Arduino Uno Q Arcade Cabinet Machine

USB Speaker

HDMI cable

Screwdrivers

Monitor with HDMI input

Arduino UNO Q

5V Power Source 

USB-C to HDMI multiport adapter with ethernet and USB hub

Retroarch

<html><body>A long time ago, kids used to go alone with other kids to quite dark places full of blinking lights, electronic music and with a pocket full of coins to... play some videogames! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/f9e9a220-15d1-4c1c-b803-6509853ebfc1.jpg"/><figcaption>Two 80's kids playing on the Arcade's. Space Invaders was one of the most popular ones among Donkey Kong, Street Fighter II and Ms. Pacman! Typical Arcade's place from the 80's - By "Arcade Perfect" CC-BY 2.0</figcaption></figure>I know, right? If you are young, you don't know what we are talking about! These places were called Arcade's and those kids are probably already grandpas and grandmoms... ask them about how it was! Videogames were an amazing new thing. Pong, Pacman, and Donkey Kong were games that came from the future and the first consoles that you could play at home were really expensive and basic... so if you wanted to play some videogames, spent your weekly money in just minutes and, well, be cool , you had to go to the Arcade's! <div id="gallery"><img id="gallery" src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/c6796270-8f6b-48e9-9418-161ec3f6fba7.jpg"/><figcaption>UNO Q Arcade's Cabinet</figcaption>,<img id="gallery" src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/a2ee623b-1849-473b-9b02-a7c1053f61cc.jpg"/><figcaption>The whole Arcade Cabinet is controlled by the powerful UNO Q board!</figcaption>,<img id="gallery" src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/082396b2-257a-419d-9fa8-f53aee07fd9d.jpg"/><figcaption>Two players means double the fun!</figcaption></div> The games were played in a thing that we call Arcade Cabinet, a really big, colorful wooden furniture with a tube screen (just look at the explanation on the internet) full of big buttons and joysticks playing 8-bit melodies all the time and always surrounded by a lot of people watching the person playing and waiting for their own turn. These times are long gone, but those videogames are still amazing and... thanks to the UNO Q, now you can have your own Arcade machine at your home, office, or school! Do you want to know how? Let's dive in! <h3>Creating or Assembling your Cabinet</h3>There are a lot of options to create your arcade machine out there! You can buy a kit to create a table cabinet (half the size, so you can put it on a table) or buy a full-sized cabinet kit, you can even take an old cabinet and put an UNO Q inside with a new monitor or you can create your own with wood, 3D printing, or other materials... it is up to you! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/b3160c79-f688-4f28-af80-e27f779b1e30.jpg"/><figcaption>UNO Q Arcade's Cabinet - This tabletop model made of wood is widely available in different local and online stores</figcaption></figure> In our case, we bought the cabinet kit from <a href="https://talentec.es">Talentec </a>but there are a lot of options out there, check your favourite local and digital stores to pick the one you want to! <h3>Connecting the Hardware</h3>Thanks to the USB Type-C connector of your UNO Q all the external devices that will make your Arcade Cabinet to work can be connected using a single USB-C Dongle. At the end of the setup, your installation should be similar to the following image: <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/2657dbc2-052e-42b8-adca-9d1c3c8ebbad.jpg"/><figcaption>UNO Q Arcade's Cabinet Setup. Monitor, USB Speaker, Arcade USB Controllers and Keyboard and mouse are all connected to the USB-C Hub, including the power brick!</figcaption></figure>Keyboard and mouse! To prepare the project, you will need to use the UNO Q in desktop mode, which means that you will need a monitor, a keyboard, and a mouse! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/4a8296ae-438a-4120-aa6b-da607608b22a.jpg"/><figcaption>Any keyboard and mouse will work but for this kind of projects a compact keyboard+mouse device will be idea. It can be saved inside the cabinet itself and be used when need it!</figcaption></figure>Connect all of them to a USB-C Hub, you can also use Bluetooth in case your mouse and keyboard work that way! Connecting the Arcade Buttons Most of the kits include some kind of Arcade buttons with a special board controller where all the buttons and joystick are connected. This way, the wiring and software connection is simplified, and you will only need to connect as any USB device to your USB Type-C hub. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/482f0793-a39c-420e-9c10-587395f1084e.jpg"/><figcaption>Typical Arcade Buttons kit that can be found on the market. All buttons are connected to a custom board that simplifies the wiring and setup!</figcaption></figure>Of course, and thanks to the UNO Q, you can directly connect any button and joystick to the UNO Q and program their behaviour inside the Arduino APP Lab and using the HID library, it is up to you! Connecting the monitor Connect the HDMI cable to your monitor and to your USB-C hub. Make sure you power your monitor using its own power source! