Supercade is an open-source arcade cabinet: two players, a real joystick-and-button deck, and a screen, in a cabinet you make yourself. The builder lets you pick a size (full size, kid height, the Mini that sits on a table, or Basic, which is two IKEA BESTÅ frames and a Pandora's Box with nothing to cut) and a material, pull the cabinet apart in 3D, check it against real people, then download the plans, the parts list, the cut files and a cost estimate.
“Arcade buttons and joysticks don’t shrink, so the smaller the cabinet, the more the controls decide its shape.”
We drew the first Supercade in 2016: a full-size plywood cabinet cut from three 4 x 8 sheets, with a PC, a USB encoder board and a small amp inside, and a cardboard control panel to prove the layout before any wood was cut. In 2026 we picked it back up to make it something a family can build. There's now a Mini that stands on a table and can be made from cardboard boxes, a kid-height version of the full cabinet, and a builder that turns one set of measurements into printable plans, DXF and SVG cut files for a CNC or laser, and a shopping list for whichever size and material you choose. The Basic build came from asking whether any of this could be done with one trip to IKEA and no tools: it can, and it's the only one with a glass door.
Everything comes from one set of numbers. The printable plans, the 3D builder, the cut files and the parts list are all generated from the same side profile, so a fix in one place shows up everywhere. That's what let us rework the design quickly once we could walk around it in 3D.