Would you like to have an arcade machine at home that was as faithful as possible to the experience of the salons of the time and it seems to you that what is on the market is not faithful enough? Well, in this article we are going to give you tips on how to set up one based on a PC that looks and feels like the old ones.
In recent years the creation of home arcade has become very fashionable, either using standard PC hardware or variations of the hardware commonly used in PostPC systems such as tablets and smartphones. In the event that you are considering mounting one at home, we have a series of tips on the hardware that you have to choose if you base it on a PC so that it is as faithful as possible.
What power do I need for my arcade at home?
It depends on what type of arcade you want to build, since during different times these have had different specifications and therefore the cost of the emulation varies according to the kind of arcade machine you want to build for your home.
In principle, something like a Raspberry Pi should be enough for you, but you will find that there are arcade machines that are very difficult to emulate or do not emulate with all the ease that it should, that is why we recommend a PC, but neither you need to buy a next-generation PC like the one needed to play Cyberpunk.
Most emulators make all the emulation load fall on the CPU so this is the part that you will have to choose the best to ensure good performance in the emulation on all systems, but it is not that you have to buy a next-generation PC, yes, try to buy a tower, since we will need to install a graphics card as we will see later.
The old arcade screen problem
The games for the arcades were designed for the monitors of their time, which have long since been extinct. This means that you will not see the games in the same way as on the original machine. Add to this the fact that on LCD screens, if the input resolution is lower than the output resolution, it looks very bad.
The games of the first batch of arcade games had a 240p resolution and used the horizontal frequency rate of 15.75 KHz, which was common in NTSC televisions, the second batch already used a proprietary format of the arcade, that of 24 KHz. or known as 384p. The problem with most LCD monitors on the market? They do not support horizontal frequencies below the 31 KHz of the VGA standard. That is why we recommend that for your arcade machine you look for a multiSync monitor that supports the typical horizontal frequencies of the machines of the time in order to have the same image quality.
The other problem that you are going to encounter is the fact that the games of yesteryear worked on 4: 3 monitors when most monitors today are panoramic. Please note that on a 16: 9 screen all game pixels will warp and games will not look like
The best solution? Recycle an old CRT television
The other option is to pull up a MultiSync-capable CRT monitor and even an old TV. The problem is that tube televisions, regardless of whether they are PAL or NTSC, cannot reach 384p resolution at a frequency of 60 Hz, that is why if you have to use a tube monitor, look instead for a CRT for a computer that can support expected frequencies. Of course, it will be difficult to find one, since they are very rare and sought after by fans of retro systems.
But in the case that you have managed to get a TV from the old days and you want the image transmitted by the GPU to be the most correct of all then you are going to need a software called CRT Emudrivers 2.0. For this, you will need the Groovy Mame emulator, which is designed to be used in CRT monitors, whether they are conventional televisions, broadcasting televisions such as SONY PWM, PC monitors and even JAMMA monitors for recreational purposes.
But this works with any configuration, if not only on AMD Radeon GPUs. You don’t have to buy a next-generation card, what’s more, if you look a bit you may find a Radeon card at a very low price. Graphics cards from ten years ago or more are even more recommended, our recommendation is that you look for an AMD or ATI Radeon that carries a VGA output. Mind you, the solution doesn’t work with NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards.
In the event that your graphics card is not compatible with the input signal of the CRT monitor you use, we recommend buying a signal converter. A device or a small board that what it does is convert the VGA video signal to one that is compatible with said screen or monitor.
The controls for our arcade machine
In this case we are going to be direct and we will not make you make so many detours, what we do recommend is that you avoid poor quality copies and opt for what has Sanwa sticks and buttons. The model that we recommend is the Mayflash Arcade Stick F500 Elite, which has an excellent quality and does not have any complications. Obviously, if you are looking to play with more people, you must purchase one for each player.
Storage for our arcade machine
One very important thing for our arcade machine is that we can update its software without many complications, that is why we recommend that you do not install any internal hard drive in order to have faster access to update the software.
That is why we recommend using an external disk to connect via USB, it does not matter if it is SSD or HDD, it does not need to be high capacity since the ROMS take up a lot of space. You can even make use of a USB stick. Of course, configure the BIOS to boot from the USB port or you will not be able to use it.
Our recommendation for a complete experience is that you do not install Windows or any Linux distribution but GroovyArcade, which already comes with Groovy MAME integrated and is a LiveCD, so you only need to copy it to the USB Stick or HDD or External SSD.
And finally the furniture
What we have left is the furniture, which depends on each one of you and the tastes of each one. You can assemble it yourself or order it made, since there are sizes that specialize in building furniture for arcade machines. You also have the DIY option from plans from sites like MameRoom.
Once you have your arcade machine assembled, the fact that it is as faithful as possible to the machines of yesteryear will be what will make you most proud at the end of the project.