Hi, I'm Linus Sebastian
There's no greater source of joy in this world than a personal computer.
But everyday,
elderly devices,
like this one, find themselves without a home.
Discarded,
Abandoned,
Forgotten.
So I'm here today to ask you,
not for a donation,
But just for a moment of your time to listen as we show you a path to a future, where you,
and our slightly obsolete gaming PC,
can pwn together once more.
This is your chance to say:
"I won't sit by while a computer suffers."
*Music*
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Learn more at the link in the video description.
So when Taran first came to me in proposed building a custom arcade box,
*scoff*
I immediately demanded he get back to work and stop wasting company time. A short while later,
coincidentally, I independently
came up with a brilliant idea.
Why don't we build our own custom arcade box?
So first then, we set out to construct the computer that we would build the arcade box around.
this is Linus Tech Tips so we could have easily strapped SLI Titans and an 8K monitor to a piece of plywood,
and called it a day.
*retro doo doo doo doo*
But the hardware demands of emulating ancient software are actually very light. And besides, silly
intro bit aside, we wanted the focus of this video to be on showing how you can get a little more mileage out of your
components that are nearing the end of their useful life.
So it was important to us, that every part of our computer was something that would be..
coming up on replacement age and readily available second hand.
In the end, for a really reasonable price, we were able to put together
What would have been a respectable mid-range gaming PC, circa
2011. With just one unusual requirement:
We wanted a video card with an s-video output
Because, we are TOTALLY going to rock a CRT in our finished build for authenticity
Once all of the hardware was in place
We were ready to set up our front end, the program that wraps everything together in order to use MAME,
the go-to, but
notoriously command line only arcade emulator
that's been around since the mid 90s the
The front end allows us to peruse our vast collection of "legally" obtained software and then run it in the emulator.
Our first pick was RetroArch, a front end that handles a number of different emulators,
and, ah, has an...
infamously... innovative menu design.
While it took a little internet archaeology to assemble all the files we needed,
we were actually able to get it up and running.
Just not quite to our satisfaction.
Without, endless tinkering,
it messed with MAME's control layouts too much
to try to conform them to its own,
and a lot of our legally obtained software couldn't be detected.
So we had a conundrum on our hands.
we wanted to stick with open source software,
but most of the purpose-built arcade front ends that met our standards...
Well, they're proprietary.
So we dug deeper into the depths of the internet and discovered a relatively new front end called Attract-Mode.
With a healthy community making skins and plugins,
Attract-Mode gave us the perfect storm of form and function.
It even supports scripting, which will be important later on in our project.
Well, that's all, fine and good but at this point...
All you got Linus is a geriatric PC, running emulation software.
That's a, far cry from the full-on arcade experience that, ah, I was expecting.
I mean, look at this thing
So yeah, you're right.
We needed joysticks, buttons, light guns, and a big beautiful monitor to show it off on.
So, I tasked my staff with scouring Craigslist and eBay for some,
previously loved accessories that we could dust off and put to use again
We were able to find multiple sources for everything we needed.
This was actually the smoothest experience we've ever had buying guns off Craigslist.
When it came to buttons and joysticks though, we found the secondary market to be basically non-existent.
You CAN order one of the pre-built arcade decks that are out there,
but we really wanted to customize our own.
So we did.
After some research, we reached out to Andy over at Ultimarc in the UK,
which is one of the better known arcade parts suppliers for enthusiasts,
and, after a couple minutes of browsing their website,
found exactly, what we wanted:
RGB!
YESSSS!
So we asked for 30 of their classic RGB buttons with seven Ultralux chrome buttons for special functions and
heh heh yup, that's right,
they even have RGB sticks too.
so the 2 servo sticks we went with have interchangeable handles,
and, with some clever software they can automatically change
from 8 way, to 4 way,
which is great when you're switching between your,
completely legitimate copy of "Pac Mister",
to something like, "Street Conflict."
But what about games that use analog controls?
Ah ha!
well THAT'S where the ultra stick 360 comes in.
It uses a Hall effect sensor in order to determine
where the stick is,
making it Incredibly accurate and durable.
Add in their RGB trackball and a spinner,
and we are covered for all of our button and stick games.
