Iconic Arcade

[Chako]

I have noticed an arcade machine at the local GameStop called Iconic Arcade. At first, the price for this was around 700 dollars when they first came out last year. Then I noticed a price decrease to around 500 dollars. I remember thinking that I was lucky I didn't pounce on one when I first saw them. I just noticed that they are now just under 300 dollars due to a Black Friday sale.  I went to the local shop after work yesterday and bought one (they only had 2 in stock). For that price, I feel it is a steal of a deal. Inside is a Raspberry Pi 4B. My thoughts is to have this unit downstairs in my living room. Interestingly enough, last year I had bought a micro SD card with 32GB of games on it off of Amazon for my Pi 400 personal computer only to find out that the 400 has a 4 instead of the 4B. I hope this unused card will work in this arcade unit. I also bought a set of 5 frosted joystick balls for a portable arcade unit that I have only to find out these are a little too large to store in the portable game unit. What do you know, they work and look fantastic on this cabinet.

The box.

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The box opened.

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After installing 6 rubber feet and replacing the red and blue joystick balls with the fancier ones. I had to use a set of tweezers to remove the plastic on each button. I couldn't do it with my fingers.

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The back ports.

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A closeup of the joystick ball replacements in place.

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The smaller box contained all the screws for the cabinet and the speakers.

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This is where i am leaving the build untill after work as I need to go soon. I think this will go smoothly overall. Theer is another box I haven't opened yet that contains the screen and probably the power chord. Looking at the cabinet online, I wasn't that enamoured about the graphics, but I must say, it looks nicer up close. I am digging the purple.

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There is apparently 4 different operating systems you can install. That will be the hard part to figure out later. I will take photos and post them in here as I continue this little project.

[Grant Lamontagne]

This looks like an amazing and fun project, well worth the $700, let alone $300!

I can't wait to see it progress!

Def

[powernoodle]

That was well PACked, MAN.     


 

[friendliestdoggo]

That's looking amazing  such a nice addition to your living room

[Vidar]

That looks like a proper sized kit? Retro vibes all the way. Fun find! 

[Chako]

 

I got up early again before having to go to work and did a little more,

Opened the screen box and found the screen along with the power cord.

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Got the bottom cabinet finished.

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Even finished the top part as well.

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Interesting design this. You can remove the top part and have it as a bartop arcade. Another option is to slide the deck out and hook it up to a TV if you wanted.

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Here is the back with everything not connected...as is from the factory.

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And with everything connected.

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I just got home from work and am taking it easy, I read somewhere that I should install the micro SD card as well and the included USB drive for the first boot up. I gather I can then install which operating system I want, and go from there. I understand there might be up to 45 games already installed once everything is running. I will have to dig out that 32GB micro SD card from upstairs that should contain thousands of games...as it did not work on my Pi 400 computer as that one contains a Pi 4 and not the Pi 4B that is in this arcade and that the card works on. Time will tell.

I did run into some installation issues where the instructions were a bit too open to interpretation, and of course I decided to interpret away in the wrong direction. When all was done, I realized that I could not hook up the power cable going to the speakers. I had installed the speakers backwards and the cord would not reach the right hand side. It was nothing to take that piece, reverse it, and re-install it properly. Overall. Another issue was the rather large rubber feet that you install on the bottom of the joystick deck. I found out that you cannot install the deck into the cabinet with the feet on. Considering the price I paid which was only 328 Canadian taxes in, I cannot complain. I just wished the instructions were a bit better.

[Chako]

What a momentus day! It started off with clearing snow for 40 minutes in order to drive to work. The roads were scary with plenty of accidents. When I got to work, nobody cleared the parking lot. I did get to work on time, only to get the news that the school was closed. Drove back home, and all I can say is thanks to my Jeep and 4x4 that got me safely there and back. The whole city was closed due to a lot of snow.

This gave me time to play around with the arcade. I did run into some problems, but I was able to figure things out, At first I installed Retro Pi thinking that micro SD card would work, but it didn't. I would have had to jump through flamming hoops to get the board's EPROM chip flashed. That and there were no games included with the Retro Pi install. I then tried RecalBox and that proved the right way to go. At least there were about 50 or so games that were included so that I could test out the arcade system. I tried to plug in the Pi 4B game Micro SD card into the front USB drive. That did not work for me at all, but I quickly found out that RecalBox gave me some options and a pathway to install ROMs to the system. I took a 32GB micro SD card and formatted it using the arcade game. I then tried to install some ROMs from the PC to the card. I realized I needed to format the card first, and found a format SD program. Once I formated the card, I then took it to the arcade and initialized the card to allow ROM installation. It populated the SD card with all the right folders so that I could dump some ROMS in the right places. I quickly learned that it worked great but that 32GB was too small, I did the same with a 256GB micro SD card and then started to populate the card with ROMs. That took a long time to transfer them all to the micro SD card. I then plugged the populated card into the arcade's front USB drive and saw my games multiply. There is another option where I could install the games to the rear micro SD card that I first formated and installed RecalBox on, but that one is only 32GB in size and came with the arcade machine, For now, getting the games from the front USB port appears to work great.

Installing Retro Pi proved to be not what I wanted for this arcade machine. If that populated pi 4b game card worked, I probably would have been happy with it.

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Here is the included USB setup drive installing RecalBox.

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[Chako]

Now that I took hours upon hours transfering ROMS onto that 256GB Micro SD card, I now have a few more games to play, Here is every populated game list I now have on my Iconic Arcade machine,

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[Chako]

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[Chako]

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[Chako]

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[Chako]

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[Chako]

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A bonus shot of the arcade classic Gunbarich from the MAAM section.

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[Chako]

What a great arcade unit, and for the price, this is a steal. I think I now have most arcade machines in this unit alone. I had bought an iRcade a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. With that unit, you bought the games and downloaded them off the net. I have about 40 games on that unit...then the company went bankrupt and I cannot add anything else to it seeing the online service no longer exist. I had toyed converting that cabinet into what I now have downstairs. Happy I waited it out as I now have what I always wanted.

Here is a photo of my little upstairs game room with the iRcade in the background.

20230125_170200A by Chako, on Flickr

[Grant Lamontagne]

Well thank you very much for the look through it.  You have solved my desire to get one.

I will say I was very tempted to start hitting all of the Gamestops in town when you first posted this, but now I think I am going to avoid it like the plague as I will never get anything else done in my life if I did!   

It looks absolutely awesome though, and I would love a setup like that- someday.  I just have too much already that isn't getting done now to add another distraction like that!   

Def

[Chako]

Are you sure? The price for this system is a steal of a deal. Best part, it has 2 USB ports upfront which will allow the addition of a game controller, something the iRcade lacked for the most part.

Did I mention that this arcade is a transformer. You can remove the upper section and use it as a bar topper, or unscrew and slide out the control deck and use it in your living room attached to a TV.   

I do understand your stance though. My power to resist something like this is nil to non, 

[WhichDawg]

yeah a "few" games! Very cool!

I remember as an 18 year old (under aged) playing Donkey Kong in a local bar 
those were the days, the cool bar-tender even sold me beers while I played, I never got drunk I just enjoyed playing the game with a few brews...