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/b144e233-9d06-4bc6-b905-d5edc6b669cc.jpg"/><figcaption>In the case off our UNO Q Arcade Cabinet, we used an standard 24-inches display monitor</figcaption></figure> Connecting a USB Speaker To simplify the wiring of your cabinet, you can use a USB Speaker. Just connect it to the USB Type-C hub and it will start working without any additional configuration! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/53648243-25a7-45ca-a0aa-c391cfb5ffe4.jpg"/><figcaption>Any kind of USB Speaker available on the market will work with your UNO Q right away!</figcaption></figure> Powering the cabinet It is recommended to put a power strip inside your cabinet. From there, you will need two power bricks: <ol><li>Monitor's Power Brick: the official power brick of your monitor. Just connect it to the power strip as any other computer </li><li>UNO Q's Power Brick: it will power the UNO Q, arcade buttons, USB Speaker, and much more. Connect the UNO's Q power brick to the USB Type-C Power Input. It will power all of these devices, including the UNO Q itself. </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/52cdeddb-7216-425c-99e5-fb83cad93345.jpg"/><figcaption>Make sure that you use an USB Type-C USB Hub with a PD Power Input port! Check the official UNO Q Website to know more!</figcaption></figure> <h3>Retroarch's installation</h3>Our Arcade games will run using the Open Source Project <a href="https://www.retroarch.com">RetroArch </a>. To install RetroArch on your Arduino UNO Q follow these steps: <ol><li>Connect your monitor, mouse and keyboard to a USB-C Hub </li></ol><ol><li>Power the UNO Q by connecting the USB Type-C power source to your USB-C hub; connect all to the UNO Q using the output Type-C cable of your hub </li><li>Once the system is loaded, Arduino App Labs will open by default. Configure its name and Internet Connection following the AppLabs Wizard Assistant </li></ol><ol><li>Open a new terminal; you will find the terminal on your application finder, menu, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+t on your keyboard. </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/4ec95c39-3dbf-421a-b2d8-17bdfb7f787d.png"/><figcaption>Click on the Terminal Emulator Icon on your Application finder to Open a new terminal</figcaption></figure> <ol><li>On your terminal, run the following commands to install RetroArch: </li></ol><pre>sudo apt-get update </pre><pre>sudo apt-get install retroarch retroarch-assets </pre>The retroarch package will install the program itself, while the retroarch-assets will install additional packages to make RetroArch more customizable. Write "Y" and press Enter to install both packages. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/c94bbf73-fabf-49b4-ab1a-938e909129f7.png"/><figcaption>Installing Retroarch is as simple as executing the apt-get command you see on the picture!</figcaption></figure> In addition to the program and additional assets, it is necessary to install some Cores. Cores are the RetroArch name for Emulators. You can install whatever Core you need, depending on your needs and the old games you want to play. In our case, we will install the following packages to run SNES and NES games: <pre>sudo apt-get install libretro-core-info libretro-bsnes-mercury-performance libretro-nestopia </pre>Once both packages are installed, you can close the terminal and click on: Applications -&gt;Games -&gt; RetroArch <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/db3cef46-d9d8-4cee-b604-e691e77a363b.png"/><figcaption>You cand find RetroArch on Menu-&gt;Games -&gt;RetroArch</figcaption></figure> <h3>Setting Up RetroArch</h3>Now that RetroArch has been installed, it is time to configure it to make it work! The menu The first time you open Retroarch you will find something similar to: <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/155c9e4c-477f-4fbb-ab8e-e8f269f30e77.png"/><figcaption>Initial screen of Retroarch's Menu. Your arcade controls are not configurable yet, lets solve that!</figcaption></figure> Your Arcade buttons are still not configured, so you will need to use your mouse and keyboard to move through the menu! Let's configure them! <ol><li>Move to the right to Settings and go down to Input and enter the menu: </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/e25e6af6-a882-47c5-b3d9-3c80afa4371c.png"/><figcaption>Move to the right and in the settings menu go down to the input option. Press enter</figcaption></figure> <ol><li>Click on RetroPad Binds and select Port 1 Controls: </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/fcfdd404-df77-4a03-b532-d6acbc406454.png"/><figcaption>Enter the Retropad Binds Menu</figcaption></figure> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/d3eee45d-d730-4888-9647-22b316f50a15.png"/><figcaption>Now choose the controller you want to set it up. Usually Port 1</figcaption></figure> <ol><li>Inside the menu make sure you select the Arcade controls you want to set up on the Device Index list: </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/86907d56-7275-4472-af90-faa0724f68ed.png"/><figcaption>Your