FabArcade isthe first fully open-source video arcade gaming station that can be built completely at any Fab Labusing digital tools.
It's a fully functioning video arcade that lets you relive those cool retro video games from the 80's. Finally play Galaga the way it was meant to be played, with a professional joystick and arcade buttons—even including a real coin slot for US quarters (or whichever currency you prefer)! :) Plus, the FabArcade also runs additional games we developed for you!
The FabArcade usesa housing built fromsmall lasercut MDF sheetsthat you can cut with a small (60x30cm)lasercutteraRaspberry Pi$25 embedded linux computer to run the emulators and other softwareanArduinomicrocontroller board withFabArcade Shieldto read the joystick, buttons, and coin slot signalsMAMEand a NeoGeo emulator for vintage 8-bit and 16-bit arcade gamestheProcessingprogramming environment to run self-developed video games
OK, how do I make one?
- Order the stuff from our Bill of Materials
- Lasercut and glue the sheets of MDF (wood-like Medium-Density Fiberboard) to assemble the housing
- Mount the screen, speakers, buttons, joysticks, and coin acceptor in the housing
- Install our disk image on your Raspberry Pi, and our firmware on your Arduino
- Start playing!
If you want to make one, have a look at the assembly instructions at the bottom of this page. To find out everything about the games we developed, follow the links below!
Our Games
We wrote three arcade games in vintage 80's style using the Processing programming language and IDE:
Team
FabArcade was the idea ofProf. Dr. Jan Borchersfrom RWTH Aachen University.
His PhD studentsRené BohneandSimon Völkersupervised the student project.
It was carried out over the course of 8 weeks by BSc and MSc students from computer science, technical communication, architecture, and education, as part of a practical lab calledMultimodal Media Madnessduring the summer of 2013.
Housing
Marcos De Luis Bolinaga
Max Orth
Anke Brocker
Dominique Bataille
Melike Osmanbeyoglu
Julien Weerasuriya
Arduino Controller
Mirko Kugelmeier
Yannick Deuster
Lukas Harke
Sabrina Häfele
Jan Koop
Raspberry Pi
Florian Busch
Jennifer Birke
Matthias Diebels
Games
Jakob Bauer
Julian Nass
Thomas Conraths
Maximilian Conze
Elmar Weber
Michael Deutschen
Kai Schnackenberg
Jan Bruckner
Roman Feldhoff
Semih Yildirim
Coordination
Marten Junga