Review
(^200) The Official Raspberry Pi Projects Book raspberrypi.org/magpi
Level
up your
Raspberry Pi
Monster Joysticks
Maker
Says
DELUXE ARCADE
CONTROLLER KIT
ack in issue 63 of The MagPi
magazine (magpi.cc/63)
we took you through a
comprehensive arcade machine
build, including a complete wooden
build of the cabinet itself. While it’s
certainly impressive, not everyone
has the space, time, or money for
one. This is where awesome little
kits like this one from Monster
Joysticks come in.
You’ve probably seen this type
of kit before – it’s an all-in-
one arcade joystick and case for
your Raspberry Pi that turns it
into a small and portable arcade
machine. Just hook it up to the
nearest television and you’re ready
for some Elevator Action. It’s like
the plug-and-play mini Mega
Drive you got for Christmas a few
years ago, or the more recent SNES
Classic Mini.
Unlike the stocking filler
plug-and-play consoles, this kit
requires you to build your gaming
system and supply the Raspberry
Pi that powers it. Construction is
very simple, though: there are six
acrylic panels for each side of the
box and only eight screws required
to fasten them all together.
Quality components
The kit comes with nine genuine
Sanwa arcade buttons and a Sanwa
joystick, which just simply click
into the acrylic panels as you
build them.
To wire up the buttons and
joystick, a little add-on board
is provided with colour-coded
wires. They can be a little
tricky to properly attach to the
connections as the connectors
themselves are a bit tight,
but you don’t have to worry
too much about wires getting
tangled up. You may also need
to push down the top panel a
bit due to resistance of all the
wires, but otherwise it all fits
fairly neatly inside. You can find
the full build instructions on
the Monster Joysticks website:
magpi.cc/2i3iQp8.
The build took us just shy
of three episodes of The Simpsons,
so make sure you set aside about
an hour for the job. Our only
real complaint about the build
is that, while all the ports and
even SD card slot are readily
accessible, the Raspberry Pi
can only be removed by taking
the case apart. It will only take
a couple of minutes to remove
it, but we’d have preferred it to
be a little easier.
Rob Zwetsloot builds a mini arcade machine with this all-in-one
controller kit from Monster Joysticks
B
PICADE
CONSOLE
The product
that launched
Pimoroni is
very similar to
the Monster
Joysticks
version,
although it
has a slightly
nicer case.
magpi.cc/2pwjhhS
Related
£75 / $83
DELUXE ARCADE CONTROLLER KIT