1993 Atari Arcade Cabinet Restoration — 3 WEEK CHALLENGE

I like it! Any thoughts on using a full blown PC vs using a raspberry pi?

 

I'm using a full blown PC simply because it was easier for me to use one over Raspberry Pi. I've only had experience with Arduinos before, so I opted for the easier path with MAME.

Additionally, I'm using genuine HAPP arcade buttons and joysticks along with the original coin acceptor. In order to get these to work with a computer, I'm using a special designed module called and I-PAC which converts the analog button and sensor signals to be able to be interpreted as a controller on the operating system.

 

This is like the masked magician showing his tricks! Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s I always wanted an arcade. It would be bad ass project. Drag the kid out in the shop and tell him back in my day we didn’t have fancy Xbox’s or cell phones or even quarters to play games... we had to refurbish crusty old arcades if we wanted to play.

 

Saw this a while back and thought it might come in handy in the future. It really depends on how deep you want to dive into the resto though. An aluminum square with a die cut vinyl overlay would serve the same purpose and be a lot les work:

https://youtu.be/XWSJyNlAIRk

 

Good deal, was curious. I didn't realize how much support there was out there for retro game setups.

 

With MAME it's now possible. You can play every arcade game ever made, as long as you have the ROM for it.

 

There's a huge community for it, MAME is one of the biggest arcade emulation softwares out there.

Arcade machines, and especially pinball machines have cult-like followings.

 

Yeah that's for sure. The Dallas makerspace has a whole dedicated corner for pinball machine restoration.

 

Man that's a cool channel.

 

Yeah there’s some talented makers on YouTube. I fall down the wormhole on occasion but a lot of the info sticks and I can usually refer back to the videos as my own projects require special handling.

 

Here is the second decal restored. Namco was the maker of the original game that occupied the cabinet, Dig Dug.

 

Here is all five machine information decals restored in Photoshop. I will be having them printed on vinyl. The original ones are Aluminum stickers.

 

Following....Can't wait to see the end result!!

 

It's getting there!

 

Super cool project!!

 

Wish I had that kind of skill.....well any skill really

 

Trial and error my friend.

 

Wife gets pissed off with the smoke and shit from my "errors"

 

You can buy aluminum foil stickers to print on. They are expensive though compared to regular paper. Maybe just adhere them to aluminum duct tape.

 

I'll look into it, only the serial and patent stickers were in metal.