I tend to attach and overkill projects and the latest one is desktop arcade machines. I’ve built one so far as a proof of concept:
This one has a “spooky” vibe, thinking of either painting or 3D printing vines on it. Think Stranger Things.
The addiction set in after this was built, I now have 5 more monitors. So what I’m thinking is a sort of “genre” style motif for each. I also don’t want to just paint them differently, thinking having the sides of the arcade box be different shapes.
The end game is that these will be brought to my “make video games” classes and students will load their themed game onto the appropriate matching arcade machine as inspiration.
What themes should I make and what would that sort of look like?
So far thinking like “RPG = shield shapes on the sides”, “Platformer = with 3D printed platforms glued to the sides (or something)”. What do you all think?
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Loving it!!!
It’s nice to see some physical devices on this forum!
Your (wood?) panels are very, very clean! Decorating them will make them look awesome 
I would look at some of the classic cabinets, like Tempest, etc for some inspiration. I have a book that is an anthology of classic arcade cabinets marquees and lightboxes: hit me up if you are looking for a specific one you can’t find online (I’ll happily scan it if it’s in the book!)
As for the themes, I’d go with the classics: RPG, Shoot’em Up, Platformer, Racing/Sports…
Or, you could go with “lore themes” : Spooky, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc… it might be easier to support more types of games that way…
I’m also currently building a handheld device, here are some pics
And here’s what I plan for the final enclosure :
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I love the “gameboy” device you have started here! The fact that Makecode can work on those smaller dedicated devices was one of the reasons I started using it. The buttons on those devices (adafruit, meowbit) are pretty bad, so hard to press. I was always thinking “man it would be awesome to just convert a gameboy” because the buttons are so nice.
MDF and light sanding always makes for a nice smooth surface. This one was kind of slapped together pretty quick as a “can it be done” situation. Lots of corners cut (pun intended?), I still have to seal it. The biggest angle is the inspiration to build the software around it (see: I Present: Native Linux Builds! ), I wanted to be able to use USB and some hardware I had laying around (La Frite board in the most recent case).
Is that an RPI zero? If so the GPIO should work fine and the native “elf” export they mostly support, but if you want you could try the “png-to-elf” converter I’ve built as well https://www.forthelearnofit.com/elf (mostly to keep me honest that it works). My converter also supports 4 player GPIO (not that it matters for your device unless of course it’s a very awkward setup 
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omg how do you do something like that all show me the materials all yu need is a microbit right?
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