For my Game and Watch Tabletop build, I’m using a Raspberry Pi, running Retropie, like all the cool kids. It works slick but there are a few issues. The older versions of MAME that that pi uses can’t play newer ROMs that have been recently added. That means all the cool handheld games recently added in the past year or two are out. Real bummer!

But, I can use Madrigal’s Simulators which do have most of the G&W Tabletop games. That’s important! MAME doesn’t yet have Coleco’s DK Jr., or Snoopy or Popeye for instance, which are all tabletop games. Those are the most important games I want to work since that’s what my cabinet will look like.

Additionally, a pi is super cheap, has plenty of support, and is so small it fits super well.

Control Interface

I was a little worried about how to get controls connected though. I prefer my controls to replicate a keyboard, I think that works best with MAME. The raspberry pi works great with USB joysticks or wireless gamepads (which are also good for libretro, the frontend/emulator interface) but they all act as gamepads – not keyboards. I could use something like a minipac, as I’ve done in other builds, but honestly that’s a little overkill for this.

That’s when I stumbled upon the arcade bonnet by Adafruit. Why do I love this thing? Let me explain. It connects directly to the pi, emulates a keyboard, has 6 inputs with easy JST connectors, an 8-joystick connection, analog joystick connection, AND has a built in mono audio amp. That really cinched the deal. Not only will it make connecting controls easy, but I won’t have to buy a separate amp – saving me both a USB connection (or the audio plug) and power.

You do have to solder the thing together a bit, but that was no problem. I also took the time to solder some of the small buttons to the JST quick connect wires. These tiny little buttons will go where the small alarm and other buttons on the tabletops were. They won’t be used in gameplay, but will have admin functions.