(figured I'd 'do my part' and make my first Lemmy post...!)
I love this thing too much to part with, but I'm gonna have to be honest: I barely use it. More often or not I retro-game on my Steam Deck...slightly more portable!
Has anyone else built their own units for retro-gaming though?
Things are certainly pricier these days, that's for sure. Depending on what country you're in you might be able to find a decent arcade supplier for the sticks/buttons -- and even the cabinet itself (I used Arcade World UK.
For the actual system itself there's plenty of options these days, and a Raspberry Pi is more than capable to power most emulators. For the wiring of sticks/buttons, YouTube has a good chunk of resources.
Given cost, it might to wise to start with the RPi set-up, and if you're happy with how that works, look into getting the arcade 'shell' for it :)