An Entire Arcade in a Briefcase

Arcade games have a certain charm that's hard to replicate with modern consoles. Sure, you can play classics like Donkey Kong and Street Fighter on just about anything these days, but there's something special about standing in front of an arcade cabinet with a joystick and a bunch of oversized buttons. Unfortunately, arcade machines are big, heavy, and not exactly something you can throw in the car for a weekend getaway. Maker Michael Alm came up with a clever solution to that problem by building a two-player arcade cabinet that folds up like a briefcase.

Alm's portable arcade machine packs everything needed for some old-school gaming into a portable wooden enclosure. When opened, the upper half is equipped with a 15.6-inch LCD monitor, while the lower half houses two sets of arcade controls. Once it's time to pack up, the screen folds down over the controls, and a carrying handle makes the whole thing easy to transport.

The system is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ running Batocera, a Linux-based operating system designed for retro gaming and emulation. With access to thousands of classic games, the little computer can turn just about any display into a retro gaming machine. But what really makes Alm's creation special is the supporting hardware.

Each player gets a professional-grade Sanwa joystick and six Sanwa arcade buttons arranged in the popular Vewlix layout. The buttons are angled to follow the natural position of the fingers, while the entire control panel slopes upward at 7.5 degrees for a more comfortable playing experience. Additional buttons handle functions like inserting virtual coins, starting games, and navigating menus.

An I-PAC 2 controller interface connects the joysticks and buttons to the Raspberry Pi. This board translates the inputs into signals that the computer can recognize without custom software.

To build the enclosure, Alm first designed the panels in Adobe Illustrator and used a Bambu Lab laser cutter to cut the Baltic birch plywood. He also routed recesses into the control panel so the arcade buttons could snap securely into place.

One of the trickiest parts was designing a hinge that would allow the cabinet to fold closed without the joysticks hitting the screen. Rather than using standard hinges, Alm built his own using brass tubing and rods. Short sections of hollow brass tubing were embedded into the plywood side panels, with solid brass rods running through them to create pivot points. This allowed him to position the hinges precisely where they were needed to provide clearance for the joysticks, while keeping the hardware largely hidden inside the wooden enclosure.

With thousands of retro games available and room for two players, the finished arcade cabinet is the kind of thing you could bring along on vacation, take to a friend's house, or pull out whenever you're in the mood for some nostalgia. And when the gaming session is over, just fold it up, grab the handle, and take the arcade with you.