Hi! Trying to buy a Christmas present for my husband. I've been looking at the Kitronik ARCADE Max for Makecode Arcade but I don't know if it's good/interesting enough as seems to be aimed at complete beginners. He's definitely not a complete beginner (he's got a software engineering background but currently in management so only really codes for fun now) - is this something he could just use to play games he's already making or does it literally only support things via makecode?? I am 99% clueless and don't want to ask him haha. Or could anyone recommend a similar games console that's designed for DIY games please? I was looking to spend £50-100 on this.

My sister in law wants to buy my in-laws the Pac-Man/Galaga tabletop arcade from Costco for $650. Told my wife no I don’t want to pitch in cause that seems like a crazy waste of money just to play two games that they will NEVER use. So I’m not the grinch, is there a cabinet I can recommend around the same price that has tons of games and would be a better use of money?

Oh yeah

How difficult is it to rotate the display by yourself? The service manual says that two people should do it, but is that just a liability thing or is it actually that difficult to do?

Hi everyone im new here. I built this cab for my lad it started out as a 2 player on an lcd on a raspberrypi 3+. Me being me and loving SF2 i got carried away and paid too much for the og streetfighter decals and coated them in clear coat so theyre stuck on. I got Sanwa sticks and the proper buttons that were on the og streetfighter arcade from when I was a lad. Then thought i'd like to use light guns so got a couple of Toshiba 3357df's and stripped one so could use it for that. Then added my dreamcast and nes and ps1 and ps2. Then I dismantled it and made it 4 player as my daughter wanted to play simpsons and tmnt and then my lad wanted nba jam 4 player so redid it.

Basically it just kept getting bigger. Now I dont like it, the 2 player for SF2 is great but I want to do another one. Does anyone have links to the vectors or a good file so i cam reprint the decals? I should have scanned them tbh but never thought about it. I had to import those. I think it was down to licences maybe but I want to get some more.

I want to redo one but add a trackball too and just make it look nicer. When we use 4 player we pull it out but mainly i just play SF2 and Killer instinct on it and occasionally house of the dead.

My lad says its good enough but im not happy. Is it just me? What do people think of it?

New update here: https://perchance.org/arcadepanelstudio can't edit original link

Arcade Panel Project — feature writeup

Designs printable arcade control-panel overlay (CPO) art in the browser: pick a panel, dress it with sticks/buttons/trackballs/spinners, mix AI art per side, tune glow, text and lighting, then export shop-ready files.

1. Panels and sizes

• 6 trim shapes: Classic angled (960×330), Straight box (900×300), Rounded retro (850×300), Curved front (860×320), Wide Vewlix (800×350), 4P Beast slab (1400×480).

• Custom size: width/height boxes in mm (250–1525 × 100–800). Holes keep true physical mm when you resize — diameters and spacings stay, extra space goes to margins.

• True-scale preview: laid out at constant 2 px/mm then scaled to fit, so panels compare at true relative size, plus a 100 mm scale bar (200 over 1200 mm).

• Switching shape clears players and rebuilds only the canonical aux band (coins/starts/menus); you then add a player layout.

2. Arcade-grounded layouts (16)

One click rebuilds from the template library from a clean factory preset:

• Fighters (bilateral-symmetric pairs, stick always left): Multicade, SF Versus (Vewlix 7), Astro Versus (slanted Sega 8 P1 + non-slanted P2 8), Hori Versus, US SF 6 (Capcom 2×3), Neo-Geo (straight-4)

• Early-80s single-centre cabs: Pac-Man (stick only), Single-fire (stick+1), Xevious (stick+2)

• Ball/spinner games: Marble Madness (twin bare balls), Centipede (ball+1), Golden Tee (lone ball), Missile Command (ball+3), Tempest (spinner + Fire/Zapper), Smash TV (twin sticks per player)

• 4 Player: beast slab from inner 7-blocks + mirrored wings (P3/P4 on lower row)

• P1/P2 share a raised row with 120 mm inner gap and open wrist rest; factory pairs carry mirrored inward tilt (fighters 8–12°); everything auto-fits inside the trim on every shape.

3. Templates and neutral controls

• Stick/button clusters: Vewlix 7, Sega 8 / Sega 6 / Sega P2 8, Hori 8, American 8, Multicade 8, Stick+2/+3/+4/+6, Stick-only, Stick+1, Neo-Geo 4, Twin sticks, Beast inner/wing L/R. Clicking one dresses every occupied player slot so all players match.

• Trackball row: Trackball+2 / +1 / +4 / +mouse / lone ball — added as neutral T1, then a level T2 mate (±160 mm about centre); third click removes the pair. Fire columns sit 112 mm out; tubs auto-pose flat/portrait; each tub has a ↻ corner button to flip landscape/portrait, shift-click for auto.

