Introduction: Mikes Smokecade

In this Instructable, I will detail how to build your own raspberry pi stand up arcade this only details how to set up the raspberry pi and does not cover the building of the shell.

Step 1: Buy Your Stuff

For this Project, you will need

  • 14 buttons
  • 2 joysticks
  • A stand-up arcade (you should try to look for one on craigslist or e-bay or look for a tutorial on how to make your own)
  • raspberry pi 3
  • micro sd card (size of your preference)
  • 100 horseshoe female wire connectors
  • wire
  • i-pac 2
  • computer monitor(size of your preference)
  • HDMI cabal
  • USB stick

Step 2: Download Retro Pie

This step is fairly easy all you have to do is plug your sd card into your computer then download retro pie onto it and put the sd card into your raspberry pi and plug the raspberry pi in a red light should come on to show the pi is powered and a green light will show it is working

Step 3: Download Your Games

First, in order to download games, you will need to create a file on your USB labeled retro pie once this is done you plug it into your raspberry pi and after a minute or two you can take it out and the USB should have files that are labeled as consoles all you have to do from there is put your roms into the corresponding folders and plug it back into the raspberry pi and wait for it to download and it should be able to run

Step 4: Install Your Joystick/Buttons

After your done with the raspberry pi you can move on to the buttons if you are planning to make your own arcade instead of buying one online make sure too cut the buttonhole slightly bigger then the button is to easily take it out afterward other than that there are multiple different button layouts that you can use make sure to look up different styles before choosing one in my arcade we chose to go with the very simple style that is just two straight parallel rows

Step 5: Wire Buttons to I-pac2

When all your buttons are in place you can move on to wiring it is advised to cut your wires to similar length and zap strap each side separately this will help if you ever have to go back and fiddle with the wires other. with the wires, you need to strip the tops of the wires and insert them into the wire connectors and crimp them shut after all the buttons have one wire set up you will need to create the ground wire by daisy chaining this will require you to crimp two wires in the same connector after this you can connect all the wires to the i-pac2 and screwing them in

Step 6: Paint Your Arcade

Nothing that difficult here remove all the electronics and put your color and designs onto it

Step 7: Add Any Final Touches

Add anything else you want this is a very flexible project and you can add almost anything. you can add speakers, light guns, vinyl, plexiglass, etc... the list can extend on as far as your imagination

Step 8: