Arcade cabinet

Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) wiring standard.

There are many types of arcade cabinets, some being custom-made for a particular game; however, the most common are the upright, the cocktail or table, and the sit-down.

Upright cabinets are the most common in North America, with their design heavily influenced by Computer Space and Pong.

Atari also had placed the controls at a height suitable for most adult players to use, but close enough to the console's base to also allow children to play.

The side panels of Atari's Pong had a simple wood veneer finish, making it easier to market to non-arcade venues, such as hotels, country clubs, and cocktail bars.

In the face of growing competition, Atari started to include cabinet art and attraction panels around 1973–1974, which soon became a standard practice.

[6] Arcade cabinets today are usually made of wood and metal, about six feet or two meters tall, with the control panel set perpendicular to the monitor at slightly above waist level.

In Computer Space, Pong and other early arcade games, the CRT was mounted 90 degrees from the ground, facing directly outward.

If the upright is housing a shooting game, it may have light guns attached to the front of the machine, via durable cables.

Some arcade machines had the monitor placed at the bottom of the cabinet with a mirror mounted at around 45 degrees above the screen facing the player.

[citation needed] To correct for the mirrored image, some games had an option to flip the video output using a dip switch setting.

Upright cabinet shape designs vary from the simplest symmetric perpendicular boxes as with Star Trek to complicated asymmetric forms.

Their main advantage over upright cabinets was their smaller size, making them seem less obtrusive, although requiring more floor space (more so by having players seated at each end).

The top of the table was covered with a piece of tempered glass, making it convenient to set drinks on (hence the name), and they were often seen in bars and pubs.

In Japanese arcades, this type of cabinet is generally more prevalent than the upright kind, and they are usually lined up in uniform-looking rows.

Sega is one of the biggest manufacturers of these kinds of cabinets, while Namco released Ridge Racer Full Scale, in which the player sits in a full-size Mazda MX-5 road car.

Examples of this can be seen on the Killer List of Videogames, including shooter games such as Star Fire, Missile Command, SubRoc-3D, Star Wars, Astron Belt, Sinistar and Discs of Tron as well as racing games such as Monaco GP, Turbo and Pole Position.

They are styled just like a standard upright cabinet, often with full art and marquees, but are scaled down to more easily fit in a home environment or be used by children.

Since machines with good quality art are hard to find, one of the first tasks is stripping any old artwork or paint from the cabinet.

Spraying the surface with a slightly soapy water solution allows the artwork to be quickly repositioned if wrinkles or bubbles develop like in window tinting applications.

On the other hand, vector monitors can be challenging or very costly to service, and some can no longer be repaired due to certain parts having been discontinued years ago.

[citation needed] CRT replacement is possible, but the process of transferring the deflection yoke and other parts from one tube neck to the other also means a long process of positioning and adjusting the parts on the CRT for proper performance, a job that may prove too challenging for the typical amateur arcade collector.

Electrolytic capacitors dry out over time, and if a classic arcade cabinet is still using its original components, it may be near the end of its service life.

A common step in refurbishing vintage electronics (of all types) is "recapping": replacing certain capacitors (and other parts) to restore, or ensure the continued safe operation of the monitor and power supplies.

If a monitor is broken, it may be easier to just source a drop-in replacement through coin-op machine distributors or parts suppliers.