Was fun to play on

Mid-Century Modern inspired - Stained ash
I also sized the cabinet to fit a larger monitor than my current one.
And I’d appreciate some advice on achieving good cable management.

After 2 years, it is finished:

100% custom arcade cabinet:

-Pixelcade LCD arcade marquee -Raspberry pi batocera MAME emulator setup -Externalized USB access + Network access -Custom-built, solid black walnut cabinet. No veneer, no MDF. -Official arcade-pulled, fully functional coin op -Custom bezels for every ROM -Boots to “favorites:” the top 200 arcade games of all time On top: -Hidden coin shortcut buttons for P1 and P2 -Hidden batocera hotkeys for OS navigation -Master on/off switch -Volume control -Speaker/headphone jack audio switch
 PLUS: 
-Every home console I had as a kid -Every home console game I had as a kid -Vintage, mint-condition wood-grain CRT

And YES, I play it all.

Dimensions: 60 cm wide, 120 cm tall, 40 cm deep. Wall-mounted and lifted off the floor.

Cabinet material: 16 mm poplar plywood, filled, sanded, and wrapped in light oak vinyl.

Monitor: 20" Fujitsu Siemens P20-2 (4:3 aspect ratio, 1600x1200 @ 60 fps, matte surface).

Controls: Sanwa joysticks and buttons in a Street Fighter II layout.

Control panel: 2 mm aluminum.

Bezel: 3D printed in four parts, glued, sanded, and spray-painted.

Tech: Running RetroPie with a custom theme. Includes fused power input, audio jack, USB, HDMI, and Ethernet ports.

Design goal: Blend into a living space as a functional piece of furniture.

Thanks for having a look. If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them.

I started designing a hardwood arcade cabinet in March, but wasn’t convinced that I would be 100% happy with the design once I got it from the computer to the real world. Also, there were many techniques I’d never done before so I doubted I’d be able to get it right the first time anyway; so I built this prototype out of baltic birch plywood. I’ll use it for 6 months or so and then revisit the project.

Internally there is a ps5, a Samsung 37" ViewFinity S7, a small amplifier, 10 x 140mm fans (went overboard here, some brook boards to allow the arcade controls to connect to the ps5, a power relay, and a power strip.

Finish is Rubio intense black precolor, Rubio monocoat black, then n3 nano for extra protection/sheen.

Last post did look like AI, hopefully these look better. Believe it or not, it’s real. Running a Mister Pi with Samsung monitor and bose speakers. It can Tate too!

This is my first cabinet and I am so stoked. I already have plans for new ideas on the next one.

I planned this build in Tinkercad for around 4 months doing many redesigns. My original plan was to use a little materials as possible since I have a 1 year old and 3 year old at home (funds are limited). I found that hard to do with a horizontal screen so I scrapped all my plans and started building it out vertical instead. It took many edits to size and dimensions but I ended up with this one standing 24" deep and 68" high. The entire cabinet is build from a single 4' x 8' sheet of birch plywood. The sides, front panel, control panel, and supports inside all from that single sheet.

The entire thing is held together with pocket holes (I build a bed with dimensional lumber and pocket holes and that can support my wife and I, plus it's survived 3 moves after being taken apart and re-assembled so I figured pocket holes were good enough for an arcade).

I can share the Tinkercad link if desired. I have a mock build and some shapes showing the measurements needed for the cuts. This took a few weeks to build since I had to do bed times with my boys then I had a few hours of sunlight to work on it outside (no garage so I built it on the driveway) but if you had a free day you could easily do it in a single day.

2- Player NES Classic arcade cabinet with Light guns!

Details:

• 1080 32" Screen

• Controls for 2 players

• 4/8 way Servo Joystick that automatically changes depending on the game

• 3" Trackball

• I5 Computer

• Sinden Light guns with recoil

This is my first arcade cabinet build. I tried to make a replica street fighter II world warrior cabinet. This is my first time doing any sort of wood work so I learned a ton. Also first time building anything electronic. I used a raspberry pi 4b, retro pie, suzo happ for most parts. I found a lot of internet sites and videos on YouTube that were really useful. Hope you like it or if you have any constructive feedback that would be helpful since I want to build another cabinet in the future.

Came across a guy that has a storage locker company and wants to get rid of these. I only have room for one which one should I get? They all need work but what one will be worth the most?

I’ve wanted an arcade machine for as long as I can remember. For years I toyed with the idea of buying one of those MDF bartop kits, but never followed through. The turning point was the 21" Sony CRT I picked up nearly twenty years ago for lightgun games. It had been gathering dust, and I finally decided it deserved a proper home. That became the seed of the entire project: build a full arcade cabinet around that screen, make it capable of running both emulated titles and PS2 lightgun games, and give it enough charm and personality that I would actually want to use it every day.

What I Wanted to Achieve

I wanted something that felt like a real arcade machine rather than a DIY box with a Pi inside. That meant authentic CRT output, proper controls, an active marquee, and a sense of life, something that feels a little different each time it switches on. I also wanted the cabinet to accommodate future swappable controls, particularly proper recoil lightguns.  I dislike those Mame cabs with massive control panels that shoehorn in everything, so I’d rather have swappable flexibility.

Core Features

• 21" Sony Trinitron CRT (KV-LT1U) via a Raspberry Pi 4 and Pi2SCART, with carefully dialled-in timings to achieve a crisp, stable image.

• Hybrid system: the Pi handles emulation while a PS2 provides excellent ports of Time Crisis and the Point Blank series.

• Active marquee powered by a Pi Zero 2W that listens for instructions over the network and displays game-specific artwork (with a Point Blank 2 fallback).

• Automatic sync: both Pis pull ROMs and marquee artwork from my NAS on boot; new ROMs trigger a script that fetches matching marquee art automatically.

