Cupcade Complete!

[njgsx96]

I am looking to build some smaller cabinets, bartop size, but was interested in even smaller. I saw a couple smaller cabinets built using a Gameboy and thought those looked neat. Then I came across the "Cupcade", a soldering/building project found over at adafruit.com using R-Pi as the brains. They provide the laser cut cabinet in pieces, the necessary hardware, accessories and instructions. They even provide a custom SD card with MAME and NES support. You have to provide the R-Pi and soldering skills. Now my soldering skills are just OK (at best!) and so I thought what better way to work on them then with a little project! Took a couple hours over 2 days but it is finally complete and it works pretty good. R-Pi is pretty weak for a lot of games, and the 2-button configuration is limiting, but it plays all of the classics well and all Nintendo games I have tried so far work well also It was a cool little project and is pretty fun to play too! It is great to keep on your desk at home or work to help pass the time when you need a few minutes to get a game in.

From the same site I grabbed their Bluetooth controller. Next up is a 7-10" android tablet-driven desktop cabinet with BT controls. Work on those soldering skills some more!

Thanks, Rich

[xHyperSteve]

I am looking to build some smaller cabinets, bartop size, but was interested in even smaller. I saw a couple smaller cabinets built using a Gameboy and thought those looked neat. Then I came across the "Cupcade", a soldering/building project found over at adafruit.com using R-Pi as the brains. They provide the laser cut cabinet in pieces, the necessary hardware, accessories and instructions. They even provide a custom SD card with MAME and NES support. You have to provide the R-Pi and soldering skills. Now my soldering skills are just OK (at best!) and so I thought what better way to work on them then with a little project! Took a couple hours over 2 days but it is finally complete and it works pretty good. R-Pi is pretty weak for a lot of games, and the 2-button configuration is limiting, but it plays all of the classics well and all Nintendo games I have tried so far work well also It was a cool little project and is pretty fun to play too! It is great to keep on your desk at home or work to help pass the time when you need a few minutes to get a game in.

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From the same site I grabbed their Bluetooth controller. Next up is a 7-10" android tablet-driven desktop cabinet with BT controls. Work on those soldering skills some more!

Thanks, Rich

Hahaha that's cool man! Must have been a pain to work with something so small!

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[njgsx96]

Hahaha that's cool man! Must have been a pain to work with something so small!

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yeah, a little. Kind of went cross-eyed for some of the solder work. I actually picked up a magnifying glass for any future work to alleviate some of the eye strain. Most annoying thing about the project is trying to shoehorn everything together inside because it is so small. In the end, worth it though!

[Agrajag]

Love it! I still hope to build a proper cabinet eventually but it occurred to me the other day that I might knock up a little one using a RasPi in the meantime. Yours is a bit smaller than I had in mind though!

[njgsx96]

I definitely have plans for a slightly larger cab utilizing a 7-10" tablet which would be much more usable being much more powerful. The cupcade is tiny and underpowered but when I saw the project page, I had to give it a try because it seemed like a real neat and cool little project and that is what it turned out to be. For something that is so cheap and had the original intent of promoting basic computing, it is amazing that it can do what it does!

With that being said, I simply cannot recommend the Raspberry Pi for use in a cabinet if you want to play anything current or even near current. it is just not powerful enough. The classics it plays no problem and the NES games I have yet to find one it cannot play perfectly but to put it in a dedicated cabinet you plan to play on a larger screen and with some current games, it just cannot hang.

[HazzardActual]

I like it! its the perfect size for the bathroom! I've seen something similar in size running neo geo, but i have no idea what the guts were. how do you plan on building the tablet cab?

[njgsx96]

I like it! its the perfect size for the bathroom! I've seen something similar in size running neo geo, but i have no idea what the guts were. how do you plan on building the tablet cab?

Thanks! it is pretty sweet, really.

For the Tablet cab, I am going to build just a basic looking bartop 1-player cab, similar in design to this:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=131852.0

I am going to make the controls Bluetooth and with a rechargeable battery and I would like to try a second one using a Minimus AVR.

We'll see how far I get though... it has been beautiful out and I would rather watch movies outside by a fire with a beer at the moment! Might have to wait for fall/winter.

[HazzardActual]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=131852.0

We'll see how far I get though... it has been beautiful out and I would rather watch movies outside by a fire with a beer at the moment! Might have to wait for fall/winter.

Holy crap thats badass, ive got a samsung 10.1 laying around that id love to do that with. I've never seen those little "ipacs" before thats awesome!

good luck with your weather, its 103 with humidity here and its just getting started

[Agrajag]

I'd only use the Pi for a quick & dirty bartop using my X-Arcade and an old monitor, just to tide me over until I can build a proper cabinet. Basically the cheapest, simplest thing I can get away with!