Got lots of empty biscuit boxes lying around over the holidays? Make use of one with this quick and fun project.

What you need:

An empty biscuit box - or any suitably sized box
A hole cutter of some sort - I used a 19mm hole saw
4 zip ties
Clear sticky tape
An "arcade stick kit" from your friendly neighborhood (or online) retailer - Google can help here
About one hour of spare time
Some little helpers (optional)

Step 1: Buttons and Joysticks

First I punched out the holes using the hole saw by hand - figured a drill would be overkill.

Then my little helpers pushed in the buttons while I secured the joysticks in place with the zip ties.

Note: No measuring instruments were disturbed in the construction of this device.

Step 2: Wiring

Next we flipped over the lid and attached the wires from the kit to the buttons and joysticks using the spade connectors attached to the wires.

Then we plugged the wires into the control boards provided by the kit taking care to wire them identically in order to avoid driver issues later.

Finally we punched holes for the USB cables and plugged them into the control boards too.

Step 3: Testing and Finish

Wiring complete we closed up the box and tested it out on a Raspberry PI running RetroPie.

After correcting some misplaced plugs on the control boards it worked perfectly and we sealed up the box with the clear tape.

Not sure how long this will last but its a good way to get a feel for the optimal button placement for the next stick we will build from sturdier materials when this one falls apart.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Let us know if you give this protect a go and have a very Merry Christmas!