The goal: a machine that boots like an arcade
A finished cabinet should do three things without a keyboard: power on into its game library, accept input from the panel immediately, and shut down without corrupting anything. Every setup choice below serves that goal. The hardware paths differ — Raspberry Pi with RetroPie or Batocera, or a Windows/Batocera mini PC — but the sequence is the same, and the order matters because each step is painful to redo after the cabinet closes.
Hardware for this setup:
- RasTech Raspberry Pi 5 8GB Kit (Active Cooler and 27W supply included), or
- CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Starter PRO Kit (pre-loaded card, fan case, switchable supply), or
- Beelink MINI S12 mini PC for the Windows/Batocera route
- A computer with a card reader for imaging, a keyboard for first setup, wired ethernet if available
Step 1 — Image the card (Pi) or install the OS (PC)
For a Pi, write your chosen front-end image to the microSD card with Raspberry Pi Imager or Balena Etcher. The CanaKit Pi 4 kit’s card arrives pre-loaded, which skips this step but not the configuration below. Choose the front end deliberately: Batocera is a self-contained Linux system that boots straight into the library, updates as one unit, and resists tinkering-related breakage — the appliance choice. RetroPie on Raspberry Pi OS is more flexible and more documented, and asks more of you. For the Beelink, install Batocera to the internal SSD for the same appliance behavior, or Windows if your library includes PC-native collections — and if Windows, plan the front end (LaunchBox/Big Box and its kin) as the boot target from the start.
Step 2 — First boot on the bench, not in the cabinet
Connect the brain to a monitor, keyboard and your wired control panel (see the wiring tutorial). Let the system complete its first-boot expansion and updates on your network — wired ethernet if you can, because a large library transfer over cabinet Wi-Fi is a slow lesson. Set the basics now: region and language, video output resolution locked to your cabinet monitor’s native resolution rather than “auto,” and overscan off for LCD panels.
Step 3 — Add games and artwork
Copy your legally obtained game files over the network share the front end exposes (Batocera and RetroPie both present one) or by card/SSD on the bench machine. Then run the scraper for box art and metadata while the system is still on fast network and a big screen. A library that looks finished is not vanity — in a cabinet, the front end is the product, and guests navigate pictures, not filenames.
Step 4 — Map the controls, both players, completely
Run the front end’s controller configuration with your actual panel, player 1 first, and map every input including start, coin and the hotkey combination. Then do player 2. Then — the step everyone skips — test a 2-player game and a 4-way game (a maze or classic title) to confirm directions behave, and exit back to the menu using only panel controls. Configure per-system overrides only where a system genuinely needs them; global consistency is what makes a cabinet feel professional.
Step 5 — Cabinet behavior: power, shutdown and attract
Set the behaviors that make the machine an appliance. Configure shutdown to be a menu action that powers the system down cleanly (on a Pi, never just cut power mid-write — SD cards corrupt, and it is always the evening guests arrive). The CanaKit supply’s on/off switch and the Pi’s power button support make this civilized. Decide on the power-on state: boot to the full library, or to a favorites list if children or guests are the primary audience. Enable the screen saver/attract mode if your front end offers one — a cabinet idling through game demos is the correct background for a game room.
Step 6 — Sound and display, calibrated in place
Move the brain into the cabinet, connect its final monitor and speakers, and recalibrate: volume at the amplifier (a cabinet amp such as the Fosi BT20A should be set once, then controlled from the front end), display brightness for the room’s lighting, and any scanline or shader effects at the viewing distance players actually stand. CRT shaders that look rich on a desk monitor can turn to mud at three feet behind plexiglass — judge in place.
Step 7 — Image the finished system
Before the first party, clone the card or image the SSD. A working cabinet’s software is a finished artifact; the backup turns any future corruption, failed update or experimental regret into a ten-minute restore instead of a rebuild. Store the image with the cabinet’s other documentation.
Step 8 — Housekeeping: updates, backups and the guest test
Two final disciplines separate cabinets that age gracefully from cabinets that fossilize. First, updates: decide now whether this machine updates automatically, on your schedule, or never — and write the decision on a label inside the cabinet door, because the person troubleshooting it in three years is you, with no memory of this afternoon. Our bias is scheduled and manual: let the machine be an appliance day to day, and give it a maintenance hour a few times a year, after which you re-image it (Step 7) so the known-good state is always the recent state. Second, the guest test: hand the powered cabinet to someone who has never used it, say nothing, and watch. Where they hesitate — which menu layer, which button exits, how to add a credit — is your configuration’s remaining defect list. Fix those three things and the machine is finished in the only sense that matters: it can be operated by its audience.
Route notes
- Pi 5 builders: use the 27W supply from the RasTech kit — under-voltage is the Pi 5’s favorite silent fault, and closed cabinets hide the warning icon behind a bezel.
- Integrated builds: the Pimoroni Picade’s X HAT handles controls and audio through the Pi’s GPIO — its setup replaces Steps 4’s encoder mapping with the Picade’s own configuration, and is the tidiest path of all.
- Zero-setup alternative: the Pandora Treasure 3D panel is a brain pre-installed in a control deck — plug into a screen and skip this tutorial entirely.
Choosing between the Pi and PC routes in the first place? Our brain comparison guide lays out the ceilings honestly.