vinyl cutter was used to cut out the desired design. This method is relatively easy and produces professional-looking results. The buttons were then reassembled with stickers applied to the back of each button to secure them in place.

The wiring process is another critical component of building a mini arcade machine. To connect the buttons to the control panel, one needs to crimp on connectors to the end of wires and plug them onto the buttons. The other ends of the wires are then connected to the power source that feeds all the lights and grounds between each button. This requires some patience and attention to detail, but it's a crucial step in bringing the machine to life.

To add LED lights and create a marquee effect, an LED strip was used along the top of the machine. To achieve this look, a piece of lexan was cut to size and stickers were applied to the back of the lexan to diffuse the light behind the sign. This method may not be the most ideal, but it produces a desired effect.

The electronics are mounted on the inside of the board, and the monitor is connected through an adapter to the HDMI port. A power strip and computer speakers were used to complete the machine, which was then screwed into place with brackets. Notably, a back panel was not added to the machine, as this would have obstructed the view of the electronics.

In conclusion, building a mini arcade machine is a fun and rewarding project that can be completed with minimal equipment and expertise. By following these steps, you can create your own mini arcade machine that will bring hours of entertainment to yourself and others. With practice and patience, anyone can build their own arcade machine, and we hope this guide has inspired you to give it a try.

Creating Play Too

One common question asked by viewers is how to set up the play too function on this machine. This feature allows players to connect multiple controllers to the machine, creating a multiplayer experience. To set up the play too, follow these steps:

* Connect the power source to the control panel

* Plug in the HDMI adapter and connect it to the monitor

* Set up the video game software on the computer or tablet (not covered in this article)

* Follow the instructions provided with the play too module to configure the settings

Note that setting up the play too function may require some technical expertise, so be sure to consult the user manual and online resources for further guidance.

Behind-the-Scenes Content

If you're interested in behind-the-scenes content or non-project related videos, be sure to check out our second channel. We have a playlist of videos that showcase our workflow, bloopers, and other fun content.

