This Two-Player Mini Arcade Is Powered by Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi Technology

Jeremy is an engineer with 10 years experience at his full-time profession, and has a BSME from Clemson University. Outside of work he’s an avid maker and experimenter, building anything that comes into his mind!

View more articles by Jeremy S Cook

September 30th, 2016September 30th, 2016

Read articles from the magazine right here on Make:. Don't have a subscription yet? Get one today. — Read articles from the magazine right here on *Make:*. Don’t have a subscription yet? Get one today.

After building the ROMBUS3000, a Raspberry Pi-based mini arcade machine made out of a small Grandstand Scramble 80s-era desktop arcade game, Matt “Circuitbeard” Brailsford decided to take things one step further. For his second iteration, instead of starting out with an existing single-joystick design and modifying it to fit modern electronics, Brailsford designed the two-player ROMBUS-CT (short for “cocktail table”) around the components he wanted to use.

At the heart of the design is a Raspberry Pi 3. An 8″ TFT screen, 24mm buttons, and two joysticks provide user interface. Brailsford designed the build on Inkscape in order to fit his A3-sized (297mm×420mm) laser cutter, and after prototyping with plywood, cut it out of MDF. He then painted it with a roller for a smooth finish, and applied a beautiful wood-patterned vinyl from d-c-fix.