Retrocomputing is not just hardware, but a feeling and an atmosphere; valkyrie0528’s Retro Terminal Bartop Arcade Topper project reflects this to the fullest.
The device actually started out as a bartop arcade cabinet. The front panel — arcade buttons and a joystick — is removable. During the build, when the panel was removed and a keyboard was placed in the empty space, the feeling of sitting in front of an 8-bit home computer came back, and the idea was born.
The arcade panel can now be swapped for a panel containing:
- a clicky, mechanical keyboard
- a touchpad
- a small USB breakout
cool-retro-term is used as the terminal emulator; a widescreen wallpaper showing two 5.25″ floppy drives can be downloaded from the project page. There is still time to enter the 2026 Retrocomputing Challenge.
Background
The Challenge is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 5 news items mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 3, 2026.