Conclusion

We hope this article has inspired you to build your own mini arcade machine. With its compact design and ease of use, it's the perfect addition to any home or office space. Whether you're a gamer or just looking for a fun project to work on, building a mini arcade machine is a great way to spend time with friends and family. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social media for more content like this!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're going to make a bar top arcade using less than one sheet of plywood a while back I made a full-size arcade machine if you haven't seen that video series you should definitely go check it out a lot of people really liked that project but it was also really big and just kind of daunting for some people to take on so I wanted to do a smaller version for people who may not have that much room for a full-size machine or may not want to dump the money or the time into it the electronic on this system are identical to the large one so if you've seen those videos you know exactly what to do this is really just about building a smaller enclosure we're also going to leave off some of the fancy things like Custom Graphics but you could always add those later all right let's build this thing I took a SketchUp model and the profile of my arcade machine took it into illustrator and traced it and then printed out that outline at full size this printed out on multiple sheets of paper so I just taped them together with some Scotch tape use some spray adhesive to attach it to the/ in plywood I used a jigsaw to cut this shape out but I didn't go right on the line instead just a little bit outside of it especially on the corners the template peeled right off and I used a belt sander to flatten all of the flat surfaces and round over some of the corners I also used a file and some sanding blocks to get the whole thing smooth and round this one would act as my template to cut out the other side exactly the same I clamped it down to the plywood and cut a general shape out so I had a smaller piece to work with and then I clamped them together and used a flush cut bit on my router to cut out the second one exactly the same shape as the first one I drilled a small hole in a popsicle stick and then measured in 1 in I put my pencil in this hole and then dragged it around the profile of this entire piece of wood to give me an offset that was even from every Edge I drew some lines to square off these corners and then measured from point to point these sizes are what I needed to cut out of the plywood I used a guide on my circular saw to cut down this large sheet into smaller pieces to make it easier to work with I cut the piece for the control board and then cut a few 1in strips these strips got cut into small mounting blocks that got glued and nailed in place these blocks are here to hold my pieces in place while the glue dries without having to put in screws from the outside face these blocks also set at the point where two panels will join together so I know everything is going to line up and sit evenly for the pieces that have a bevel on one end I held them up to the drawn line and marked where they overlapped it then I turned the blade to match that Mark and cut the bubble for the most part these worked the first time but a few of them had to be tweaked to get the right angle I laid the monitor on this panel and measured in the same distance from every side to make sure that it would sit right in the center once I had it right in place I traced it and then used a circular saw to cut it out you could cut these out with a jiga but I don't get straight lines with a jigaw when I use it so I used a circular saw I did use a jigaw to cut out the corners though in my large arcade the monitor actually set behind this bezel but in this case I just made it big enough to fit right around the monitor to make it easier and faster it fit pretty well so so next I had to mount it in there permanently I took the stand that came with the Monitor and pulled out the metal bracket I screwed this bracket onto a piece of wood and then latched it back into the back of the monitor I laid a piece of wood across and then measured the offset from the back of my bezel piece and cut some spacers to fit I laid a piece of plywood across the spacers and screwed it into my new mounting bracket to hold the spacers I just added some glue and put them in place and then flip the entire thing over I shot in a couple of Brads on the front face just to hold these in place while the glue dried then I flipped it back over and put the Monitor and the bracket back in place I pre-drilled some holes down into these side panels and then screwed the whole thing together to lock it all in place to remove the monitor I just had to take out those four screws in the mounting bracket and it could come out I added some glue lined up the monitor housing and then drove in a couple of Brads just to hold it in place again while the glue dried the next piece was just cut to fit I cut it larger than it needed to be held it in place and then cut the bevel on the other side before gluing it and nailing it in the Marquee area was a little bit different first I cut the bevel on the edge then I cut it down to size then I took it to the band saw and cut it into strips basically I cut the top and the bottom and the two side strips leaving the center section out completely I glued in the side piece here trying to get the pieces as tightly together as possible knowing there would be some small gaps to fill later I added this top section and then reinforced it with another panel behind it this is really just the same process over and over making the panels to fit making sure they have the right bevel and then gluing them in place but of course this was only one side of the arcade so I flipped it over and laid it on the other panel lining these pieces up with the line that i' drawn before I added some more blocks at all of the corners to hold them in place and give them a point to line up with then I moved