This 3D-Printable 8” Retro Gaming Arcade Is Perfect for Bar Tops

It’s hard to come up with an exact number, but there have easily been tens of thousands of unique video games released over the past several decades. While many of those can be played on the current generation of consoles, the vast majority simply aren’t available. Unless you want to acquire every computer and video game console released over the years, the best way to play those games is with an emulator running on a computer. If you don’t want to dedicate your primary computer to that job, you can build the simplyRetro D8 3D-printable bar top arcade.

The simplyRetro D8 arcade machine features an 8” IPS LCD screen, which is large enough for most games while still being small enough for a compact arcade cabinet suitable for bar tops. It has a total of 12 arcade buttons (including the four buttons for the joystick), so you should be able to play just about any game from the fourth generation of consoles or earlier that supports a gamepad. That includes a lot of games that were released for the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and many other retro computers. There are speakers built into the arcade cabinet so you don’t miss all of that glorious 8-bit video game music.

The emulation capabilities come from RetroPie, which is a special Linux distro that runs on a Raspberry Pi and that is designed specifically for user-friendly retro gaming. You can use just about any Raspberry Pi for this project, but it’s recommended that you use a Pi 3B+. The Pi 4 is more powerful, but isn’t completely supported yet. The enclosure can be 3D-printed on just about any model of 3D printer using whatever filament materials you prefer (contrasting colors go a long way). Assembly takes some finesse, but should be easy enough for most makers. The finished simpleRetro D8 is perfect for bar top or coffee table retro gaming.