Build a space invaders cabinet.

Hi,

For years I've been wanting to build a full sized coffee table space invaders game, and thanks to the Pi I think this is now a real possibility. Lots of choices though. Looking around in these forums and elsewhere I think the best way to approach will be to use MAME. I'm not sure what would be best for a joystick though? I could just buy a USB joystick, but after a quick search they are not really the style that I'm looking for. Any ideas?

I'll also need to learn a bit about carpentry / cabinet making, but I think I can cope with that.

I suppose I'm just looking for pointers, links and ideas at the moment. Has anyone got experience of getting this sort of project working?

Thanks,

Steve

I suppose I'm just looking for pointers, links and ideas at the moment. Has anyone got experience of getting this sort of project working?

It might be worth having a look at this for some pointers in terms of joysticks etc:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/picade-the-arcade-cabinet-kit-for-your-raspberry-p?ref=discover_rec

I'm working on the DeskCade, (http://www.deskcade.com), which is a mini Raspberry Pi sized cabinet.



I'm going to be releasing the source files soon so you can cut it yourself, but I'm looking at offering the laser cut pieces for around ~$25.

Space Invaders is such a great game (I like the deluxe edition the best with the screen overlay)

get an arcade joystick from ebay. like these: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ARCADE-JOYST ... 57e&_uhb=1

I suppose I'm just looking for pointers, links and ideas at the moment. Has anyone got experience of getting this sort of project working?

I just saw this and thought it might be of interest to you:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Coffee-Table-Pi/

That's pretty awesome. Pretty similar to what I imagine. Not sure about using perspex, I think it would need to be toughened glass to avoid being scratched. I'm surprised someone would put a 24" screen in one of these too, that's going to be a lot of money!

I was just going to use a 15" that I've got sitting around. Good point about testing it from different viewing angles though. It's not going to be much use if the screen fades out from the acute angle people will be looking at it from.

I think putting printing the stickers to put onto the glass (around the edges) is going to be the best bet to make it look similar to the original.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pimoroni/picade-the-arcade-cabinet-kit-for-your-raspberry-p?ref=discover_rec

Yeah, it was this project that jogged my memory. I have supported them, so I should be getting a board next spring and I'll just need to provide my own stick, Pi, cabinet, stickers, etc.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARCADE-MACHIN ... 416926edb9

These are recognised by the Pi and are configurable through EmulationStation so assume they'll work in RetroArch.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ARCADE-MACHINE-2-X-JOYSTICKS-16-BUTTONS-USB-INTERFACE-/280937033145?pt=UK_Video_Games_Coin_Operated_MJ&hash=item416926edb9

These are recognised by the Pi and are configurable through EmulationStation so assume they'll work in RetroArch.

Thanks for the link. I'll certainly try to pick up some of these. When you say recognised by the Pi, how would you connect them? Sorry if that's a very basic question. Can you simply attach straight to the GPIO or do you need something extra?

Looking at the listing, it is a USB interface

You may want to check out:

http://arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm

It appears to be dead - the What's new page hasn't had an update for two years - but there are loads of examples of homemade cabinets for Mame - from tiny bartop machine, cocktail cabinets, through to full capsule StarWars cabs.

I used it to build a pentium II based cocktail cab over ten years ago running Dos Mame - I forget the frontend I used at the time - but it was fab. Dos Mame was sooo much easier to use.

I got my controls from Ultimarc - and the iPac interface is hooked up nicely to my Pi - just wish I could get one of the sets of instructions for getting Mame running on Pi to work for me

B.