Son's birthday

abeon

My son turns 8 soon so I've ordered him a Pi 3B+, case, controller board for an old laptop screen, and a few other bits.

I'm a coder by day, but can't solder to potato. I know enough to make it all work but don't want to spend hours only to hear something like "why did you bother doing that?".

Is it worth butchering old gear to add to the Pi? I've got old (either semi-broken or unused) laptops, PSPs, etc, etc... Is it worth the effort of hacking something unique together or just ordering something made to fit?

He loves retro games so I thought about a custom mini-cabinet, but don't understand hardware enough to know if it's actually worth it?

lilbud

@abeon projects are always better home made. Just make sure you get the right controller board for your laptop screen.

If you check my signature under this post, you'll see an arcade cabinet I made with an old laptop screen.

Clyde

@abeon The Pi has HDMI video output, so you can easily connect any display that supports this connection. There are many shops for refurbished displays with the appropriate aspect ratio of 4:3 or 5:4.

Controller-wise there are many options like the usual usb or wireless gamepads, external usb arcade joysticks, or internal arcade joysticks:

The latter can be connected via the Pi's GPIO interface or more easily with Zero Delay Encoders.

In my opinion, you should go with the easiest solution (i.e. ready-to-go hdmi/usb/wireless) as long as your project doesn't need some special setup.

Lurker

I would say it depends a little on a combination of;
The functional details you want (IE joystick or controller or both. etc. etc.)
The budget you have to purchase items over trying to salvage or make them.
And the skill, time, bits available.

Having just finished building a table top 2 player cabinet for my little sister, I purchased relatively cheap joysticks and button and so I know you could get simple two player arcade hardware for around $60 (USB connection to Pi). I used an extra monitor with HDMI that I had so didn't have to invest in that. and instead put my effort toward little details like a toggle switch so she can turn the LED buttons her cabinet has on and off and modifying the joystick restrictor plate for easy switching between 8 way and 4 way.

My point here is, I have found in my experience that the retropie is very versatile and the developers have put a lot of effort to make it easy to set up a cabinet in anyway you want, from a single console style system to a wide breath 4 player, spinner, track ball, light gun bonanza system.

Clyde

Hi @lurker, care to share how you modified the restrictor plates of the joysticks? I know the convenience of it from my two Mag-Stik Plus joysticks, and your method might help others who don't want or can't buy more expensive joysticks.

matchaman

Modifications are a personal choice. Some are easy, others near impossible but it all depends on your skills.

A well put Pi with some robust hardware would drive my 8-year old self crazy happy!

One thing though. Make sure that you filter out "mature" games because I've seen some really inappropriate content...

Lurker

@clyde said in Son's birthday:

Hi @lurker, care to share how you modified the restrictor plates of the joysticks? I know the convenience of it from my two Mag-Stik Plus joysticks, and your method might help others who don't want or can't buy more expensive joysticks.

Ya, sure. Give me a little time and I will take some pictures and put it in a new thread. I'm a noob when it comes to posting in a forum so it will be a new thing for me to try and post a project.

@matchaman I totally agree. Funny as they are when I run across the blatantly bad "adult" games or the ones with rather fun games mechanics only to get a poorly rendered nude image between levels, I would not want my kid to stumble on these games. This is why I am liking the kids mode. But if I was making a system to give to a child I would take the effort to delete those games from the list entirely.

KN4THX

I have to second the motion of doing it yourself vs just buying something. I have learned so much from this community and have picked up on soldering, more advanced Linux knowledge, and even some basic crafting. I made my girlfriend a pi-cart a while back and it was very simple, but I was proud and everyone was jealous and have been looking into a RPi receiver for my Jeep and an arcade cabinet. I'm 37 still learning things from strangers online and when I build something new, even stupid and simple, the people I give it to think I'm smarter than I am and it's unique in one way or another. I know your son would love a homemade cabinet and maybe it would even inspire him to paruse that field himself.

Clyde

Depending on the age and ability of the kid, it might even be a good idea building it together, or at least letting the kid help his parent. You know, all that bonding and valuing one's own hand's labour thing. :)