KHK Arcade
Posted 20 Sep 2016 by Joseph Dailey and Samual Julson
Built to replace and improve upon our original stand-up arcade machine, this new bar-top arcade machine features a portable and sleek design. We reused the buttons, sticks, and controller to minimize the cost. These American ‘bat-top’ joysticks were eventually replaced with tournament quality Japanese ‘ball-top’ joysticks to provide a more consistent and accurate experience. The layout for the controls was created so two players could comfortably play side-by-side and the finish of the control board was lengthy process of sanding and painting in order to achieve a quality gloss finish.
One of the more stand-out features of the arcade is the custom printed marquee. This logo attempts to recreate the retro arcade feel while utilizing our styles and insignia. Behind the marquee are two speakers to provide a full experience. And for an extra kick, there’s a small sub-woofer in the back of the arcade. Inside the back door panel is an audio control panel for volume, bass, and mute control.
The system runs on a Raspberry Pi 2 featuring an ARM build of Debian specifically tailored for home arcade machines. With it we have a sophisticated GUI installed for selecting systems to emulate and games to play as well as tweaking settings for the machine.
The housing was built out of MDF right here in our basement over the course of a few long nights. The monitor placed behind a sheet of protective Plexiglas was taken from a spare Dell monitor we had laying around in the house.
We hope this arcade brings as much fun to our future open houses and get-togethers as the original did for so many of us in the past.
