[Jason Winfield] had a nemesis – the Defender arcade machine. Having put fairly quite a lot of cash into one throughout his childhood, finally, he’s discovered himself as a seasoned maker, and determined to carry a rematch – on his personal phrases. For this, he’s recreated the machine from scratch, constructing it across the guts of a Dell laptop computer, and he tells us the story what it took to construct a brand new Defender this present day.

The Defender was a peculiar machine – it was in cocktail desk format, in contrast to many different arcade machines of that interval. From footage, he’s redesigned the entire thing in Fusion 360, in a far more desk-friendly format, however simply as fancy wanting as earlier than. As for the laptop computer, gutting it for its mainboard, display screen and audio system was a surprisingly painless process – all the pieces booted up first strive. A couple of board-fitted brackets and a swap from a HDD to a USB flashdrive for the OS later, the electronics have been prepared. As he was redesigning all the arcade machine anyway, the brand new design management panel was additionally trimmed down for ease of use, whereas preserving the unique vibrant look.

All in all, a powerful construct from [Jason] – in any case was set and achieved, we don’t doubt that he went on to, let’s say, settle some outdated scores. It’s not the primary time we see a desktop-sized arcade cupboard, and also you gotta admire the talents making such a machine smaller whereas sticking to the old-timey aesthetic! Or, maybe, would you want a cupboard that’s extra refined?