I built a barcade with a pi and it's been working well.  It took a little finagling to get working right, but now that I got it, it's working great. 

I used the "zero delay" USB board to go between my joystick/buttons and the pi's USB port.  I actually use two of them, one for player #1, one for player #2.  It was easier than the other, dual player, adapter board that I can't recall the name of at the moment.

Here's an example:

ebay.com link: Zero Delay Arcade USB Encoder PC to Joystick for Mame Fight Stick Controls

Get the one that has the right size connectors on the wires for your button connection tabs.  I think there's two different kinds out there.

Keep in mind that more games is not necessarily better.  I've got so many games, it's like going to a restaurant with a huge menu, you can't decide what to play.  Don't over do it.

Looks like the pi 3B+ is the latest and greatest.  I run retropie, and it's fine for me.

https://retropie.org.uk/