Never be bored again with an adorable little arcade cabinet you can fit in your bag! This Raspberry Pi-powered kit combines a sharp PiTFT 2.8" display, mini thumbstick, and mini arcade push buttons and a whole bunch of components to create the most adorable arcade cabinet in the known universe.

Comes as a big kit with lots of parts including all electronic components, the laser cut case, power adapter, and a blank SD card (you'll need to burn the CupCade image on). You provide a Raspberry Pi model B, a soldering iron, solder, wire, basic electronic hand tools, tape, etc. This kit has a lot of steps, so its best for people who have soldered before and even better, have a little Raspberry Pi/Linux hacking under their belt in case some configuration-file-editing is required. Give yourself a nice, long Saturday afternoon to put together (about 4-6 hours altogether).

We played a bunch of memorable old arcade games, like Ms Pacman, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Arkanoid, DigDug, Gauntlet, etc with squee success but some games that are more advanced might be too slow even with overclocking the Pi. There are four buttons total, two next to the joystick for "fire" and "jump" and two in front for "coin" and "start". If you set up your Cupcade for 'horizontal' alignment, you can even run classic Famicom/Nintendo games at full speed. Tons of arcade games that may not emulate well are available in NES format, or just play some old familiar classics.

Many details stand out here that show the love and care PaintYourDragon put into this kit:

•     First: you can configure it for either vertical (Ms Pac-man! Donkey Kong! Arkanoid!) or horizontal screen (Joust! Qix! Nintendo!). The controls can be set to either joystick-in-center or to the side. We include plastic for both configurations just pick which you want during construction.
•     Second: We provide a blank SD card that can be burned with a ready to go Raspbian image with text-based ROM selector screen that works in either V or H mode, with nicely printed out names and joystick/button selection.
•     Third: Pressing the two front buttons for three seconds simulates the Esc key, so you can quit games and safely shut down the Pi without use of a keyboard.
•     Fourth: To load new ROMs, simply plug in the SD card into any computer and drag the zipped up files into the directory, no need for WiFi, logging in or any other nonsense!
•     Fifth: What's gaming without the noise? There's a mono speaker and audio amp so you can relive all the bleeps

Excited? You should be! And since you're so interested, check out the ultra-detailed tutorial with build photos, instructions, and more!

Don't forget a Raspberry Pi Model B (NOT Model A or Model B+) is NOT included!

Technical Details:

This project contains:

•     PiTFT Mini Kit
•     5V 1A (1000mA) USB port power supply
•     USB 'Noodle' Cable - A/MicroB - 3ft
•     Laser cut acrylic Cupcade Enclosure
•         13 x Nylon 4-40 Hexnuts
•         13 x Nylon 1/2in Pan Screws
•         3 x 2-56 1/4" Black SS Machine Screw
•         3 x 2-56 Black SS Hex Nut
•         Nylon Spacer - 3/16" Long
•     4 GB SD/MicroSD Memory Card  BLANK SD CARD! You will have to burn the SD card with the cupcade raspbian image
•     Analog 2-axis Thumb Joystick with Select Button + Breakout Board
•     2 x 16mm Panel Mount Momentary Pushbutton - Black
•     2 x 16mm Panel Mount Momentary Pushbutton - Red
•     Arcade/Button Quick-Connect Wire Pair - Set of 10 pairs
•     8 Ohm 1 Watt - Speaker - 3" Diameter
•     Right-Angle 3.5mm Stereo Plug to Pigtail Cable
•     Premium Female/Female Jumper Wires - 40 x 6"
•     Custom Cup-cade controller board

Additional information

We here at Anibit have assembled one these kits (we couldn't resist!). This is definitely not a kit for beginners looking to try their hand at making stuff. It is not too difficult to put together, but it is not a cakewalk either. Adafruit's assembly instructions are fantastic, read each step carefully, and read ahead. The most difficult part of this project is by far the software side. Getting MAME-based emulators to do what you want is not for the weak willed. Familiarity of Linux is a huge benefit. We also recommend that you have a Wifi adapter installed, since this will be by far the easiest way to install new system software, and you can setup shares on your local network for transferring games. You can always put the SD card in a PC to transfer games, but copying over Wifi is a lot more convenient. You cannot add Wifi after the fact without partially disassembling the cabinet, so it's best to add it in the beginning.