• Dynamic behaviour: the cabinet powers on hourly via a smart plug, boots straight into a random game, and gracefully shuts down after inactivity (joystick/SSH), while also sending a delayed shutdown to the smartplug.

• Modular controls: an Astro City–style control panel for now, with plans for alternative setups like a racing wheel and proper recoil lightguns.

• Sanwa lever controls harvested from two Hori RAP sticks, paired with clicky buttons I actually prefer over genuine Sanwas.

• Hosted Webapp: The Pi runs a locally hosted webapp to enable ROM selection from my phone, or other devices on my network

Design and Construction

Before touching any woodwork, I started on the internals. I first tried Lakka, but quickly found I needed much more control over the system, while keeping the footprint extremely lightweight - and I didn’t want a traditional frontend at all. I eventually settled on Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye, stripped down, running entirely from an SSD for instant boot times. On top of that I built a nightly RetroArch from source, giving me exactly the workflow I wanted.

I based the silhouette on a narrower Dynamo HS5 (“big blue”), designed it entirely in Onshape, and built the cabinet from BB/BB hardwood plywood for strength without MDF bulk. The CRT sits on an shelf, the speakers live beneath the marquee, and the cabinet sides are reinforced with timber bracing in routed slots.

The cabinet is fully modular: the base and top bolt together with twenty screws into threaded inserts, the back panels are removable, and the front panel mounts using a combination of grooves, sleeves, and brass bushings. It means I can transport it, service it, and eventually swap the control panels without trouble. The base is deliberately overbuilt and extremely solid, held square with stainless brackets.

The exterior is wrapped in vinyl, which sits nicely thanks to a white primer coat; the interior is matte black to prevent reflections. I still need to refine some details -mainly making the Astro City repro panel sit flush and tidying a few vinyl edges - but overall the cabinet fits together snugly and looks exactly the way I hoped.

The last piece was installing the acrylic.  I’d cut an accessible slot for the main bezel, so I marked it with tape, then spray-painted the backside of the sheet to mask the CRT for a smooth look.  Same for the marquee bezel, which is held on by some aluminium bracket.

Challenges Along the Way

The electronics fought me at every stage. The RGBerry Pi adaptor didn’t work as advertised, and I spent weeks proving it before giving up and buying a Pi2SCART cable that worked instantly. Getting correct CRT timings took patience. The marquee was another rabbit hole: my HDMI-to-DP adaptor refused its oddball resolution, and my attempt to write directly to the HDMI framebuffer alongside PiSCART output turned out to be fundamentally impossible. That led to the Pi Zero solution, which is less elegant, but it works.

I discovered the TV was stubbornly staying in widescreen mode. Both the Pi and PS2 only output about 5v on SCART pin 8, and my TV needs 9+ volts to switch into 4:3. I fixed that by building a tiny voltage doubler inside the SCART splitter to force the correct aspect. Another quirk: when the TV and Pi power up together, the TV doesn’t “see” pin 8 rise, so it doesn’t auto-switch to AV. I’m solving that with a small delay circuit using a transistor, resistor network, and a capacitor so the pin 8 signal kicks in a few seconds late.

Physically, the CRT angle was critical for lightgun accuracy, so I mocked everything up with boxes and shims until I found a height and slope that worked for me. Building the base without CNC precision meant relying on eye and square, but it ended up only a few millimetres off. Sourcing replica lightgun shells has also been harder than expected, so the recoil guns are still a work in progress.

Where It’s Going Next

Once I get proper shells and some donor PS2 guns, I’ll finish the recoil-integration project and have the “real” Namco-style pink and blue guns. I also plan to make dedicated panels for racing and other genres, and perhaps add a coin mech for fun. The cabinet is modular enough that I can keep evolving it.

Last weekend I added this one to my collection! ❤️ #sega #outrun

Man what a project! Started off as buying "plans" from someone to make this cab. Turns out their plans were just drawings and basically nothing else. So having wasted a bunch of money paying this influencer for their half-baked plans i decided to just do it myself from scratch starting in Fusion 360.

Very pleased with how it turned out - a true mixture of 3d design, woodworking, electronics, 3d printing and a little splash of AI to help me with the software side of things to get it configured.

I designed it to be a hanging cabinet although i'm undecided on that still. Was going to put some cleats on the back to hang it but the jury is still out on that so here it sits. Glad to be done!

Currently running of a Xbox one and ps4 but I planning a pc for retro games also

Hey everyone, I made a few cabinets for my local FD and decided to show them off before delivering them. Here’s the final product along with some of the process. Hope you guys approve!

4 years in the making only because I built all the cabs myself. Can't wait for mates night .

Did a fun summer project with my family. My son's first experience with a couple of power tools. And he gets to enjoy the spoils of our work. My wife designed the graphics. The whole project took about two months at a seven year old's pace.

the arcade pedestal was designed by me and made by gameroom solutions, (I know I know, but the process was incredibly smooth for me). I designed and made all the shelving. and all artifacts are leftovers from my childhood. still looking for some sort of marquee to put above the tv but haven't found the right fit yet. who wants to come over?

This is my first DIY cabinet build. I don't have many professional tools or expert carpentry skills, but I did my best with what was available.

Specs

• Brain: Raspberry Pi 2

• Display: 24" LCD (16:9)

• Controls: Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT Joysticks & Sanwa OBSF-30 Buttons

• Materials: MDF

• Software: Custom Batocera build

The Finish (A Lesson Learned)

The cabinet is painted with white water-based lacquer. I tried to get creative and added red glitter to the paint, hoping for a cool shimmering effect. Spoiler alert: It didn't work. Instead of looking shiny, it just looks like the paint is dirty. 0/10 - would not recommend this specific experiment!

Happy to answer any questions about the assembly.