Additional (easily accessible) usb connectors for usb joypads, other usb stuff.Single cablegoing into the cabinet with an outside 'global' on/off switch.Wanted to have front-facing amplifier access for volume control (kids).Didn't want to do a traditional lit marquee, or deal with acrylic/plexiglass.Lockable rear access door, removable not hinged.
#Bartop arcade cabinet plans full size plus#
Painted finish rather than vinyl (cost/time, plus i like plain/solid colour).Deeper control panel to accomodate admin buttons all on one panel.The monitor needed to sit more upright than most bartops I saw (better for the kids).I wanted to use a decent (20-24") sized widescreen monitor (sorry retro gaming purists), as the bartop will also run Kodi for movies/music/Youtube.I also wanted to do a few things differently to most of the kits and other bartop's I'd seen.
![bartop arcade cabinet plans full size bartop arcade cabinet plans full size](https://www.thegeekpub.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Pacade-RetroPie-Bartop-Arcade-Cabinet-Plans-0006.jpg)
Most bartop kits are sold in the US, UK and Europe so shipping and the sucky Canadian dollar knocked out buying a kit so I hunted the internet and found the Degenatron-modified Weecade plans, which seemed pretty good and what most bartop's are likely based around anyway. So I started looking around for ready-cut bartop cabinet kits, thinking it'd be way easier and cheaper than building my own, but I didn't really find much - either I didn't love the shape of it, or it was impossibe or prohibitive cost-wise to get it to Canada. Heck, I didn't even get around to building a workbench in my garage.
![bartop arcade cabinet plans full size bartop arcade cabinet plans full size](https://www.thegeekpub.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Bartop-Arcade-Cabinet-plans-2-0002.jpg)
We live in Canada, and while I have a few basic tools/workspace, I don't have stuff like chopsaws, sash clamps, routers, bench drill, or even a jigsaw for that matter. Initially, I was thinking about building a 1-player bartop arcade with a small screen like RetroBuiltGames does - but then we have 2 very young boys who want everything the other had, so I figured I'd better go big and do a proper 2 player system. And reading, reading, reading and finding elements of builds I liked. Reading more, I saw a lot of people were making their very own awesome bartop arcade machines. As part of reading up on Kodi, I happened across a few posts in Facebook groups talking about Retro Pie and started discovering a whole retro-gaming world!īeing a 70's/80's kid who grew up with a lot of the old 'classic' consoles and arcade games (miss-spent childhood), the idea of a retro game system immediately appealed to me. Here's the 'why' and what I wanted to achieve with my bartop arcade build.įirst up, why? Well, I started getting into building Kodi-powered Raspberry Pi streaming boxes over a year ago, and was looking for other cool ideas for projects.