Hardware for a bartop arcade

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marketus
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Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by marketus » Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:55 pm

Hello sudomoders, it's been a while since I finished my gameboy zero project and I'd like to start a new one. I saw in the internet people making a arcade cabinet, my room is small so I prefer to make a bartop arcade cabinet, but that's not why I'm here.
The thing is people use to say that raspberry pi 3 (model B I think) is the best system to emulate old videogames but I own an old PC with an Intel Core 2 Duo e7500 and a Geforce 9600GT (512Mb). I know it's old but in the raspberry pi 3 datasheet I realized it only has a 1.2 GHz processor with only 1Gb of RAM. Is my PC stronger to emulate SNES, Gameboy, maybe N64, Playstation... or by the other hand the Raspberry Pi 3 is better?

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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by YaYa » Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:47 pm

You can use your PC to play N64 and PS1... but in a bartop, the space is tight so a pc, even without enclosure, will be a bit harder to fit.
That’s why people are very often using a Pi3. For space reasons, and also for cost and power consumption.

Price is not applicable to you as you already own the PC !
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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by oliddell » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:23 am

Hey mate, the old PC is fine just think of the cabinet as a custom case. Just take the motherboard (cpu and ram) out of the existing case and mount into your arcade. For extra space saving buy a 2.5 hard drive and a small audio amp connected to small speakers.
On the other hadn I run n64 games from the pi3 really well when a compatible emulator is used and everything before.(not much of a playstation fan).
You can find everything you need for the cabinet on thingverse (or google).

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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by tikiandskull » Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:40 am


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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by marketus » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:54 am

oliddell wrote:
Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:23 am
Hey mate, the old PC is fine just think of the cabinet as a custom case. Just take the motherboard (cpu and ram) out of the existing case and mount into your arcade. For extra space saving buy a 2.5 hard drive and a small audio amp connected to small speakers.
On the other hadn I run n64 games from the pi3 really well when a compatible emulator is used and everything before.(not much of a playstation fan).
You can find everything you need for the cabinet on thingverse (or google).
Hmm, you say an audio amp is needed because the RP3 amp does not worth, does it? I think I'll go with the RP3. Thanks for the answer :D

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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by marketus » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:57 am

YaYa wrote:
Wed Dec 27, 2017 11:47 pm
You can use your PC to play N64 and PS1... but in a bartop, the space is tight so a pc, even without enclosure, will be a bit harder to fit.
That’s why people are very often using a Pi3. For space reasons, and also for cost and power consumption.

Price is not applicable to you as you already own the PC !
Yes...the space needed and the power consumption is an important thing to think about. The motherboard is actually an Micro-ITX but is still big xD and then the power supply with all the wires, the hard drive, the graphics card, etc... better with a RP! :D

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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by marketus » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:57 am

tikiandskull wrote:
Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:40 am
you can look here! http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.p ... ,57.0.html
I didn't know that forum, thank you!

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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by YaYa » Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:58 am

The pi3 does not amplify sound ! Of course you’ll need an amp. The internal « amplifier » is just enough for headphone output.
Of course, you can plug self powered speakers and self amplified and have amplified sound lol
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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by marketus » Thu Dec 28, 2017 5:02 am

YaYa wrote:
Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:58 am
The pi3 does not amplify sound ! Of course you’ll need an amp. The internal « amplifier » is just enough for headphone output.
Of course, you can plug self powered speakers and self amplified and have amplified sound lol
Perfect, I have a pair of speakers stranded somewhere in my room xd

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Re: Hardware for a bartop arcade

Post by tikiandskull » Thu Dec 28, 2017 5:12 am

I guess you'll be using a vga 4: 3 monitor as your screen. in this case the ideal is to take the sound at the adapter hdmi / vga (with an amp of course)

something like this https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B01L1Q27KC/ref ... & hvqmt = that's what I used for the sound on my bartop

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