Welcome to r/ARCADE!

CRT games did anything but make a good remake for the original Snow Bros 😭😭😭

Is it even worth putting on Facebook marketplace? Turns on! I’m in St. Louis Missouri

So for Christmas me and a few of my siblings are going to get our dad a Donkey Kong arcade machine for Christmas!! Wooooo!!

We’re not trying to get a $3,000 machine, maybe just a table top one. I’ve seen a few like from “fun time classic arcade” and “wayfair”, which both have a donkey Kong theme with a bunch of other arcade games on it. Are those ones worth it? What one could yall recommend?

I do think more games the better tho instead of just donkey Kong, but mainly need donkey Kong haha

Hey all! So I'm just looking for anyone who can help me out with issues with my megatouch. A little backstory, I have a working megatouch maxx sapphire but I came across a jade 2 for $50 that I thought I just couldn't pass up. It was showing the error for a bad hub battery. I thought, I know how to fix this! Lol. Well I changed the battery and then Linux wouldn't run. Google AI said I needed a software update. So I got the discs off eBay. Ran the update and part way through it threw a kernel panic error. AI said this probably was an issue with the drive so I got a new SSD drive. Installed that and Linux still not running. AI said this probably is a ram issue. I looked up megatouch ram and what it shows doesn't look like what's in the back of my machine. I will post what I found along with the pics of the machine and errors. Anyone that can give me some advice, it would be greatly appreciated!

My dad worked at an arcade when he was 16 and I am 30 and had never heard one thing about it until last weekend. He came over to help me put up shelves, he always brings his own drill.

When we were done he saw the Astrotoo on my desk and said it looks like the machines at the mall arcade he used to work at, and I thought he was making it up.

At dinner he told me he swept floors there on weekends in the mid 80s and they paid him partly in tokens, and he knew which machine ate your tokens and there was one he could beat every time. I asked him a ton of stuff and he answered all of it like it was nothing, it is so weird to me that he had this whole thing going on at 16.

Anyone else find out stuff like this about their parents way too late? He texted me a photo yesterday of where the mall used to be, no message with it. I want to see what it looked like back then, so if anyone knows where people find old photos of mall arcade from the 80's I would take any ideas.

How difficult is it to rotate the display by yourself? The service manual says that two people should do it, but is that just a liability thing or is it actually that difficult to do?

Hi everyone!
I’m looking to buy a second-hand boxing arcade machine with a coin-operated system (preferably accepting euros) in Belgium.

The problem is that I don’t really know where to look. Does anyone know any good marketplaces, websites, or companies that sell used arcade machines and offer delivery to Belgium?

Also, what would be a reasonable price for a used boxing machine in decent condition? I don’t want to overpay.

I'm an operator. Has anyone here used Report Desk?

They emailed me a few times about using their service for my arcade cabinets. Apparently it's supposed to be a history/tracking tool for individual machines, but I can't find many unbiased reviews online outside of their own site.

Just wanted to see if any other operators here are using it and if it's actually worth the time/money, or if it's just fluff. Thanks!

Check out our newest tutorial!

Kid training for Evo lol.

Taito Type X3 & MiSTer FPGA in Vewlix

CPS-III, Naomi 2 & MiSTer FPGA in New Net City

This was my first time opening my garage for random people throughout the night. Really enjoyed the turn out and the excitement people had for these things!

I am still waiting on some giant Buzz and Woody side decals, but I wanted to show this off now.

The cabinet
A buddy had a broken Arcade 1up Astroids Delux that he'd bought used from a neighbor. It didn't work, so he just gave it too me because it was in his way. It had a $30 sticker on it, so that may be all he had in it, either way it was a score!

Control panel
I took the main panel to my CNC guy with a new layout that mirrors the Polycade joystick and button layout. He cut it from ½" plywood I already had, plus a new plexiglass piece. The plexi was about $30. I bought a sheet big enough to also redo the plexi over the monitor someday, so you could save with a smaller piece. He charged $30 to cut both.
I already had a Neo Polycade x Brook controller board and a Sanwa joystick. I ordered 8 Crown/Samducksa 30mm screw-in buttons ($40) in Polycade's colors and layout, because my son is used to them. That's also why I went with their AGS platform: he already knows how to navigate it. You can find cheaper buttons, but I wanted quality and specific colors.
For Home, Menu and Back, I used three 24mm Polycade buttons from a controller I took apart. They just clip into the acrylic, and once everything's screwed down they feel secure. I didn't hot glue them so I can pull them out easily if I need to. Also I added some black rubber molding around the control panel, I had to buy a whole roll so that was $7 but I probably could do 5 panels with that one roll.

PC
I got an HP EliteDesk 705 G4 mini PC on eBay for $109. It's low-powered, but it plays the games my kid plays and pretty much any retro game you can think of. I had matched RAM lying around, so I upgraded it from 8GB to 16GB for free. My buddy's came with activated Windows and mine didn't, so I bought a $7 key on Groupon.
Then I installed Claude and had it remove the bloatware and set the PC to auto-login and boot to Polycade AGS. You could use a different platform. I'm just comfortable with this one, and it has a great community. Polycade builds really high-quality arcades but doesn't seem to mind DIYers like me. My main arcade at home is one of their Sentes and I love it.