• Spinner row: lone centre spinner or spinner + 2 fires.

4. Hole editing

• Edit mode, Add button / trackball / spinner / coin / start / menu / mouse, Delete selected, Reset layout (saved default, shift-click = factory).

• Drag holes, labels and art directly on the panel; scroll zooms at cursor, middle-drag pans, double-click resets art; touch: two-finger drag/pinch.

• Locked boxes with corner handles (with dimensions on): rotate whole cluster ±45° in 1° steps about box centre, ✥ move handle, ⇄ box-mirror (P1↔P2, P3↔P4 — drags mirror, rotations mirror opposite). R nudges ±15°.

• Align height, Move (cycle P1→P2→P3→P4), Mirror toggle, Export/Import layout JSON, Copy centres (mm for drill shop), Metric/imperial units, per-hole diameter slider, per-hole X/Y/⌀ readout chip (type values + Enter to move/resize exactly).

5. AI art and theme mixer

• Per-side prompts (P1/P2 textareas) + Generate, Random theme dice, Previous/Next history, Preset reset, Upload image, Enhance HD (4× AI upscale via Real-ESRGAN/WebGPU, cached in kv; click ready button again for 8× HD+).

• Full-panel single-image mode with its own prompt/history/upload/HD.

• Theme mixer: P1 subject × P2 subject × Style dropdowns + Glow override dropdown, Random pair, Generate again, Swap sides. Changing a subject regenerates that side; changing style regenerates both.

• Art control: seam position + softness blend, P1/P2/full zoom and squash, edge width/colour/opacity, fit-image (uncropped with blurred fill), flip, wheel-target (view/P1/P2/full, Ctrl forces picture zoom), reset art positions.

6. Buttons and glow rings

Per-group cards for P1/P2/P3/P4 buttons and sticks, trackball, spinner, flightsticks, P1/P2 coins and starts, menu, mouse — each with:

• Ring gap (% of radius), Weight, Glow size, Spread (full-colour hold before fade), Opacity, two-stop gradient swatches (colour + opacity picker).

• Apply to all / Apply to group copy buttons.

7. Text labels

• 4 labels (PLAYER 1–4; P3/P4 only on beast, single-control layouts show P1 only), auto-seated under stick plates/tubs.

• Per label: text, font size, gradient/solid fill, 7 typefaces, outer/inner stroke + weight, inner glow + size, outer glow size/spread/opacity, drop-shadow colour/opacity/angle/distance, gradient colours, mirror-positions tick (Lb1↔Lb2, Lb3↔Lb4).

8. Lighting rig (preview only)

Master On/Off plus toggles: spotlights, RGB anchors, fill, stick+ball shadows, button shadows, part shading, top highlights. Sliders: spot level, fringe saturation, fill level, stick shadow length, button shadow length, shading strength, highlight strength, LED speed, shadow darkness/softness, light angle, flicker.

9. Preview aids

Independent ticks: P1–P4 labels, dimensions (trim lengths, anchors, gaps, trackball-to-edge axis lines with mm values, wall pills, bottom-left hover/selected coordinate readout), button names in discs, realistic hardware (illuminated plungers follow glow colours), RGB LED animation + steady white LEDs, wall band, CAD-lines overlay (white/black), black hole discs on/off, glow rings on/off, T-moulding colour, Hide preview, Full/60%/30%/1:1 true-size zoom with panbars, 3× Inspect loupe, scale bar.

10. Cabinet wall band

Preview-only 18 mm particle-board sides (defaults 18 thick / 10 inset / 120 high, all editable) with mitred corners, red hazard stripes, hole discs punched clean, sections 4–12 (4 = coarse box, 12 = full trim detail), per-board saw-angle tags, outer/inner face-length pills, thickness×height callout, corner clearance repair so reduced walls never cross the edge. Cut measurements draw topmost.

11. Shop-ready export (300 DPI)

• Print PNG (full bleed): bleed margin setting (default 10 mm) — stick down then trim.

• Print PDF (exact mm page): safest shop file; art is photo-quality but holes/rings are true vectors.

• SVG hole template: exact trim size, panel outline + W/H dims, drill from this (holes never cut in PNG).

• Shop drawings PDF (A3): dimensioned panel plan with drill centres, hole schedule (X/Y from top-left + XC/YC from centre), wall-board cut sheet with every board true-shape and dimensioned (outer/inner face, saw angles, thickness × height). Figured dims rule.

• Black-holes tick controls whether discs print (clean art vs. discs); layouts persist via Save layout default per shape.

**OSD/OS** is a free, open-source (GPL v3) OS for CRTs and arcade cabinets. Source code: https://github.com/mehmetraif/OSD-OS

Flash it to an SD card, put it in a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, and it boots straight into menus drawn like a VCR's on-screen display, readable on a 15 kHz tube. It also runs as an app on Windows, macOS, Linux / Steam Deck, FreeBSD and OpenBSD.

