ARTcade

The Accessible, Portable Arcade Cabinet

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So you want to build an arcade that is both accessible to those with a variety of mobility disabilities and easily portable?

Lucky for you, you're in the right place.

By Katie J Vaccaro, kvj004@bucknell.edu, July 2025.

Beginnings

In the summer of 2025 I was given the incredible opportunity by Professor Ross in the Computer Science department to build the accessible arcade cabinet, an arcade cabinet that is both accessible and portable. I only had 5 weeks to work on this project, so I hit the ground running on this project. To begin working towards our goals, I drafted up many different ideas of physical arcade cabinets. Originally we wanted a wooden arcade, one that would be stable and easily taken apart. When ideating how to disassemble this arcade, many different corner connecters were suggested such as: cam locks, latches, or t-nut backings. We decided on t-nuts for an initial prototype as I am familiar working and installing them through my past working at a rock gym. With that decided, it was time to start building. It is important to note that I had never done any woodworking or prototyping beyond 3D printing before this project so a lot of this was new. Thanks to the very kind folks in the Mooney Lab and the MakerE I was able to get started. I used a laser-cutter for cutting our wooden panels to size, a table saw to cut the internal supporting 2x4's, and a drill press for drilling corresponding holes into said 2x4's. To have the cabinet accessible to those of varying mobility abilities, especially if one was coming to use the arcade in a wheelchair, we planned to attach shelf railings to the front panel of the arcade and corresponding shelf racks to the control box in order to allow for height adjustability. Progress was good with a low fidelity prototype made, however we soon realized that wood would not work in the long run.

A whiteboard containing a sketch of the right and left paneling with its dimensions of 2ft by 4ft marked out along with its internal 2x4s

Side panels:

Have a diagonal cut out to achieve the classic arcade shape
Front panel would be set back a foot from the front of the side panel

Initial Design

A whiteboard drawing of the front and back paneling of the arcade with the front panel distinctly shorter than the back and the front panel has shelf railings drawn on

Front & Back panels:

Front panel is a foot shorter than the rest of the panels
Front panel also includes rails so the controller box would be height adjustable

A whiteboard drawing of the control box with holes cut out for a joystick and buttons as well as slots for aux ports

Controller Panel:

Controller panel has button cut outs with aux ports surrounding each button
The back of the control panel would have connectors to attach to the front panel tracks

Initial Low Fidelity Prototype

Professor Ross balancing 4 wooden panels, held together by t-nuts and hex bolts, with internal 2x4s.

Our first prototype! Being able to actually assemble a design taught us a lot, a key thing being that wood and t-nuts were not stable enough to hold together a wooden arcade, and the wood that we used for the paneling was too thin. After this design, we realized that it would be difficult to join the corners together in a way that is easily disassembled. With this new realization, we started searching for an alternative and lucky for use, Matt Lamparter, director of the MakerE and the ECE labs, had an idea.

80/20 Pivot

80/20 aluminum bars are light and easy to work with and have their own internal joining nuts, allowing for it to be easily taken apart and but back together. This was the solution we had been searching for. The plan was to create an external frame and a frame to hold the control box out of the 80/20 1010 1 by 1 inch bars. These would then come together to form the skeleton of our arcade. I was heavily inspired by the Blondicade arcade done by the creator Blondihacks, who had made an arcade with 80/20s. However, with this pivot we had to rethink of how to have the system be height adjustable. Eventually after looking for a sustainable option, we settled on using a height adjustable pillar that could automatically raise and lower with the push of a button. With these decisions made, we felt confident in designing and building a higher fidelity prototype, and moving forward in creating a control box.

A metal frame made with 80/20 aluminum bars with either external corner brackets or internal nuts holding it together

80/20 Design

These designs were made with the IDEABUILDER website directly from 80/20 so that we are able to design with their bars directly.

