Meet the Maker: Wolfanoz, the Retro Perfectionist Behind Ready Player One

If you have built a Raspberry Pi arcade at any point in the last eight years, there is a fair chance a Wolfanoz image was on the card. From little 32GB Pi 3 arcade images to the 1TB Ready Player One build for the Xbox Ally X and PC, Wolfanoz has been quietly setting the bar for clean, properly playable builds, and he describes himself better than we ever could.

By day he is a UNIX admin and cybersecurity pro with more than 20 years behind him. At home there are five arcade cabinets and ten pinball machines, and he would like a bigger house, please. We caught up with him about Pi images, pinball and the 5TB monster he is about to drop.

Retro perfectionist archivist (that’s not perfect) but passionate!

Wolfanoz

From the Pi 3 to the PC

What do you do in the retro and arcade world?
I make retro builds from the Pi 3 to now PC.

What got you into the game?
Making proper control schemes for controller and arcade panels using the Pi. Working on refining Mad Little Pixel’s early Pi 3 builds with his permission.

What have you made?

• Pi 3: 32GB Arcade and 32GB Arcade Attract Mode images, including one with Hursty and his exclusive art (the Wolfanoz and Hursty collaboration)
• Pi 4: 12K Gold and others
• Pi 5: C3, 1TB
• Ally X and PC: ReadyPlayerOne, 1TB

What’s your favourite thing you’ve made, and why?
Not many know this (other than RetroRalph) but I made the T*ts McGee image that was actually made as a gag but ended up being a favourite. Just wanted to make something St. Paddy’s themed in a hurry.

Well, the secret’s out now. It’s still on Arcade Punks too: the 32GB Pi 4 arcade image from 2020.

What do you use?
Mostly RetroBat and Batocera now. Easy to use, to add to, and scraping is built in. Formerly RetroPie, but they never updated their emulators much, so I moved on to something that was updated and played right. Still a big hat’s off to that platform as well.

What do you love about what you do?
Making everything playable and archiving it in a digital age where back libraries are now disappearing with everything digital, purposely.

A moment you’ll never forget?
Putting out an image that had a little too much on it for the Pi 3. Was an oops realising it after it went out.

We have all been there. Just usually not with a few thousand people downloading it.
Here’s his 1TB Ready Player One build for the Xbox Ally X and PC, as we showed it off on the Arcade Punks channel:

What’s next: bigger PC things

What are you working on now?
Stay tuned… bigger PC things to come. After that, will be taking a long break as it’s been a lot of work. Worth it, but work.

And there is a clue. Wolfanoz sent us a first look at what is coming: ReadyPlayerOne Continued, a 5TB PC Edition. “The next big thing… soon!”

Your dream build?
I think what I’m currently working on is ideal and mostly playable. I don’t like making them too big, but I’ve seen images now that go to 12TB, which is crazy.

Tips for new builders

Take your time, work on the controls, looks, speed and keep an eye on space requirements. Leave enough for folks to add things if they choose.

That last one is the Wolfanoz trademark: builds that leave you room to make them your own.

Off the clock

Outside the scene he is a dad to a college-age teenager, and the man behind the builds keeps the lights on as a UNIX admin and cybersecurity specialist. Then there’s the collection: five arcade cabinets and ten pinball machines, one of them virtual. “Need a bigger place,” he admits.

Favourite things?

• Pinball: his first love, “since the age of 3 playing KISS and Gorgar when they first came out”.
• Arcade: Donkey Kong, Gauntlet, Pac-Man, Missile Command, Mortal Kombat II, Robotron 2084, Smash T.V. and Time Pilot.
• Consoles: Super Mario 3, Zelda: A Link to the Past, Contra, Gradius, Metal Gear Solid, and the Sonic and Shinobi series.

Shout-outs

“Too many to name,” he says, but one stands out: the man behind Glen’s Retro Show on YouTube, “a great friend over the years. He also makes amazing hardware for real cabs, which I highly recommend.” That’s Thunderstick Studio.

Our take

Wolfanoz builds are the ones people recommend to beginners for a reason: sensible sizes, controls that just work, and nothing broken. Ready Player One showed what he can do on a PC, and if that first look is anything to go by, the 5TB PC Edition is going to be big in every sense. We will be first in the queue.

Browse every Wolfanoz build on Arcade Punks, and tell us in the comments: which Wolfanoz image was on your first Pi?