Cupcade: the Raspberry Pi-Powered Micro Arcade Cabinet Kit (Rev 3)

Never be bored again with an adorable little arcade cabinet you can fit in your bag! This Raspberry Pi-powered kit combines our sharp PiTFT 2.8" display, mini thumbstick, mini arcade push buttons, and a whole bunch of components to create the most adorable arcade cabinet in the known universe.

Comes as a big kit with lots of parts including all electronic components, the laser-cut enclosure, and a blank SD card (you'll need to write the RetroPie image). You provide a Raspberry Pi, soldering iron, solder wire, basic electronic hand tools, tape, etc.

The kit now works with any modern Raspberry Pi (with a 2 x 20 connector), including the Pi Zero.

This kit has a lot of steps, so it's best for people who have soldered before and, even better, have a little Raspberry Pi/Linux use under their belt. Give yourself a nice long afternoon to put together (about 4-6 hours altogether).

We played a bunch of memorable old arcade games, like Ms Pacman, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Arkanoid, DigDug, Gauntlet, etc with squee success on a Pi Zero. For more advanced game emulation like Super Nintendo, use a Pi 3. Note we don't have a ton of buttons, since the Cupcade is so cute and small.

There are four buttons total, two next to the joystick for "fire" and "jump" and two in front for "coin" and "start". If you set up your Cupcade for 'horizontal' alignment, you can run 'TV' video games. If you set up for 'vertical' alignment, you can play classic MAME games that had vertical game grids.

Many details stand out here that show the love and care PaintYourDragon put into this kit.

• First: you can configure it for either vertical (Ms Pacman! Donkey Kong! Arkanoid!) or horizontal screen (Joust! Qix! Nintendo!). The controls can be set to either joystick-in-center or to the side. We provide for both configurations just pick which you want during construction.
• Second: We include a blank SD card that can be burned with RetroPie, the most popular Raspberry Pi arcade software
• Third: The display is small, but looks great - we take advantage of the optimized-for-HDMI software and then mirror the HDMI output to the small TFT
• Fourth: To load new ROMs, simply plug in the SD card into any computer and drag the zipped-up files into the directory. Or use WiFi to install over a shared folder.
• Fifth: What's gaming without the noise? There's a mono speaker that uses digital I2S so all your sounds and bleeps will be just the way you remember. There's digital volume control within RetroPie

Excited? You should be! And since you're so interested, check out the ultra-detailed tutorial with build photos, instructions, and more

You'll need two things to complete this project:

• A USB power supply (if you're in the USA, this one is recommended, we also carry an International version, or any USB power supply with 2A output will do).
• A Raspberry Pi Computer. If you don't have one yet, the Pi 5 is recommended, the Pi 5 is very fast and can emulate a lot better than a Pi Zero.

Package Contents

• PiTFT Plus Assembled 320x240 2.8" TFT + Resistive Touchscreen
• Adafruit Arcade Bonnet for Raspberry Pi with JST Connectors - Mini Kit
• Laser-cut Acrylic Cupcade Enclosure
  • 25 x Nylon 4-40 Hex nuts
  • 25 x Nylon 1/2" Pan Screws
• 8 GB SD/MicroSD Memory Card  BLANK SD CARD! You will have to burn the SD card with a RetroPie image
• Analog 2-axis Thumb Joystick with Select Button + Breakout Board
• 2 x 16mm Panel Mount Momentary Pushbutton - Black
• 2 x 16mm Panel Mount Momentary Pushbutton - Red
• Arcade/Button Quick-Connect Wire Pair - Set of 10 pairs
• GPIO Ribbon Cable for Raspberry Pi
• 2x20 Extra Tall Female Header
• 4 Ohm 3W Mono Speaker
• Premium Female/Female Jumper Wires - 20 x 6"