LCL Li's Tiny Capcom Arcade Cabinet Uses a Period-Appropriate, Though Scaled-Down, CRT Display
A 6" Sony tube gives this desktop arcade machine a real link to the past.
Retro-focused maker LCL Li has filled a gap in the emulated mini arcade machine market, designing the device that Capcom won't — and unlike mass-produced equivalents available for sale from other brands, this machine includes a compact period-appropriate cathode-ray tube (CRT) display.
"SNK, TAITO, and Sega have all launched their corresponding mini arcade machines," Li explains, referring to compact scale-model playable gadgets powered by software emulation running on an internal Arm-based single-board computer. "However, the arcade game giant Capcom has not released a mini arcade. This is a pity, so I plan to make a mini arcade of Capcom by myself, which can play classic games like 'Dino Dilemma' and 'Street Fighter.'"
The tiny replicas that inspired Li have a few things in common, beyond the use of emulation: they typically follow the appearance of a classic arcade cabinet near-perfectly, with some allowances for extra buttons, USB power inputs, and scaled controls to make playing the games easier — but they all use modern flat-panel liquid-crystal displays (LCDs.)
Li's approach is definitely more authentic: rather than a modern LCD, the mini Capcom cabinet features a genuine cathode-ray tube (CRT) display — exactly as would have been used in the original full-scale cabinet, but smaller. Taken from a portable monitor, the Sony tube chosen measures just 6" and comes with an RGBS input linked to the single-board computer inside a 3D-printed shell. A Microchip ATmega32U4 drives a two-player joystick control panel, finishing the build.
This isn't Li's first build to use a classic display technology. Earlier this month the maker unveiled the Cold Light Laptop, a 3D-printed x86 luggable based on desktop hardware and with a custom graphics card based around a mid-'90s VGA controller — driving a cheerily-glowing electroluminescent display panel.
Source code and 3D-print files for the mini arcade machine project are available on Hackaday.io, under an unspecified license.