Inquiry About Raspberry Pi 3 Development Hardware for Arcade Machine Project

[seventhback777]

Dear Respected Arcade Machine Developer,
This is Haoyu Liu, the current leader of the student team working on the Arcade Machine project at Deakin University. Perhaps you may no longer remember the contributions you once made to the Arcade Machine here, but the machines still stand today. However, due to the difficulty of development, they often appear daunting. What should have been the brightest jewel of Thoth-Tech has now gathered dust in the corner.
As an international student who joined Deakin this year, I immediately chose this project when given the chance, because I believe this is exactly the kind of creation IT students should devote themselves to. I have been working hard on it this trimester, and I must say—you laid down an excellent foundation! I don’t want to see it fade away, but now we face a crucial problem: we lack sufficient hardware support. The company leadership’s approval process for updating to Raspberry Pi 5 has been slow. At the very least, we need one development machine for testing and development.
So far, we have already built a well-crafted game and a version update package, and we are eager to test them on the hardware. I would like to ask: at that time, there should have been a Raspberry Pi 3 development machine and a backup unit. If I could gain access to it, it would help us greatly—at the very least, we could finally work on the hardware instead of being limited to software development.
If you have any information about it, I would be deeply grateful. You created a fascinating and remarkable project, and I believe it should not gather dust in a corner simply because of its difficulty or other factors. This project depends on the effort and contributions of each of us.
With respect once again,
Haoyu Liu
@isdampe @lachfoy @Delcari @studioant @sarahgos @zbrydon @huydnnk97 @MorgaineBarter @Wills2022 @breezy-codes @WhyPenguins
Thank you all again!

[breezy-codes]

Please remove me from being tagged in this.

[seventhback777]

Please remove me from being tagged in this.

Thank you for letting me know. I understand, and I will not tag you again.
Unfortunately, I cannot edit the original issue text in this repository, but I appreciate your past contribution and wish you all the best.

[studioant]

Hi @seventhback777 ,

Thanks for your kind message, it’s wonderful to hear from you and to know that the Arcade Machine project is still being developed. We had a great time creating it, and it’s very encouraging to see your passion and dedication to keeping it alive. We’re really happy to hear that you and your team are continuing to support and build on it.

In terms of hardware, we actually used our own Raspberry Pi's for testing at the time. There was one Raspberry Pi installed in the physical arcade machine itself, but because the project took place during COVID, we unfortunately never had the chance to be on site to test it in person. As a result, we’re not sure where the hardware ended up or if it’s still available.

That said, we’re very glad to see the project in such capable hands, and we hope you and your team can push it even further. Best of luck with the development—you’re absolutely right, this is exactly the kind of project IT students should devote themselves to.

Regards,
studioant

[MorgaineBarter]

Hi Haoyu, 
For sure I recall my experience - I was on the arcade games team within the SplashKit Applications team in 2022.
I am still quite proud by what was achieved by my team. (and I still have the game on my PC to play - hidden levels and al)

Game dev:
I'd like to highlight the level editor repo within Thoth Tech, my team made this, that Below the Surface could have new levels made or a 2nd version made with the level editor
(it has all the assets within, you just need to run it, and it exports the matrix) by end of T2 2022, build-a-game-team1 was our repo name. 
I am aware more copies have been made since then to make later iterations.

While StudioAnt was on Arcade machine team (and lead all of Splashkit as I recall!) and myself being on the arcade games team, collectively we established an SRS document which informed the machines we needed to purchase for this project as well as parts needed. (should all still be findable within the GitHub docs folders)
Another member who contributed significantly to the set up more recently/after we actually had the machines was Phillip Williams, I have contacted him to see if he's interested or able to come speak with the team as well.

Hardware: 
I have spoken with both the SIT team manager and SIT technical support - to get the 5x raspberry pi 5.
I am yet to receive final confirmation/approval to purchase. I will raise it again, since it was last brought up a bit over a week ago. Please understand these things take time.