it away and added a layer of glue in between my line and the blocks I fit the whole thing back together and connected everything with nails where I needed to and let all the glue dry but I didn't attach the control panel and that's because it needs a whole bunch of holes I printed out the template for all the controls and glued it on just like the side panel using a forcer bit on my drill press I drilled out all of the holes and then peeled away the template I slid it in place to make sure that it fit but it still wasn't ready to permanently attach I cut a panel and glued it into the bottom just to hold the whole thing in shape and have a place to set all the electronics before painting I needed to cut a slot around the outside to use for the t- molding there's a particular slot cutting bit that I have for this and I'll have it linked down in the description along with everything else basically you put it in a router and then run it around the entire profile and it cuts a slot made specifically for t- molding I also had to do this in the front of the control panel then I just painted everything black really quickly if you've never been to I like toak stuff.com be sure to go check it out I've got a lot more information about all of these projects as well as a list of all the tools and supplies that you will need to make them yourself I've also got a store where where I sell t-shirts and stickers and pencils and digital plans for a lot of the projects that I make so go check it out I like toak stuff.com after the paint dried it was time to add the te- molding you can just press this stuff down into the slot using your thumb it adds a lot of protection and a really Pro look to your cabinet I'm going to stop right there and actually make a little change now the next step would be to mount all of the buttons in here push everything in from the back side and connect all the wires and then drop this in place and fix it permanently the problem with that is that if I need to change anything on the underside of the buttons like if a wire comes loose or something's wrong it's going to be really hard to get to so now what I'm thinking is actually mounting this board in place firmly but then on the bottom of the machine cut an access panel there's really no reason to have a solid bottom down there so I'm just going to cut out a section around here so that I can reach right up in and fix things if I need to since this was painted wood glue wouldn't do much so I used CA glue to hold the control panel in place I used my vinyl cutter to cut out some logo goes to add to the buttons now I covered this entire process in the other videos but it's pretty simple if you have access to a vinyl cutter you have to take the buttons apart but then basically you just put a sticker on them and then put them back together I also covered the full wiring process in the other vide so I'm not going to do that again here but essentially you crimp on some connectors to the end of wires plug them onto the buttons and then the other ends go into the control panel once you have all the buttons wired and connected then you have to make some Daisy Chang chains to connect all the lights and all the grounds between each one of the buttons the LEDs and all the buttons are connected to a single power source that just gets plugged in I went ahead and started mounting the electronics on the inside of this board and then added an LED strip along the top of the Marquee to make the Marquee I'm going a lot simpler than I went last time and cutting a piece of lexan and using some stickers again from my vinyl cutter just to note here I'm putting these on the back side of this plastic so these were printed out backwards to diffuse the LEDs behind this sign and laid it on a piece of freezer paper and then cut it to size I used some super glue to hold this on the back of the stickers this probably wasn't the best way to do it it didn't turn out great but it looks all right essentially you just need something there to diffuse the light again I use CA glue to hold it in place and then turn on the lights and it worked pretty well I'm connecting this old monitor through an adapter to go into the HDMI after that I just put all the electronics in the back and use some hot glue to glue in some computer speakers and a power strip to get everything in place this is of a low five version and this is a quick and easy way to get everything held in I dropped the monitor in and screwed in the brackets to hold it in permanently now notice I'm not putting a back panel on my machine and that's because at maker fair I want people to be able to look in the back of this and see what's inside obviously you can add a panel to yours I'm really happy with how this thing turned out and it was actually really quick to do I had to spread it out because of my schedule but you could easily make this entire thing in a weekend it's considerably cheaper than the fullsize machine that I made cuz I'm using an old cheap monitor I got this for $10 on eBay believe it or not I'm using halfin plywood and not even a full sheet now people always ask in the comments of the other videos where do I get the games for these I'm not going to tell you that and I've said it in the other videos just Google you can find what you need Google if you want more information on setting up the electronics or any of that stuff be sure to check out the older videos I'll have those linked down in the description it's a whole playlist of four videos that you can check out but one of the things that is not covered there that always comes up in the comments is how do you set up play too it's pretty easy to do but it's not very obvious I'm going to put a link down in the description follow that if you want to figure out how to set up the second player on this I hope you like this project and I hope a lot of you will make this and if you do tag me in a photo on Instagram or on Twitter or something I want to see it I've got lots of other videos that you might be interested in be sure to check out the playlist for