ITS Arcade Machine Project
7/17/2018
The Information Technology Services department here at CSU East Bay provides a wide variety of services, support, and utility. To provide as many options as we do, we need an equally diverse team, with each member of our department bringing something unique to the table. They utilize their skills not only through their work in ITS, but also through other hobbies and projects. Throughout the first few months of 2018 several members of ITS worked together to do something fun for the department, a small side project worked on during each member’s breaks and personal time off the clock. The goals were to make something that everyone in the department could enjoy, that could fit well in our new open office area, and promote a way for employees to get to know each other outside of their roles. The result was a custom-built, two-player arcade machine, running a wide variety of classic single-player and co-op games. The Arcade Machine is undergoing a few finishing touches, but will soon be moved from storage to the center of the main ITS office space for staff to use.
Jake Hornsby, the current CIO of ITS, suggested the original idea, sponsored the project, and donated to material costs. Programming for the Raspberry Pi based system was done by Alex Patterson, Operating Systems Analyst, and he also worked on the art for the right side of the machine. The left side of the machine, graphics, and marquee sign were all worked on by Markell Reed, Service Desk Analyst. The project was managed by Jean Paul Nguyen, Deployment Technician, and he also did the build work for the cabinet body and electronics.
