A1Up RetroPie front control panel

thingiverse

This is a custom cabinet and Raspberry Pie control panel for the Arcade1UP first and second-gen cabinets. It's designed to mount on the J-panel, an angled panel at the front directly below the control panel. I use an ATX power supply for all internal power - it's switched on and off from this front panel exactly like a computer's on/off switch. A Raspberry Pi runs all the games - one of the buttons on the front panel serves as a safe-shutdown button for the Pi. All the buttons on the front panel are illuminated when on, just like a row of neon lights at a classic arcade. The arcade buttons are also illuminated and controlled by a wireless LED controller. They can flash in patterns in attract mode, but I find a dim illumination better for game play. There's also a microSD card slot - an extension cable plugged into my Raspi's uSD slot. I've managed to fit a common small amplifier inside the panel and used its face plate on the panel. Originally, I had this panel flush with the surface of the J-panel, but the back of the amp intruded into the arcade button area so I added a housing to let me mount it level. This, along with the car speakers mounted on either side, gave the added benefit of making it look a bit like an add-on auto tape deck - just a small touch of retro flair. This is a very preliminary post, but I'm publishing to give a place to point to for those who have asked me about this build. The parts posted are the parts I used and will work for you too if you're going to be building a hardware-similar front panel, but a step-by-step for the complete build is still a work-in-progress. I intend to fully flesh out the hardware I used and the wiring and installation of all the things I used to build this A1Up Retro Arcade. I'm also building another one so I can photograph more of the intermediate steps where necessary.