Raspberry Pi Arcade Cabinet
The most integral part of this project is the computer. Whether it's a Raspberry Pi or not, nearly everything else will revolve around the computer (but this project caters specifically to the Pi). The Pi 3 has four USB ports, a 3.5mm audio jack, an HDMI port, a microSD card slot, and an Ethernet port. It also has built-in WiFi and bluetooth, so that may be able to free up some ports for you.
I think one of the best features of this arcade is not just the games, but the interface. It wouldn't be half as good with a poor, or even simple, unattractive operating system. RetroPie (a free OS for the Raspberry Pi) is a smooth and clean interface for the user to interact with, and not only does it look great, but it is built specifically for Rasberry Pi-powered video game machines. The program is available to download for free at www.retropie.org.uk. After I downloaded it, I extracted it to a microSD card and loaded the card onto the Pi. Everything booted up nicely, but I still needed some games. To load games onto the Raspberry Pi, you first need to format a flash drive and insert it into the Pi. The light on the flash drive will blink for a few seconds, and after it's done you can remove it. There will now be a few folders on the flash drive, including the "retropie" folder. Inside will by a folder titled "roms", which is where all your ROMs will go (ROMs are the files of the games you can load onto the Pi). Inside that folder will be a folder for each system, like the NES, Super Nintendo, N64, SEGA MegaDrive, Playstation, etc. Any ROMs you have you can extract to the correct folder, and when you eject the flash drive and insert it into the Pi, everything should be there. ROMs are kind of a legal gray area. On one hand, they are technically theft. You're downloading an illegally free copy of something that a company charged money for at one time. So that's stealing, but, let's examine your other options for buying, say, Superman 64 for the Nintendo 64. It's an old game, and a rare game, so you'll probably be a little hard-pressed to find it for sale in general, let alone at a reasonable price. But let's say you do buy it. It would have to be from a second or third-hand seller (since Nintendo no longer manufactures or sells that product), so Nintendo wouldn't even get any money from your purchase. The only option left is an emulator, which Nintendo seems to be okay with anyways. | ||