Game console

Arcadia

Arcadia is an emulation console built on an old laptop’s motherboard that runs games from Retroarch's cores. The custom controller connects to the mother board using a wired Raspberry Pi Pico based controller made on an XBOX controller layout. The end goal of Arcadia is to make games of various retro consoles playable at a single machine using any controller.

It supports the following consoles:-

• SNES
• NES
• N64
• GBA
• NDS
• WII
• Gamecube
• CPS3
• Dreamcast
• 32X
• Genesis
• Megadrive
• Saturn
• PS
• PSP
• PS2

UI images

Title Screen(Animations)

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/efa5a282-93ec-4039-b4d3-f5487ecb250c

Loading Screen

Main Screen (designed on figma)

Console Design(with storage compartment)

Controller

Controller Images

Controller Cad(1st week)

Controller Cad(2nd week)

Controller Cad(3rdweek) [Image blocked: Uploading image.png…]

pcb mount (to clean up after i learn form modelling)

Controller Description

• The controller consists of two alps alpine joysticks(ALPSALPINE RKJXV1224005) with digital tactile switches for menu, view, home, reset etc. It also contains 4 right angled trigger buttons (XKB Connection TC-1102N-C-DL-B) for LB, LT, RB, RT. + 8 more tactile buttons for X, Y, B, A and D-Pad.
• The controller runs with a raspberry pi pico which is mounted on the left side of the controller pcb

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Hardware Requirements

• Raspberry Pi Pico (RP2040)
• 1x Controller main PCB + 2x shoulder PCBs
• 2x Alps RKJXV1224005 analog joysticks
• 1x MCP3008-I/P ADC (DIP-16) + DIP-16 socket
• 12x 6x6 mm tactile switches (D-pad, ABXY, Menu, View, Home, Reset)
• 4x TC-1102N-C-DL-B right-angle tactile switches (LB, LT, RB, RT)
• 2x 100 nF ceramic capacitors
• 4x JST-XH 3-pin headers (B3B-XH-A) + 2x JST-XH 3-pin cables (straight-through)
• 4x M3 screws (main board) + 2x M2 screws (shoulder boards)
• Micro-USB cable
• 3D printed shell and button caps (PLA/PETG recommended)

PCB Architecture and design plus VERSION 1 of Controller design:

Schematic diagram of main PCB

PCB diagram of main PCB

Most beautiful creation by me :)

Main PCB in 3D viewer

Schematic diagram of Shoulder Board(LT,LB,RT,RB)

PCB diagram of shoulder PCB

Shoulder PCB in 3D Viewer

Reference for future controller design

Week 2 progress on controller:

In week 2, the bumper buttons rt,rb,lt,lb were changed to be analog, two dual shock motors to get haptic feedback and make the user feel emerged in the game (connectors were used for dual shock motors), then the pcb board was made by researching different fusion 360 tool and then mounting and routing components on the new board design followed by ground pour and then pcb mount was made to hold pcb within. Also form modelling was learnt

What to expect from the next week:

• Controller FULLY done with form tool (to make it more like ergonomic modern day controllers).
• Firmware written from scratch.

How do these boards connect/will connect to the 3d model:

There will be two copies used of shoulder board one for LB and LT and another for RB and RT and they will be tilted inwards at an angle of 45 degree and will be attached to the main PCB.

Pin Map

Buttons

All buttons are active-low (internal pull-ups, other side to GND).

Joysticks (via MCP3008)

MCP3008 SPI

Shoulder board connectors (JST-XH)

File Structure

Arcadia/

├── Cad(stil under development)/ # Fusion 360 model, assembly to be finished by next week.

├── Kicad/ # KiCad project files with their step models.

├── firmware/ # Control software for the Raspberry Pi Pico controller written in arduino IDE.

├── Gerber files # Gerber files for PCB manufacturing.

└── README.md # Project documentation.

Backend

The whole backend of our project runs on python and javascript.

Explanation File by File

1. main.py, loading.js :-

• It is the main core of emulator it will act as the 'OS' , acting as a bridge between the games and the frontend.
• It uses pywebview to convert the web ui into a desktop app which is the set as the default screen of the linux system much like the desktop of a windows or mac.
• Subprocess is used for gathering environmental variables, reboot and shutdown.
• It also scans the rom directory for game files, LauncherAPI keeps scanning for rom files.
• The games run straight from the app not any external launcher app.

2. index.html :-

• The main UI file of the whole project rendered by the pywebview.
• Bridges the user events and display all the data to the user.

3. loading.css , main.css , style.css :-

• for styling.

4. main.js :-

• smooth scroll, page transitions(glitch) and event listeners for navigation.

5. keyboard.js :-

• for controlling the ui using keyboard.

6. gamepad.js :-

• for controlling the ui using gamepad.

7. Learning Part(DIR) :-

• files we made while learning each of the features for this project.

Credits:

Made by thenobrainers -- Rishu, Araadh and Siddak with love ❤️.