Fans of brick breakers and vector arcade games are in for a treat: Beudbeud has just released a brand-new open-source project, the Arduino Arcade Spinner, a DIY spinner designed to be 100% compatible with Recalbox 10—no configuration required.

The spinner: an arcade legend

Long before modern gamepads became the standard, iconic arcade machines such as Arkanoid and Tempest relied on a spinner: a rotary controller that offered far more precise and natural control than a joystick or gamepad. Recreating that authentic arcade feel at home has always been a challenge for retro gaming enthusiasts—and that's exactly what Beudbeud's latest project aims to solve.

Plug and play with Recalbox 10

The concept is simple: once assembled and flashed, the spinner behaves like a standard USB mouse. Just plug it into your Recalbox 10 and it's instantly recognized, with no additional setup required.

Compatibility goes well beyond Recalbox, too. The project also works on Windows, Linux, macOS, RetroPie, and MiSTer.

The spinner also features five buttons mapped to mouse buttons, along with five preset sensitivity profiles matching classic arcade standards (Omega Race, Tempest, Tron, Blasteroids, and Arkanoid). This lets you recreate the authentic feel of each original cabinet, with a simple keyboard shortcut to switch profiles on the fly during gameplay.

A DIY project

The spinner is built around an Arduino Pro Micro paired with a high-precision 600 PPR rotary encoder, making it an accessible project for anyone with basic DIY skills. Components are easy to source from AliExpress or arcade hardware retailers, and while a 3D-printable enclosure is provided, you're free to build your own.

The GitLab repository includes everything you need to get started: a detailed wiring diagram, fully customizable Arduino source code (including sensitivity, acceleration curve, and additional profiles), and a complete bill of materials.

The project is released under the GPLv3 license and builds upon the work of Beudbeud, Bounitos (enclosure design), as well as libraries from the MiSTer community (Alexey Melnikov), Mikael Norrgård, HID-Project, and willoucom.

Build your own

All technical documentation, source code, and wiring diagrams are available directly from the project's repository:

Build your own spinner

A huge thank you to Beudbeud and all the contributors for creating this fantastic new tool, which will allow the entire community to rediscover arcade classics just the way they were meant to be played.

Enjoying the work of the Recalbox team? Support the project by becoming a Patron!