A controller box mount made of the 80/20 aluminum bars with external corner connecters. It also has an upper bar attached to it for the monitor to be mounted onto

The circuit diagram of the AUX ports and buttons connected

Controller Box

The controller box was another key part of making the system accessible. Most accessibility technology uses bigger buttons that are attached via aux ports. So in order to allow someone who could not use our initial buttons to play on the system, we installed AUX ports for each input so that people may bring their own buttons if needed. The controller box itself is wooden and it is not able to be disassembled. Each input is labeled and connected to our internal computer running the arcade via a USB encoder. To connect the AUX ports to the buttons and joystick, I soldered them in parallel with the devices internal PCB. A photo of the circuit diagram is shown to the bottom right, curtesy of Matt Lamparter who helped me figure out how to wire the AUX ports in. To assemble the box I initially 3D printed corner braces to screw everything together, but eventually realized for the time we had wood glue would work much better to join together the box.

A wooden control box with a joystick to the left and 4 buttons on the right with AUX ports surrounding each button and 4 surrounding the joystick

Susquehanna Valley Research Symposium

In between building the metal arcade, I was given the amazing opportunity to attend the Susquehanna Valley Research Symposium. This was an amazing opportunity where I got to hear about so many different and interesting research projects and even share my own work!

Myself presenting my poster at the research symposium

Myself and Professor Ross using the band saw in the PDL to cut the 80/20 bars to size

Final Building Process

Once all of our bars came in, we needed to cut them to size. A big thank you to Daniel Johnson in the Product development lab for his help in teaching me how to use a band saw in order to cut the bars to size and an even bigger thanks to him for milling all of the edges of the bars for me while I was away at the Susquehanna Valley Research Symposium. Once all the bars were cut to size and milled, they needed holes tapped into them so that they could be screwed together as well as access holes so that we can tighen the internal bolts and they would be hidden. To drill the access holes, Professor Siegel in Mechanical Engineering was generous enough to let us borrow hit jig from 80/20 for drilling access holes. Finally, we needed to cut and drill a 3/4 inch wooden panel for internal support to be mounted atop the lifting column. This would hold our controller mount, control box, monitor, and computer. Once all of this was completed we were able to fully assemble the arcade!

A side view of the fully assembled arcade frame and controller mount with the control box mounted. Also visible is the internal lifting column and wooden paneling holding the controller mount.

Final Design/Mid Fidelity Prototype

A front facing view of the finalized arcade with the monitor mounted atop the internal wooden platform

The final design! It is successfully able to disassemble and reassemble as well as being height adjustable.

A side view of the finalized arcade model with the lifting column, computer, speakers, internal wires, and frame all shown

Next steps & Future Considerations

One thing planned but was unable to come to fruition due to time constraints was to slot acrylic paneling in between the side bars to have a more unified and aesthetic look. Another next step would be to recut and adjust the holes for mounting the internal wooden panel and ensure stability. For the future I would also like to mount bigger buttons into the control box itself as the current model depends on an outside source bringing these buttons. Our final next steps would be to get play testers of varying sizes and mobility abilities in order to see what would be best to do next.

Concluding Thoughts

This project has taught me so much about myself and the work I am capable of. I am an Electrical Engineer, so diving into a project where I would be performing mostly physical mechanical tasks was daunting. The most important thing I learned through this project, was to be unafraid to ask for help and make mistakes. I did not know how to design an arcade, let alone build it. Thanks to those around me and the confidence Professor Ross had in me, I was able to rise to the challenge and teach myself the skills required to do such a thing. Asking for help was also another hurdle to cross as many of the tools I needed to build the device I had never used before. But, thanks to all of the wonderful Lab technicians and Professors I worked with, I was able to actually build a functional arcade. These 5 weeks will be an experience I carry with me for the rest of my life, and that is somehting I am truly grateful for.

Special Thanks

A special thanks is needed for all of the wonderful people who made this project happen.

Professor Ross, Professor Mitsch, and Professor Romano

Aaron Clark and the Mooney Lab

Matt Lamparter and the MakerE

Daniel Johnson and the Product Development Lab

Ian Straits

Professor Nate Siegel

Blondicades

NSF CRII #2246036

Bucknell Swanson Fellowship

AccessComputing REU

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