the fullsize arcade if you haven't seen it don't forget to subscribe and I have a second Channel with some behind the scenes and non- project stuff that's it for this one guys thanks for watching I'll see you next timehey I'm Bob and I like to make stuff today we're going to make a bar top arcade using less than one sheet of plywood a while back I made a full-size arcade machine if you haven't seen that video series you should definitely go check it out a lot of people really liked that project but it was also really big and just kind of daunting for some people to take on so I wanted to do a smaller version for people who may not have that much room for a full-size machine or may not want to dump the money or the time into it the electronic on this system are identical to the large one so if you've seen those videos you know exactly what to do this is really just about building a smaller enclosure we're also going to leave off some of the fancy things like Custom Graphics but you could always add those later all right let's build this thing I took a SketchUp model and the profile of my arcade machine took it into illustrator and traced it and then printed out that outline at full size this printed out on multiple sheets of paper so I just taped them together with some Scotch tape use some spray adhesive to attach it to the/ in plywood I used a jigsaw to cut this shape out but I didn't go right on the line instead just a little bit outside of it especially on the corners the template peeled right off and I used a belt sander to flatten all of the flat surfaces and round over some of the corners I also used a file and some sanding blocks to get the whole thing smooth and round this one would act as my template to cut out the other side exactly the same I clamped it down to the plywood and cut a general shape out so I had a smaller piece to work with and then I clamped them together and used a flush cut bit on my router to cut out the second one exactly the same shape as the first one I drilled a small hole in a popsicle stick and then measured in 1 in I put my pencil in this hole and then dragged it around the profile of this entire piece of wood to give me an offset that was even from every Edge I drew some lines to square off these corners and then measured from point to point these sizes are what I needed to cut out of the plywood I used a guide on my circular saw to cut down this large sheet into smaller pieces to make it easier to work with I cut the piece for the control board and then cut a few 1in strips these strips got cut into small mounting blocks that got glued and nailed in place these blocks are here to hold my pieces in place while the glue dries without having to put in screws from the outside face these blocks also set at the point where two panels will join together so I know everything is going to line up and sit evenly for the pieces that have a bevel on one end I held them up to the drawn line and marked where they overlapped it then I turned the blade to match that Mark and cut the bubble for the most part these worked the first time but a few of them had to be tweaked to get the right angle I laid the monitor on this panel and measured in the same distance from every side to make sure that it would sit right in the center once I had it right in place I traced it and then used a circular saw to cut it out you could cut these out with a jiga but I don't get straight lines with a jigaw when I use it so I used a circular saw I did use a jigaw to cut out the corners though in my large arcade the monitor actually set behind this bezel but in this case I just made it big enough to fit right around the monitor to make it easier and faster it fit pretty well so so next I had to mount it in there permanently I took the stand that came with the Monitor and pulled out the metal bracket I screwed this bracket onto a piece of wood and then latched it back into the back of the monitor I laid a piece of wood across and then measured the offset from the back of my bezel piece and cut some spacers to fit I laid a piece of plywood across the spacers and screwed it into my new mounting bracket to hold the spacers I just added some glue and put them in place and then flip the entire thing over I shot in a couple of Brads on the front face just to hold these in place while the glue dried then I flipped it back over and put the Monitor and the bracket back in place I pre-drilled some holes down into these side panels and then screwed the whole thing together to lock it all in place to remove the monitor I just had to take out those four screws in the mounting bracket and it could come out I added some glue lined up the monitor housing and then drove in a couple of Brads just to hold it in place again while the glue dried the next piece was just cut to fit I cut it larger than it needed to be held it in place and then cut the bevel on the other side before gluing it and nailing it in the Marquee area was a little bit different first I cut the bevel on the edge then I cut it down to size then I took it to the band saw and cut it into strips basically I cut the top and the bottom and the two side strips leaving the center section out completely I glued in the side piece here trying to get the pieces as tightly together as possible knowing there would be some small gaps to fill later I added this top section and then reinforced it with another panel behind it this is really just the same process over and over making the panels to fit making sure they have the right bevel and then gluing them in place but of course this was only one side of the arcade so I flipped it over and laid it on the other panel lining these pieces up with the line that i' drawn before I added some more blocks at all of the corners to hold them in place and give them a point to line up with then I moved it away and added a layer of glue in between my line and the blocks I fit the whole thing back together and connected everything with nails where I needed to and let all the glue dry but I didn't attach the control panel