But
what would an arcade box be without slick shooting games?
Your "House of the Recently Deceased" or
"Time Conundrum?"
Well, we plugged in those light guns that we bought,
Expecting to be immediately putting zombies back in the ground,
And that's where we hit a MAJOR setback.
Who could have guessed?
While the Guncon IIs that we obtained were technically functional,
the drivers they require are ANCIENT
and in order to install them successfully we would have had to use composite video.
Not good enough for us from a retro purist standpoint.
And the other set we picked up was a used pair of Act Labs,
uh, USB
light guns, but we ended up running into another problem with them!
They were designed specifically for PC MAME cabinets,
so we would have ended up using janky USB to game port adapters,
and frankly,
They just felt kind of crummy anyway.
so we ended up reaching out to ultra mark,
"H-Hey, it's us again!"
And they sent us
*shuffle*
THESE bad boys!
These AimTrak IR light guns worked perfectly with our system,
AND
they even fire SIDEWAYS
BIATCHES!
Which brings us then, to finding the right TV.
If you want to use traditional light guns,
we will need a CRT.
You can learn more about why that is here.
So these ones we got locally work,
and the prices were definitely right,
but S-video ended up being pretty disappointing,
and scaling games from different eras was problematic.
so back to eBay we went,
and there we managed to procure a Toshiba pure flat CRT
out of a Namco machine that takes both retro RGB
and VGA.
That's important because this thing can take signals that range from the Chunky dots that Pac gentlemen eats,
all the way up to the super fresh sprites in Street Conflict 3,
and display them as they were originally intended.
Okay then.
So we have our hardware together.
We have all the software set up.
Now, we just need something to put it all into.
Now our original plan
was to either find a decommissioned arcade cabinet,
or just build one ourselves out of scrap plywood
But while both of those are valid options for sure,
We wanted to make the final product as cool as possible to show you guys just how far you can go.
so we reached out to Scott over at Northcoast Custom Arcades and,
this is actually how it went down,
basically begged him to let us use one of his Ultimate Arcade II Cabinet kits.
He was happy to oblige,
and actually for good measure,
even threw in the classic control panel kit and all the mounts we'd need to get our display in place
a major potential issue for these large and heavy CRT monitors.
And the end result goes without saying,
is absolutely breathtaking
I mean, you don't need to go all out like we did.
and with high end CRTs no longer in production
Some parts of the experience are gonna get harder, and harder to recreate as time goes on,
even if you did want to go all out
But we're really glad that we took on this project.
With a home arcade box, you can play your favorite games with your friends,
just like you might have as a kid way back in the 80's, 90's or 2000's,
with the buttons and joysticks feeling exactly how you remember them.
The screen and emulator's surprising authenticity helped drive that home,
and with our custom cabinet the whole thing just exudes
quality,
like we just put together a kit from Sega or Namco themselves
for our bowling alley quarter muncher.
Not that it needs to munch quarters anymore.
That's the REAL reason people invest hundreds and hundreds of dollars in these things.
You just have a button!
To continue! Woo!
But even more than that the real reason we built it,
is that a custom cabinet like this adds a touch of retro gaming class to any room.
No exceptions.
At all
Ting is the mobile carrier that's focused on customer service and customer satisfaction
I know, what a concept.
When you call ting to talk to customer support,
you actually get put through directly to a person.
And, you're not paying extra for that level of TLC.
The average Ting bill is just 23 bucks a month
per device.
and if you're stuck in a contract and switch to Ting,
they'll even cover up to 25% of your cancellation fee up to 75 bucks
they have lower mobile data rates (data is now just $10 a gig beyond the first gig)
and every single Ting customer gets the benefits
of any rate changes that they make.
so head over to linus.ting.com.
We've got that link below and try their savings calculator to find out if you'll save money on Ting.
When you sign up at our link you'll also get 25 bucks and service credit or
towards a shiny new device.
so thanks for watching guys and coming along on this journey of
resurrecting retro hardware if you disliked it. You can hit that button
But if you liked it hit the like button get subscribed maybe consider checking out where to buy the stuff
We see sure it's almost vip views but whatever at the link in the video description also down there
You'll find our merch store. Which has closed shirts like this one as well as our community forum which you should totally join