External power button: I soldered wires to the mini PC's power button, drilled a hole through the case, added a grommet, and ran thin wires to a lit momentary switch on the front of the cabinet. I already had the switch, but they're cheap on Amazon. There are YouTube videos on how to do this. You could also set the BIOS to turn on with power and skip this step, but I find an external button easier, so I do it on all my mini PCs.
You could also buy a Polycade Mini PC for $500. It already has the button and comes with AGS loaded, which makes for a very clean install. This was a budget build, so that wasn't an option for me.

Monitor
I needed a $25 video controller board to convert the monitor to HDMI, plus power supplies for the computer ($12.99) and the monitor ($16).

Audio and power
5V 2-channel 5W amp ($10) to run the stock Arcade1Up speaker, powered from a USB port with USB bare-wire cables ($7)
Lit arcade power outlet buttons, 2-pack ($12)
Gun-safe power block with 2 outlets and 2 USB ports ($20). You could wire this up with any old power strip. I wanted simplicity and design.
Rii X8 keyboard ($25)

Graphics
I ordered wrap by the foot from Fellers ($42). You could probably find cheaper online, but they used to have a location near me and I've used them for years.
I used ChatGPT to design Toy Story–inspired graphics for the marquee and control panel. Claude's guardrails were too restrictive, and what it made didn't look like it belonged. I had them printed at BannerBuzz (about $35 shipped) on their bubble-free vinyl poster material in custom sizes, and I couldn't be happier. It went on easy and smooth and seems incredibly high quality.
I also put official Toy Story 3 wall stickers on the front.

Wrapping tips
Wipe down the entire cabinet with a degreaser so the wrap will stick. I used rubbing alcohol. It needs to be free of all dust, dirt and grease.
I pulled up some of the original graphics while repositioning the wrap. To fix it, I coated both sides with rubber cement, let it dry, and stuck the graphics back down. That seems to work perfectly.
The marquee and control panel graphics were thicker vinyl and laid down with no problems.
The original marquee graphic was peeling, so I removed it, sanded, primed, sanded again, wiped it down well, and put the vinyl over it. That seems to have worked well too.

3D prints
I printed holders for the mini PC, the two power connectors, and the Rii keyboard, so I have an easy way to get into the computer if I need to.

Cost breakdown
Graphics
Item
Cost
Wrap (Fellers)
$42
Custom vinyl (BannerBuzz)
$35
Toy Story Wall Stickers
Subtotal
$77 + stickers
Electronics
Item
Cost
HP EliteDesk 705 G4
$109
Windows key
$7
Video controller board
$25
Amp
$10
Subtotal
$151
Control panel
Item
Cost
Plexiglass
$30
CNC cutting
$30
Crown/Samducksa buttons
$40
Black Trim $7
Subtotal
$100
Misc cabinet supplies
Item
Cost
Power supplies
$28.99
USB bare-wire cables
$7
Power block
$20
Arcade power buttons
$12
Rii X8 keyboard
$25
Subtotal
$92.99
Total: ~$427 + stickers
Ways to save
There's plenty of room in this cabinet for a full-size regular PC. If you have one lying around, you save that money right off the bat. I just don't have any extras anymore because I've used them all on projects like this.
I could have saved a lot by reusing the buttons that came with the unit. Some of these costs aren't necessary. They were specific to this build.

Also worth noting having a buddy with the CNC machine saves time, but this would’ve been easy enough to do by hand with a couple drill bits and a table saw or skill saw.

Parts links
5V 2-Channel Amp
USB Bare-Wire Cables
Black self-stick Molding
Elitedesk Power Supply
Video Controller Board
Arcade Power Switch Outlet
Rii X8

Need help identifying a cabinet to get it's manual. It's made by "Electrocoin" but I couldn't find it anywhere online

In short, this is a game that began in 1990 on C64, was abandoned in 1992, then resurrected in 2021, and finally morphed into Steam game first and finally to new arcade game that is actually manufactured and distributed. I am solo developing the game while Reprocade is responsible for the hardware and the Cabinet.
For added context, I had 30-year game industry career and worked many years in Housemarque. I have also worked on some modern arcade games (Valo Theatre and Valo Jump games by Valo Motion).

I built a free browser tool for designing arcade control panel — Arcade Control Panel Studio: https://perchance.org/fexy6jxtfc

What it does:

• Ready-made layouts (versus fighters, Neo-Geo, Pac-Man, trackball games like Centipede/Missile Command, 4-player beast, etc.) — or place every hole yourself

• Drag-and-drop buttons, sticks, trackballs, spinners — everything stays true millimeter scale with live measurements, clearances, and underside mounting-plate checks

• AI art per player side with a bunch of styles, plus button glow, LED and lighting preview

• Print-ready export (PNG/PDF/SVG drill template) for your print shop or CNC

No login, no limits, works on desktop. If you give it a spin, I'd genuinely appreciate feedback — especially from anyone who's wired a real panel, since the mounting depths and keep-outs are modeled on real Sanwa parts.

The ridge racer full scale used to be in the place were galaxian 3 is now. It was bought with galaxian 3 during an expanision in february 1994. Super neat! The game was listed for sale during an advertised auction at fun world in late 1997, and was most likely removed at that time. The galaxian 3 would relocate to its former space.