Problem Statement:

Arcade machines are becoming more and more rare to see. With COVID or the price of these machines in mind, some individuals are looking for a way to play the classic arcade games but from their own home. While there are emulators to simulate the game, the game can't feel the same without the cabinet and all its controls. Retro game enthusiasts, digital historians, and college students (AKA our client) are looking for a custom, affordable cabinet to be built. Along with this, there is a demand for portability and a set of size constraints that we will be expected to meet, along with a variety of older games to play like burger time.

Constraints:

Physical: Must fit in a 2’x2’x2’, Must be light enough to carry and portable
Software: Clean UI, Able to run ROMs/ .exe files, Able to read inputs from a controller
User Control: Control Audio Volume, Control Scheme (different colors), Have responsive controls (10ms input delay)
Material: Temperature resistant, Cabinet made of hardwood

Design:

Electrical: For the electrical side, we designed the block diagram around our Raspberry Pi. We have incorporated three different circuits shown by the blue boxes. These circuits will supply constant voltage (12v, 5v, and 3.3v), power a matrix of LEDs that will display lights for the user, and finally controlling the power to the Pi. The inputs of the system (shown by orange boxes) are a volume control, arcade joystick and buttons (or other controllers connected by USB), a USB port for uploading new games and a power button. The outputs (purple boxes) are a fan, speakers, LED array and the display.

Software: We choose to design our software in Java and our graphical user interface (GUI) in JFrame. Our design is to keep it simple with few screens that are very modular and allow for addition of new games very easily. The main start screen will allow the user to go to the game list or to go to settings. In game list all the games will be listed with a quick description of the game. The settings page gives the user the option to edit the audio and colors to their liking and they have the option to map a controller to keyboard strokes and save it.

User interface (UI) protoypes: