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Raspberry Pi 5 powered 'wall arcade' features a big, low-res RGB LED matrix display
There's nothing like retro gaming on the Raspberry Pi but we haven't quite seen a gaming rig like this. Leave it to the Pi community to blow our minds and expectations out of the water. This project, created by maker and developer John Park is using our favorite SBC — the Raspberry Pi 5 — to drive a cool wall arcade featuring RGB LED matrix panels as the main display.
According to Park, this setup doesn't just look the part. You can actually play games on the system like a real arcade using wired USB controllers. That said, you're limited by the display capabilities of the matrix panel display. It can run demos with cool retro-style animations but also play a few homebrew games that are created using the PICO-8 Fantasy console.
The project is built around the latest Raspberry Pi 5 which not only drives multiple HUB75 RGB matrix panels but also runs the operating system used for gaming. The hardware is housed inside of an Ikea Sannahed picture frame which has been fitted with some custom 3D-printed components to mount everything together. The brackets are part of the design and can be seen around the perimeter adding a nice dash of color to its overall look.
The board Park selected to run this setup is the Raspberry Pi 5 4GB model. It's connected to four 64 x 64px HUB75 RGB LED matrix panels via an Adafruit RGB matrix bonnet that makes short work of proving power and data to the display. A USB external stereo speaker provides audio output. For user input, it relies on a couple of USB controllers.
The software used to run the arcade games is known as PICO-8 Fantasy Console. This is a system that comes with a handful of custom games that are reminiscent of existing titles. It's not freeware, however, and costs $15 (USD). It's compatible not only with the Raspberry Pi but also Mac and Windows machines. PICO-8 can also be used to code, create music and even develop game assets like sprites and maps.
If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, you're in luck. Park uploaded a full build guide for the project complete with links to everything you need to reconstruct it at home over at the Adafruit website.
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Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
