Looking for a crafts project this weekend? How about building an arcade cabinet small enough to fit in a cup holder?
Top-tier tinkerers at Adafruit put together the world's smallest arcade machine - complete with the ability to emulate classics such as Donkey-Kong, Pac-Man, Xevious, Gauntlet, and Tempest.
The itty-bitty cabinet is made from a Raspberry Pi Zero, a .96" RGB OLED screen, an audio amp, and assorted odds and ends for the buttons, body and headboard.
While Adafruit's design is more of a "let's see if this works" concept than a complete product - the cabinet isn't for sale as a kit, for example - there's still enough explanation that a dexterous Raspberry Pi owner could put one together at their own leisure.
Should you feel especially adventurous, Adafruit says the record for "world's smallest arcade cabinet" is fresh for the steal.
"Could it go smaller? Undoubtedly!" writes Phillips Burgess on Adafruit's website. "Other than clipping the corner off the audio amp board, these are all stock parts and no extreme measures were taken to further reduce their volume."
While a potentially fun project, Burgess does add that the mini-cabinet isn't a practical means of reliving your arcade days. Even though they're simplistic, the graphics take a hit on the small screen and the tiny controls aren't exactly primed for reflex-heavy play.
"Honestly the whole thing's a bit gimmicky for the sake of smallness," says Burgess. While made "for laughs," the Adafruit micro-cabinet is enough to make us go "aww" and more serious Pi-heads go "hrmm."
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