Galagino Miniature ESP32 Arcade Emulator

Many would agree with Till Harbaum that Galaga, Pac-Man, and Donkey Kong are three of the most iconic arcade machines of all-time. His fantastic Galagino project ports all three of these classics into an ESP32-powered cabinet that you can hold in the palm of your hand.

Code and build files can be found here on GitHub, along with a bit more explanation on how the project works. What’s interesting is that while the ESP32 boasts a dual core processor running at 240MHz – computing power that would have been unheard of in these games’ 1980s heyday – getting emulation to work properly was still a challenge.

As an example of why such ports can be difficult, the original Galaga arcade machine was driven by three Z80 CPUs, plus another two processors for button mashing, coin inputs, and audio. Add in other dedicated hardware, and the nuances of each particular game setup, and one can see how porting an old arcade game isn't as simple as bringing the ESP32’s massive computing power to bear.

The good news is that Harbaum has done all the emulation work for you. You'll just need to source the ROMs from elsewhere and compile.

Build files for the little arcade cabinet are available in the project repository, which features optional lighting for its marquee. It looks nice here, but one could also see this mini-cabinet design adapted for other purposes beyond its original three games. Development of the game system is shown in this YouTube playlist, which includes the embedded video below.