Nothing Is Better Than an Arcade Cabinet That Also Dispenses Beer
We’re not sure which games are installed, but you can bet we’d head to this Barcade before any other arcade cabinet.
If you even have the space for a full-size arcade cabinet then you’re already a pretty darn lucky person. Mini arcade cabinets and coffee table arcades have become popular specifically because not many people have room for a refrigerator-sized video game — or the money to pay for one. So if you do have an arcade cabinet, you might as well go all-out and make it like something out of a fantasy. That’s what Marcus Young has achieved with this arcade cabinet that features a built-in kegerator and beer tap.
The Barcaderator is easy to understand; it’s an arcade cabinet that dispenses beer. Because it has modern hardware inside and doesn’t actually need to be able to store an entire elementary school’s worth of allowance in quarters, there is plenty of room in the cabinet. Young has divided the cabinet up into two sections. One contains all of the electronic hardware, while the other contains a small refrigerator that keeps delicious brews chilled and ready for consumption. The only exception is the tap, which is on the top half and forces a tube to cross the DMZ between the two giant “modules.”
The electronics inside are pretty straightforward as far as emulated arcades go. A LattePanda Alpha single-board computer is running MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) on top of Ubuntu Linux. The LED-backlit arcade buttons are Spectra Eclipse models, and an Ultimarc Pacled64 LED controller takes care of illuminating them. The marquee at the top of the cabinet is an interesting faux-neon sign that was custom-ordered from Alibaba. All of the wood for the cabinet was CNC-cut, and some unusual hardware was used to join the two halves of the cabinet together. We’re not sure what games Young has installed, but you can bet we’d head to this Barcade before any other arcade cabinet.