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Teach Your Child Engineering, Electronics Skills By Building A Toy With Them

Andy Robertson explains the benefits of building an arcade machine with your child – including engineering and electronics skills

I’ve tried to get my son into programming and electronics in the past without much luck. He plays a lot of games and I know understanding how they are made would help him diversify his activity.

I’d also wanted to tempt him to play the games I used to enjoy as a youngster. These are the coin-operated arcade machines I used to make trips to seaside towns to play. Apparently, they are “too hard” and “too old fashioned” for him.

These are 4-foot versions of the full sized machines I remember. Bucking the trend of building cabinets that play multiple games, these look to honour not on the on-screen action but the branding, button position and decals of the original.

It’s easier to build than IKEA furniture

He got the bulk of it done without help, though. A nice touch is that rather than having one bag of all the screws, each type is in its own labelled container. This makes putting the cabinet together easier than even the easiest of IKEA furniture.

But it was the electronics that really sparked his imagination. The level of the build here is plugging together the arcade board to the screen and assembling the joysticks. But seeing the guts of the machine like this has led to him investigating further though.

Andy’s son working on the machine

I managed to dissuade him from switching out parts so soon (although we may at some point), but we did spend the afternoon opening up the controller and having a look at how it all connected up.

This has all been good fun. But what I’ve enjoyed most is playing Street Fighter against him (and increasingly losing). Seeing how this works under the hood has really got his interest and he’s even preferring these one-on-one battles to Fortnite’s Battle Royale.

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There are, of course, cheaper ways to play Street Fighter II than these £349.99 replica cabinets. But playing on a console or gamepad doesn’t recreate that feeling I remember, of being in the arcade and placing down 10p’s to claim my go on the machine.

Also, having this in the home has made our gaming both a family activity and spectator sport. If anyone is doing well on a particular run, they soon have the rest of the family gathered around cheering them on.

Everyone who visits us now has to get a go on the machine as well. Everyone has their own favourite game they’d like to see given this replica treatment. For me, I’d love a Bobble Bubble and Rainbow Islands machine. Either that or the original Wonderboy.

Source: UK Mirror

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