Main Project Inspiration: Arcade Machine

5 years ago

The inspiration for my final project is arcade machines from the 1980’s. Although all the different machines took on a variety styles, they kept to a central theme. The bright colors, the 8-bit designs of the games, the synthetic and “scratchy” music playing, and the flashing lights, were all essentail to every arcade game.

While I will not be creating my own version of these games, the plan is still to capture that aesthetic that is common to all of them. Arduino can be used to create patterns of flashing lights, and it also has a buzzer that can be used. This buzzer has a very distinct sound quality that will really capture the quality contained in these themes. The Arduino will then be housed in a case that takes the form of one of these old arcade machines, giving it the visual aspect of the aesthetic as well as the lights and the noise.

http://interactiveattractions.com/product/pacman-arcade/

Max Buechler

4 Comments. Leave new

Christopher Seighman
February 27, 2019 4:06 pm

It would be really cool to make a small functional arcade game! Laser cutting the panels to assemble the housing would be fairly straightforward, and you could use a Raspberry Pi running RetroPie to run the games!

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Taylor Whittemore
February 27, 2019 3:59 pm

I think that you have a really strong aesthetic that you are trying to mock but I am a bit confused about what you are actually creating. I think that you could use this aesthetic in a super interesting way to make a cool object but I am not sure I see the point in recreating an arcade game exactly without the game itself. You could create a mini one and keep your spices in it or use it as a table.

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Xavier Corr
February 27, 2019 2:15 pm

So you’re going to recreate an arcade machine minus the game, if I’m understanding you correctly? It might be interesting to apply the aesthetic to a different artifact. Since, like you mentioned, you could capture a lot of the aspects of the arcade machine and put it in whatever kind of case you like. It seems like a good space to explore, but I like the aesthetic!

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Jared Campbell
February 27, 2019 12:50 pm

Wow, this is a sick idea. It’s not really functional, but the aesthetic will be on point. The sounds along with being able to actually play the game brings it all together so maybe you can think of some addition so it’s not just a sound machine.

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