Retrocomputing is more than just hardware. It’s also a feel, a vibe, and [valkyrie0528]’s Retro Terminal Bartop Arcade Topper has it in spades. Here’s how it happened.
The gorgeous device …. 2026 Retrocomputing Challenge: Retro Terminal Bartop Arcade Topper. The same unit, in bartop arcade machine mode.
The gorgeous device you see in the image above in fact started out as a bartop arcade cabinet build. The front section — with arcade buttons and joystick — is a removable panel. While building it, the panel was uninstalled and [valkyrie0528] placed a keyboard in the empty recess to do some configuration.
Sitting at the machine like that felt like being right back in the 80s, perched at an 8-bit home computer. Now, in addition to being an arcade cabinet, one can swap the arcade controls panel for a one that has a keyboard (clicky and mechanical, of course), touchpad, and small USB breakout.
As an arcade machine it’s beautiful, and in retro terminal mode it’s simply gorgeous.
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