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Arcadimac: Best Use for an Old iMac [Casemod]

October 8th, 2008 by: Technabob


Got an old Apple iMac lying around? Here’s a great way to put your computing dinosaur to good use.

arcade imac casemod

Mac modder Napes took an original bondi blue iMac, built it into a custom cocktail-format arcade cabinet, and transformed it into a full-fledged arcade gaming system. Thanks to the scan lines on the iMac’s bubbly 15″ color CRT, it’s the perfect display for that retro arcade feel.

arcade imac casemod inside

The arcadiMac runs on a 233MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) processor, which may not seem like much by today’s standards, but it’s plenty powerful to run most classic arcade games (other then NEOGEO) using MacMame emulator software.

arcade imac casemod 2

To get all the real arcade buttons and joysticks to work with the iMac, Napes wired them through an iPac USB controller interface, and set up all the key mappings with QuickKeys. The total cost for the entire project was under $200 bucks (plus several months of blood, sweat and tears).

Ready to build your own arcadiMac? Napes plans on posting a build guide over on MacMod so you can make one for yourself.


Comments (4):

  1. Brian says:

    brilliant, I was wondering what to do with my old iMac cos I couldn’t part with it. I’ll have to have a go at this.

  2. quinquin says:

    Formidable, une idée de génie. Bravo c’est superbe

  3. napes says:

    Have started on second arcade table and did a random arcadImac search – didn’t realise this had turned up on here and on so many other blogs & techsites. For the record it gets hammered nearly every friday at work (where it now lives) and is still working like it did nearly 2 years back :)

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