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Screengrab via Adafruit Industries/YouTube

Meet the world’s smallest arcade cabinet

What is this, an arcade cabinet for ants?

 

April Siese

Internet Culture

Posted on Sep 18, 2016   Updated on May 25, 2021, 11:45 pm CDT

Tiny things are mystifying. People lose themselves for hours to videos of tiny food being prepared and hundreds of followers clamor for the tiny Twitter bots that make the social media platform a surprising delight.

Now you can lose yourself to tiny arcade cabinets, powered by Raspberry Pi.

Adafruit’s Phillip Burgess posted about his foray into tiny consoles this past week. While the devices are playable, they’re not for sale and really more of a gimmick than a functional means of gaming. Burgess has a brief overview of how to make these little guys on Adafruit, though he cautions that it’s lacking in depth and isn’t exactly a comprehensive how-to.

And, really, can you blame him for not wanting to push these arcade cabinets? Even the simplistic motion of playing Pac-Man looks repetitive strain injury-inducing.

https://vine.co/v/5JLgPiEYQ6V

Like its tiny predecessors, the device is nonetheless mystifying. And, with a little ambition, you too can make the cutest darn arcade cabinet known to man. Just don’t expect it to be an impressive gaming machine.

SEE ALSO: This tiny, adorable SNES actually works


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*First Published: Sep 18, 2016, 2:19 pm CDT