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My Custom Built Arcade Machine

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Behold: my custom arcade machine. I always wanted a coin operated arcade machine as a kid; something like Pac Man, Street Fighter 2 or Mario Bros. Being an adult with some technical skill and a little $$, I was finally able to get my arcade machine. However, my box is not one coin operated game, but a custom box that plays over 30,000 (!) games, ranging from arcade games old and new to console games from Ataris, Nintendos, and Sega systems.

This custom arcade machine was relatively cheap to build- much cheaper than a decent arcade machine would be. In this article I will show off my toy and its features, and give you an overview of the components so you can build your own.

The Cabinet: This was the biggest hurdle for me to build this project, only because I didn’t know where to start. Once I started looking it became pretty easy. Visit your local amusement-vending distributor. They have machines that breakdown and croak all the time, and most of them just throw them out. It also stands to reason that the ones breaking down now are the older ones (i.e. the classics). So you can probably score a decent cabinet for free or with a small bribe to an employee. You can also build it yourself. Of course you can, you’re handy! Well if you decide to go that route you can find plans online.

Did I just say get a cabinet with a broken game? Yes. The second component should make this clear.

The PC: Rip any game boards, and electronics out of there, and put in a PC; complete with keyboard and mouse. Unless you know how to wire the arcade monitor (which I don’t) also replace that with a PC Monitor (I used a 19 inch CRT). Tuck the PC, keyboard and mouse inside the cabinet.

What kind of PC? My suggestion would be Windows based with plenty of CPU power but really it just depends on what and how many games you wan to run. If you have a Pentium 133mhz you can still play stuff like Pac Man and Donkey Kong.

Naturally, you can run your PC Games with a PC. Want to learn about emulating Arcade games? Learn about MAME at mameworld.net. Want to learn about emulating console systems? Go to zophar.net.

The Joystick: Your cabinet may come with one, and you may know how to wire it up to the PC. I don’t, and didn’t want to fool with it. Besides, if you want to ensure compatibility with more than a few games you probably want something more universal. I got the 2 player model at X-aracade.com and highly recommend it. It has 2 sticks with 8 buttons plus start button each, plus pinball flippers on the sides.

Other Controls: Since this is a PC, the PC variety of control devices applies. I got: Microsoft Sidewinder Steering Wheel: Great for Pole Position, Need for Speed, etc. Act Labs Light Gun(act-labs.com): Couldn’t play Duck Hunt or Terminator 2 without it. Logitech Trackball Mouse: For trackball games like Golden Tee and Marble Madness. Logitech QuickCam: For playing games with Physicam (physicam.com).

The Finishing Touches: You may get a cabinet of a classic game that already looks good. Mine was pretty generic, so I had to get the artwork printed. You can find complete art sets for most popular games online (start at mameworld.net). I downloaded the Mario Bros side art and bezel (border around the monitor), and then got a lighted marquee with a simple fluorescent light. Just take it to your local print shop to get oversized prints. There are even sites that let you directly order them (quarterarcade.com).

All-in-all the project was pretty cheap. I already had an old PC, the cabinet I got free so all I really paid for was the joystick and the printed art. If you have and old PC laying around, this may be a good use for it!