Tiny Dancer

At one time or another, we have all made a purchase that did not live up to the marketing hype. It might have been the revolutionary kitchen gadget that promised to simplify our cooking routine but ended up gathering dust in a corner. Or perhaps it was the cutting-edge smartphone that boasted unparalleled features but failed to deliver on its battery life. The discrepancy between the alluring promises of advertisements and the actual performance of products often leaves us feeling disillusioned and skeptical about the claims made by companies.

YouTuber BigRig Creates recently felt the sting of deceptive advertising after purchasing a mini Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) arcade machine. Considering that the machine costs under $25 and is small enough to sit on a tabletop, despite the fact that most of the fun of playing DDR involves tapping one’s feet on the control surface to match the action on the screen, most buyers likely do not have especially high expectations. But BigRig Creates found that the DDR machine’s performance did not even clear this low hurdle.

For starters, the advertising materials showed the mini arcade machine with a screenshot from the 1998 arcade version of the game superimposed over the screen, which looks nothing like the actual product. Moreover, the device only has three playable songs, and the sound left a lot to be desired. This sort of disappointment leads to a lot of electronic gadgets sitting in a corner collecting dust. BigRig Creates, however, decided to make it better.

The goal was to turn the machine into something like what it appeared to be in the marketing materials — a tiny version of the classic arcade game. The hardware in low-cost electronics like this DDR machine is often not worth the time and effort to repurpose. Good luck identifying the components, let alone finding datasheets. So, BigRig Creates took a more sensible approach and gutted the cabinet.

The internals were replaced with a Raspberry Pi 4 single-board computer and a one-inch LCD display to match the dimensions of the original. A mini amplifier was chosen to drive the existing speaker, and the arcade cabinet’s buttons and LEDs were wired into the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins. This hardware did not quite fit into the tiny case, so BigRig Creates trimmed everything possible within the case, then even took the unusual step of trimming the Raspberry Pi’s GPIO pins to make more space. Even still, the hardware did not quite fit, but BigRig Creates called it good enough and moved on noting that one could solve the problem with a custom PCB if they felt it was worth the effort.

The hardware stack was pretty simple, so aside from issues with fitting the components in the case, the build went pretty smoothly. Getting the software up and running was more of a challenge. Using the arcade’s LCD display and speakers as the primary outputs for the Raspberry Pi took quite a lot of effort. Running StepMania — open source software used to design DDR-like games — also took some doing. But after working through these issues, and writing a Python script to control the I/O between the Raspberry Pi and the arcade cabinet’s controls and LEDs, the build was complete.

Unfortunately, StepMania would not run very smoothly on a stock Raspberry Pi 4, so BigRig Creates needed to do some overclocking. This solved the problem, but led to issues with overheating, so a large fan needed to be installed in the back of the case. That would be the same back of the case that did not quite fit as it was, so the build was not getting any prettier, but at least it worked well.

The upgraded device was taken to the LTX Expo to see how gamers liked the build. The reviews were mixed, with most people indicating that it was fun to play, but the wrong platform for the game. It may not be a huge hit, but at least it lives up to the marketing hype now.

If you want to see more mini arcade cabinet hacks, take a look at my own overly complicated effort to “fix” a Galaga machine.