Cowboy Arcade Project

My son and daughter-in-law built a bar in one of the rooms of their house. It is really quite fantastic and a fun place for friends and family to hang out, listen to the record player, watch a game, and have a beverage. They have an extensive collection of whiskey and are both accomplished mixologists.

I designed a logo for their bar, “Kaity’s Corner“, which uses green and pink, retro elements, and their cat, “Kitty”.

We were sitting around eating dinner one Sunday evening after working on the PETES Arcade and decided they needed an arcade machine so we could play retro games (including Tapper) in the bar. The room isn’t huge, so a full size cab wouldn’t be a great fit. Bartop was the way to go, and small/slim was even more the way to go. It was a fun evening and we left without any real plan or comittment.

Then my OCD set in and I stayed up way too late designing a slim, single player (6 pink buttons and pink balltop joystick) bartop cab complete with a lit marquee, two 2″ speakers, and a matching theme—I give you KITTYCADE:

The cab will be constructed of 1/2″ birch ply (except the back which will be 1/4″) to save on weight with the side edges finished in pink t-molding. It will run on a RaspberryPi and use an Ultimarc I-PAC2 to convert the buttons joystick to USB inputs for the computer. A USB input port will let them connect external controllers for 2 or 4 player games.

We have to finish PETES Arcade first, then Cowboy Arcade Redux, then we can tackle this project.