and that's because it needs a whole bunch of holes I printed out the template for all the controls and glued it on just like the side panel using a forcer bit on my drill press I drilled out all of the holes and then peeled away the template I slid it in place to make sure that it fit but it still wasn't ready to permanently attach I cut a panel and glued it into the bottom just to hold the whole thing in shape and have a place to set all the electronics before painting I needed to cut a slot around the outside to use for the t- molding there's a particular slot cutting bit that I have for this and I'll have it linked down in the description along with everything else basically you put it in a router and then run it around the entire profile and it cuts a slot made specifically for t- molding I also had to do this in the front of the control panel then I just painted everything black really quickly if you've never been to I like toak stuff.com be sure to go check it out I've got a lot more information about all of these projects as well as a list of all the tools and supplies that you will need to make them yourself I've also got a store where where I sell t-shirts and stickers and pencils and digital plans for a lot of the projects that I make so go check it out I like toak stuff.com after the paint dried it was time to add the te- molding you can just press this stuff down into the slot using your thumb it adds a lot of protection and a really Pro look to your cabinet I'm going to stop right there and actually make a little change now the next step would be to mount all of the buttons in here push everything in from the back side and connect all the wires and then drop this in place and fix it permanently the problem with that is that if I need to change anything on the underside of the buttons like if a wire comes loose or something's wrong it's going to be really hard to get to so now what I'm thinking is actually mounting this board in place firmly but then on the bottom of the machine cut an access panel there's really no reason to have a solid bottom down there so I'm just going to cut out a section around here so that I can reach right up in and fix things if I need to since this was painted wood glue wouldn't do much so I used CA glue to hold the control panel in place I used my vinyl cutter to cut out some logo goes to add to the buttons now I covered this entire process in the other videos but it's pretty simple if you have access to a vinyl cutter you have to take the buttons apart but then basically you just put a sticker on them and then put them back together I also covered the full wiring process in the other vide so I'm not going to do that again here but essentially you crimp on some connectors to the end of wires plug them onto the buttons and then the other ends go into the control panel once you have all the buttons wired and connected then you have to make some Daisy Chang chains to connect all the lights and all the grounds between each one of the buttons the LEDs and all the buttons are connected to a single power source that just gets plugged in I went ahead and started mounting the electronics on the inside of this board and then added an LED strip along the top of the Marquee to make the Marquee I'm going a lot simpler than I went last time and cutting a piece of lexan and using some stickers again from my vinyl cutter just to note here I'm putting these on the back side of this plastic so these were printed out backwards to diffuse the LEDs behind this sign and laid it on a piece of freezer paper and then cut it to size I used some super glue to hold this on the back of the stickers this probably wasn't the best way to do it it didn't turn out great but it looks all right essentially you just need something there to diffuse the light again I use CA glue to hold it in place and then turn on the lights and it worked pretty well I'm connecting this old monitor through an adapter to go into the HDMI after that I just put all the electronics in the back and use some hot glue to glue in some computer speakers and a power strip to get everything in place this is of a low five version and this is a quick and easy way to get everything held in I dropped the monitor in and screwed in the brackets to hold it in permanently now notice I'm not putting a back panel on my machine and that's because at maker fair I want people to be able to look in the back of this and see what's inside obviously you can add a panel to yours I'm really happy with how this thing turned out and it was actually really quick to do I had to spread it out because of my schedule but you could easily make this entire thing in a weekend it's considerably cheaper than the fullsize machine that I made cuz I'm using an old cheap monitor I got this for $10 on eBay believe it or not I'm using halfin plywood and not even a full sheet now people always ask in the comments of the other videos where do I get the games for these I'm not going to tell you that and I've said it in the other videos just Google you can find what you need Google if you want more information on setting up the electronics or any of that stuff be sure to check out the older videos I'll have those linked down in the description it's a whole playlist of four videos that you can check out but one of the things that is not covered there that always comes up in the comments is how do you set up play too it's pretty easy to do but it's not very obvious I'm going to put a link down in the description follow that if you want to figure out how to set up the second player on this I hope you like this project and I hope a lot of you will make this and if you do tag me in a photo on Instagram or on Twitter or something I want to see it I've got lots of other videos that you might be interested in be sure to check out the playlist for the fullsize arcade if you haven't seen it don't forget to subscribe and I have a second Channel with some behind the scenes and non- project stuff that's it for this one guys thanks for watching I'll see you next time\n"