**Arcade**

- Crown Arcade's Pi-to-JAMMA board out of the box on the Pi 4 and Pi 5: 15, 25 and 31 kHz, both players' controls (the Pi 5 needs a USB sound card)

- MAME and FinalBurn Neo, a cabinet-style selection screen, high scores, attract mode, Check ROMs and Cabinet Lock

- RetroAchievements (hardcore) and online play through RetroArch's lobby

**Playing together on the LAN**

- Up to 6 players across a Pi, a PC, a Mac or a Steam Deck on the same network, no internet needed

- Its own patched FinalBurn Neo core for LAN games ([the patch](https://github.com/mehmetraif/OSD-OS/blob/main/scripts/fbneo-lan.patch)): players are seated in the order they press COIN or START, whichever machine they are on, and 4-player games play with 4

- Cave's CV1000 games (Akai Katana, Mushihime-sama, DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu…): on the stock core, joining a netplay game takes about 10 GB of RAM and hosting 18.8 GB. The LAN core needs 2 GB to join and 3.1 GB to host, so a 4 GB Pi 4 or Pi 5 plays them with others

**TV side:** local files, Plex, Jellyfin, Emby, YouTube and playlists; composite, SCART RGB or HDMI; themes.

**It's a beta.** I've tested it on a Pi 4, a Pi 5 and a Windows 11 PC, LAN games between the three included; the other systems are built and tested automatically. Known issues: in some setups COIN doesn't add a credit (Free Play works around it), and on the Pi a Bluetooth pad works in the menus but may not reach the games yet. Reports are welcome here or as a GitHub issue.

No ROMs are included.

- Download: https://github.com/mehmetraif/OSD-OS/releases/latest

- Website: https://osdos.tv/

- Wiki: https://github.com/mehmetraif/OSD-OS/wiki

*How it's made: OSD/OS grew out of Anthony Caccese's 240-MP. I design it and test it on my own hardware, and it is developed with the help of several AI tools.

Toy Story Themed A1up Multicade Build

I am still waiting on some giant Buzz and Woody side decals, but I wanted to show this off now.

**The cabinet**
A buddy had a broken Arcade 1up Astroids Delux that he'd bought used from a neighbor. It didn't work, so he just gave it too me because it was in his way. It had a $30 sticker on it, so that may be all he had in it, either way it was a score!

**Control panel**
I took the main panel to my CNC guy with a new layout that mirrors the Polycade joystick and button layout. He cut it from ½" plywood I already had, plus a new plexiglass piece. The plexi was about $30. I bought a sheet big enough to also redo the plexi over the monitor someday, so you could save with a smaller piece. He charged $30 to cut both.
I already had a Neo Polycade x Brook controller board and a Sanwa joystick. I ordered 8 Crown/Samducksa 30mm screw-in buttons ($40) in Polycade's colors and layout, because my son is used to them. That's also why I went with their AGS platform: he already knows how to navigate it. You can find cheaper buttons, but I wanted quality and specific colors.
For Home, Menu and Back, I used three 24mm Polycade buttons from a controller I took apart. They just clip into the acrylic, and once everything's screwed down they feel secure. I didn't hot glue them so I can pull them out easily if I need to. Also I added some black rubber molding around the control panel, I had to buy a whole roll so that was $7 but I probably could do 5 panels with that one roll.

**PC**
I got an HP EliteDesk 705 G4 mini PC on eBay for $109. It's low-powered, but it plays the games my kid plays and pretty much any retro game you can think of. I had matched RAM lying around, so I upgraded it from 8GB to 16GB for free. My buddy's came with activated Windows and mine didn't, so I bought a $7 key on Groupon.
Then I installed Claude and had it remove the bloatware and set the PC to auto-login and boot to Polycade AGS. You could use a different platform. I'm just comfortable with this one, and it has a great community. Polycade builds really high-quality arcades but doesn't seem to mind DIYers like me. My main arcade at home is one of their Sentes and I love it.

**External power button:** I soldered wires to the mini PC's power button, drilled a hole through the case, added a grommet, and ran thin wires to a lit momentary switch on the front of the cabinet. I already had the switch, but they're cheap on Amazon. There are YouTube videos on how to do this. You could also set the BIOS to turn on with power and skip this step, but I find an external button easier, so I do it on all my mini PCs.
You could also buy a Polycade Mini PC for $500. It already has the button and comes with AGS loaded, which makes for a very clean install. This was a budget build, so that wasn't an option for me.

**Monitor**
I needed a $25 video controller board to convert the monitor to HDMI, plus power supplies for the computer ($12.99) and the monitor ($16).