Kind regards,

Morgaine Barter

[seventhback777]

Hi @seventhback777 ,

Thanks for your kind message, it’s wonderful to hear from you and to know that the Arcade Machine project is still being developed. We had a great time creating it, and it’s very encouraging to see your passion and dedication to keeping it alive. We’re really happy to hear that you and your team are continuing to support and build on it.

In terms of hardware, we actually used our own Raspberry Pi's for testing at the time. There was one Raspberry Pi installed in the physical arcade machine itself, but because the project took place during COVID, we unfortunately never had the chance to be on site to test it in person. As a result, we’re not sure where the hardware ended up or if it’s still available.

That said, we’re very glad to see the project in such capable hands, and we hope you and your team can push it even further. Best of luck with the development—you’re absolutely right, this is exactly the kind of project IT students should devote themselves to.

Regards, studioant

Hi @studioant
Thank you for your reply, StudioAnt! The information you provided is very helpful—it gives us valuable insight into the development background of your time, which helps us understand a lot.

In fact, this year our team consists of only me and two of my classmates—just three people maintaining the project. When we joined, there wasn’t even anyone to hand it over to us. Coming from China, we had no prior experience with arcade machine development, so we truly started from zero. It has been difficult, but also a rewarding challenge full of enjoyment.

I am very grateful for your recognition of the work our team has done. My two classmates may choose to go for paid internships as part of their social practice, but I will still be here next year in T1. I don’t want to see the results of your efforts back then gathering dust in a corner. I also hope that after me, others will continue to do their best to maintain and develop this great project. I will do my best to support them, just as you early developers did for us.

Once again, I send you my respect, and I hope the torch of this project will never be extinguished. This, after all, is the true meaning of GitHub’s existence.
Regards,
Haoyu Liu

[seventhback777]

Hi Haoyu,  For sure I recall my experience - I was on the arcade games team within the SplashKit Applications team in 2022. I am still quite proud by what was achieved by my team. (and I still have the game on my PC to play - hidden levels and al)

Game dev: I'd like to highlight the level editor repo within Thoth Tech, my team made this, that Below the Surface could have new levels made or a 2nd version made with the level editor (it has all the assets within, you just need to run it, and it exports the matrix) by end of T2 2022, build-a-game-team1 was our repo name.  I am aware more copies have been made since then to make later iterations.

While StudioAnt was on Arcade machine team (and lead all of Splashkit as I recall!) and myself being on the arcade games team, collectively we established an SRS document which informed the machines we needed to purchase for this project as well as parts needed. (should all still be findable within the GitHub docs folders) Another member who contributed significantly to the set up more recently/after we actually had the machines was Phillip Williams, I have contacted him to see if he's interested or able to come speak with the team as well.

Hardware:  I have spoken with both the SIT team manager and SIT technical support - to get the 5x raspberry pi 5. I am yet to receive final confirmation/approval to purchase. I will raise it again, since it was last brought up a bit over a week ago. Please understand these things take time.

Kind regards,

Morgaine Barter

Hi Morgaine
Thank you so much, Morgaine! You’ve given us tremendous help with hardware support. In fact, the game I’m developing right now also has a level editor—maybe this is something that all good developers naturally agree on? (hahaha, just kidding). I still have so much to learn from pioneers like you. Your courage and exceptional wisdom in building this project from scratch are truly amazing.

When I first started learning all this from zero, I kept asking people around me: how did the first developers manage to accomplish this without AI back then? Were they monsters? So, as a student who voluntarily chose to join this project, I will continue to stay here, maintaining your achievements and building upon them together with my own, until I graduate from Deakin.

Even if no one else joins this small group later, for an indie game developer, having an entire trimester to polish and refine their work through a course is nothing short of perfect! Thank you for recognizing our efforts, and once again I send you my respect. I believe we’ll have more chances to communicate on Teams in the future!
Kind regards,
Haoyu Liu