controller device list should look similar to this. In case you have multiple players and controllers make sure to configure each one of them to each player</figcaption></figure> Setting Up the Arcade Controllers Now you can map each button and direction of your joystick to a specific key, but the faster way to do it is just using the Set All Controls option. Press enter and follow the instructions. Once you do not have additional controllers to assign, let the timeout finish. First time is confusing and you will probably make some mistakes, so do not be afraid of repeating the process until you are happy or change some specific keys to the right ones at the end. <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/620e14a3-68d6-4e5a-862b-7bbd43f0b510.png"/><figcaption>The Set All Controls options is the faster way to configure any new controller in just seconds!</figcaption></figure> Now your controller should work perfectly! Repeat the process with player 2 and any additional controllers! <h3>Loading a Core</h3>Cores are the way RetroArch refers to the emulators. An emulator is a piece of software that simulates the innards of the original console or machine so it can read the original game's code and show it in the same way as the original hardware. In previous steps, we already installed some of them (SNES and NES) using apt-get and libretto, but you can install more to emulate other systems! Before loading a game, you need to tell RetroArch which system, which Core , will run the game. To do it, go to Menu -&gt; Load Core and select the one you want to: <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/8d711cc6-3bc4-4f10-9987-2a4bbf19df8c.png"/><figcaption>List of the available Cores inside the Load Core menu. You can download additional ones to run other systems!</figcaption></figure><h3>Loading a Game</h3>To load a game, just enter the menu option called Load Content and navigate to the folder directory where your ROMs are located. Press Enter and Load Content to load the game! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/551b6512-4e43-4b99-96f0-c27856cd58b1.png"/><figcaption>A game running on the UNO Q and RetroArch!</figcaption></figure><h3>Where are the Games?</h3>You can find the ROMs (the files that contain your games) anywhere online on different webpages and official Archives. Old games are a piece of our history that must be preserved; however, keep in mind that some of the games that you will run with RetroArch could still have copyright and be sold on modern systems. In most countries, it is legal to emulate a ROM copy of a physical game that you own. Always make sure that you respect the legislation of your country besides emulating games and downloading ROMs and spread the love of our cultural videogame heritage! <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/5fc4e26e-fceb-44ae-81c1-45e81156553a.jpg"/><figcaption>My childhood copy of the Donkey Kong Arcade classic (NES Cartridge) used during the educationanl tutorial</figcaption></figure> <h3>Wait, there is more!</h3>Now that you have a fully working Arcade System, you will probably like to make some improvements to make it more comfortable: How to make RetroArch boot automatically alone after OS launch ? <ol><li>On your Desktop, go to Applications -&gt; Settings -&gt; Session and Startup </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/5a44d9e8-26b3-432c-a5ea-7c19994e7219.png"/><figcaption>The Sessions and Startup Menu inside your UNO Q</figcaption></figure><ol><li>Click on Application AutoStart and on Add . Now fill the fields as the following image: </li></ol> <figure><img src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/a9e135fc-a258-40de-be43-3a65de955671.png"/><figcaption>Create a new Autostart command to make retroarch to launch in full screen mode very time you power your board</figcaption></figure><ol><li>Press Ok and reboot your system. Now after the login, your system will launch RetroArch automatically in full-screen mode. </li></ol> LED decoration and additional extras! A happy place is a place full of LEDs! And your Arcade should have some too! Buy a LED strip or create your own and use App Lab to program there! <div id="gallery"><img id="gallery" src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/66625c9d-63e2-48f1-80c0-eb385637c614.jpg"/><figcaption>UNO Q it is your own arcade and Arduino board all at the same time, add a LED Strip and program it with Arduino APP Lab to make it work!</figcaption>,<img id="gallery" src="https://projects.arduinocontent.cc/16c509f5-a3c6-40a3-94d3-5a082be5d68a.jpg"/><figcaption>You can even program your UNO Q's LED Matrix to interact with some modulinos or even a webcam!</figcaption></div> You can even make really cool stuff like a face detector that will turn on the LEDs when a camera detects a face playing, changing the colors depending on the emotion of the person! Open the Arduino App Lab and take a look at the Bricks and Examples to know how to do it! </body></html>

RetroArch Project

Arduino Uno Q Arcade Cabinet Machine

Create your own Arcade Cabinet Machine at Home using the Arduino UNO Q!