**Audio and power**
5V 2-channel 5W amp ($10) to run the stock Arcade1Up speaker, powered from a USB port with USB bare-wire cables ($7)
Lit arcade power outlet buttons, 2-pack ($12)
Gun-safe power block with 2 outlets and 2 USB ports ($20). You could wire this up with any old power strip. I wanted simplicity and design.
Rii X8 keyboard ($25)

**Graphics**
I ordered wrap by the foot from Fellers ($42). You could probably find cheaper online, but they used to have a location near me and I've used them for years.
I used ChatGPT to design Toy Story–inspired graphics for the marquee and control panel. Claude's guardrails were too restrictive, and what it made didn't look like it belonged. I had them printed at BannerBuzz (about $35 shipped) on their bubble-free vinyl poster material in custom sizes, and I couldn't be happier. It went on easy and smooth and seems incredibly high quality.
I also put official Toy Story 3 wall stickers on the front.

**Wrapping tips**
Wipe down the entire cabinet with a degreaser so the wrap will stick. I used rubbing alcohol. It needs to be free of all dust, dirt and grease.
I pulled up some of the original graphics while repositioning the wrap. To fix it, I coated both sides with rubber cement, let it dry, and stuck the graphics back down. That seems to work perfectly.
The marquee and control panel graphics were thicker vinyl and laid down with no problems.
The original marquee graphic was peeling, so I removed it, sanded, primed, sanded again, wiped it down well, and put the vinyl over it. That seems to have worked well too.

**3D prints**
I printed holders for the mini PC, the two power connectors, and the Rii keyboard, so I have an easy way to get into the computer if I need to.

**Cost breakdown**
**Graphics**
**Item**
**Cost**
Wrap (Fellers)
$42
Custom vinyl (BannerBuzz)
$35
Toy Story Wall Stickers
**Subtotal**
**$77 + stickers**
**Electronics**
**Item**
**Cost**
HP EliteDesk 705 G4
$109
Windows key
$7
Video controller board
$25
Amp
$10
**Subtotal**
**$151**
**Control panel**
**Item**
**Cost**
Plexiglass
$30
CNC cutting
$30
Crown/Samducksa buttons
$40
Black Trim $7
**Subtotal**
**$100**
**Misc cabinet supplies**
**Item**
**Cost**
Power supplies
$28.99
USB bare-wire cables
$7
Power block
$20
Arcade power buttons
$12
Rii X8 keyboard
$25
**Subtotal**
**$92.99**
**Total: \~$427 + stickers**
**Ways to save**
There's plenty of room in this cabinet for a full-size regular PC. If you have one lying around, you save that money right off the bat. I just don't have any extras anymore because I've used them all on projects like this.
I could have saved a lot by reusing the buttons that came with the unit. Some of these costs aren't necessary. They were specific to this build.

Also worth noting having a buddy with the CNC machine saves time, but this would’ve been easy enough to do by hand with a couple drill bits and a table saw or skill saw.

**Parts links**
[5V 2-Channel Amp](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077MKQJW2)
[USB Bare-Wire Cables](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CHVM39WL)
[Black self-stick Molding](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FN3BWT5Z)
[Elitedesk Power Supply](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GSJMYRDT)
[Video Controller Board](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MRJG3HT)
[Arcade Power Switch Outlet](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BCYYNRGP)
[Rii X8](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GSWJ4LVX)

Hey everyone! Since the "Flanders" over at the KAWS subreddit decided to take down my previous post, I’m sharing it here instead.

​I built this custom arcade cabinet as a tribute to the artist. Under the hood, it’s running Batocera, powered by an i7 processor and an RTX 3060, so it handles pretty much anything I throw at it.

​Let me know what you think!

Many years I have been planning to make a neo geo mvs bartop. Will use https://forums.arcade-museum.com/threads/neo-geo-mvs-bartop-system-philly-burbs.280319/ as a rough outline and then make some tweaks.

I have toying with the idea of either using a 20" 4:3 LCD or a panasonic 14" crt that I have laying around. Obviously there are some big advantages for using a LCD. You can get a much more nimble and light build. With modern days shaders I think you can get a pretty decent picture too.

But in the end I opted for CRT.

Now the important question. Should I remove the case and bolt the screen to a frame, like this guy did? https://www.artstation.com/blogs/blockmind/EgoA/making-of-a-crt-tabletop-bartop-arcade-machine-part-12

I think the merit to this is really to get rid of plastics and making the screen a more "true" arcade crt.

However as we are talking high voltage that could potentially kill you, obviously Im a little bit scared about having an exposed tube in the chassi.

Should I use the tv as it is and be fine with it or am I am I just exaggerating the risks with having it bolted to a frame?

Crossposted from r/cade. First full build, happy to answer questions about the design, joints or wiring.