DIY Arcade System From Upcycled Kitchen Cabinet

My husband decided that the one thing missing from our playroom basement was an arcade machine. On a whim, he decided to just make one. He was so excited and worked diligently every night until it was finished. This post is very technical so I'm going to put some basics up here, but for more pictures and more detailed tutorial, please check out my blog post: http://www.diydanielle.com/2015/08/how-to-make-your-own-arcade-machine.html

We started out with a $30 cabinet that we picked up at Restore. We pulled off the front of it and I kept the drawers and front panel for other projects. I made the drawers into a sock organizer to help get the kids our of the house faster. I feel very strongly about trying to use each piece of an upcycled item, as much as possible.
Sock organizer: http://www.diydanielle.com/2015/07/sock-drawers-for-front-door-repurposing.html





This is the side door which now has a lock... all the quarters fall into a container inside and we can get them out as needed.





We found a template online for how to setup the buttons... my husband printed it, then used it to cut his holes for the buttons.





As you can see, there's a lot of wiring involved to get the buttons all functioning properly. We also have a keyboard hooked up that sits on top of the machine... this helps us escape out of games so we can pick out a different game to play. Oh- and we need to use the TV remote to turn on the TV. It's not as simple as a store bought arcade machine, but it also plays mannnnny mannnnny games.





The system came out really well and we give our son quarters as a reward when he cleans up after himself. He LOVES playing with us so it's a fun activity to do with him- especially as the games aren't super long so we don't end up spending half our day indulging in screen time.
We have 1.5 and 3.5 year old sons- the baby likes to pound on the controls, but my 3.5 year old LOVES the "money machine." I think he enjoys putting quarters into the machine almost as much- if not more- than playing. The kids stand on the train table to reach the controls.






Original article and pictures take http://www.hometalk.com/9752241/diy-arcade-system-from-upcycled-kitchen-cabinet site