Arcade machines- how much do they cost to make yourself?... 

This a great question and we get asked this a lot so here is some unbiased opinions from us. We'll give 2 viewpoints- the budget conscious way to build an arcade machine,what we use and why.

So let's start with the arcade machine chassis

Perhaps the most obvious starting point. Obviously you want the machine to look good and play well! A good starting point is make sure the control panel height is comfortable to play on and has enough space to accommodate 2 players. The next thing to choose is which material to make your cabinet from.

Pre laminated fiberboard is the most popular choice which is sturdy and is fine (like our GT arcade machines), this will be the most affordable option as the finish is pretty good and sturdy- the only risk is when the material is cut (either by hand or CNC) there is a risk of the finish chipping so make sure your tooling is sharp to prevent this from happening. In terms of raw material, a 2.8m x 2m piece of 18mm thick standard black fiberboard will set you back circa £150 and doesn't include the cost of cutting.

For the premium feel you cant get better than a professionally primered and sprayed MDF build like on our Bespoke Arcades cabinets, it feels great and will last for decades to come. This is the most expensive and laborious option but there isn't anything better in our opinion. To get an arcade machine CNC cut from plans you supply and have the machine professionally sprayed will be around £500-£800. 

Some more details on what wood to use can be found here.

Arcade Machine Graphics (or sideart)

You might be after some arcade graphics to adorn your arcade machine. This should be printed on vinyl which has been either gloss or matt laminated to give it UV and more importantly- sturdy protection. If you supplied the graphics to a print shop it'll set you back around £200. We get ours printed in-house to ensure no skimping on print quality (you won't see any faint vertical lines due to saving ink). In most cases always err on the side of matt laminate as gloss shows fingerprints.

In terms of application- take your time, have a clean space to perform the operation with the appropriate tools to hand (these aren't expensive) and make sure you do your research on Youtube to familiarise yourself on how to do it. We all make mistakes (ive done it of course) and it can be a costly one if you incorrectly apply some artwork so try to minimise the chances:) Applying soapy water makes everything a lot more forgiving and will give you a second or third chance should things start to go awry!

Edging

All arcade machines have that distinctive protective edging. Have you ever wondered how it stays on? A groove is cut in the center of the 18mm thick side which will allow the edging (commonly known as T-Moulding for obvious reasons) be hammered ilong the sides. It's important you use a soft mallet so you dont bruise the edging and also cut notches so the t-moulding can be hammered into the groove without warping it. T-Moulding costs approximately £4 per metre.

 

Arcade Machine Control Panel

Many people try to make a control panel fulfill all their gaming desires and lump in flightsticks etc along with their traditional arcade controls. Beware of this as you have a good chance of creating a monstrosity. This is also known in the trade as a Frankenpanel! An arcade machine is meant to play arcade games. If space allows- throw in a Spinner and Trackball by all means. Comfort is the name of the game here! Ensure you have enough space to mash the controls to your heart's content. We will always advise accordingly and if need be design a control panel suitable for your needs! This cost will be part of the CNC cutting.

Arcade Machine Controls

Well this is a subjective topic so at the end of the day it comes down to personal preference. Rest assured we will certainly give you our 2 cents worth and give a breakdown on the options available. A good source of info can be found at byoac.com. If you head down to the forum you can find a treasure trove of unbiased discussion.

You can see great advice on control panel assembly and positioning here.

Joysticks

Unbranded Chinese Sticks 

To be fair- they do the job. If you're not too fussy and want a stick which does what you tell it on a budget then by all means go for these. Each joystick will conservatively set you back around £10

Premium quality arcade machine joysticks

There are others to choose from (like offerings from Seimitsu, Hori, Crown etc but we're going to focus on these 2 alternatives)

 Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT

Aside from varying Japanese manufacturers you have 3 clear choices- are you a fan of modern fighting games and Street Fighter 2? If so- go for a pair of Sanwa Joysticks. The one you are most probably familiar with is the Sanwa JLF-TP-8YT. These are on a majority of fighting arcade sticks and arcade machines and wont do you wrong. A tad too sensitive for classic games but if fighting games are your thing then you wont go wrong with these). A pair will be approximately £60 and a free option on all Bespoke Arcades machines.

Suzo Happ Ultimate Arcade Joystick

These are our standard choice of arcade joystick on all Bespoke Arcades machines. Quite simply because they're reliable, easy to maintain thanks to the quick disconnecting wires we use. And above all nigh on identical to what most of us used to play on in UK arcades back in the day.  A pair will cost approximately £40 and is the standard option on all Bespoke Arcades machines. There are other Suzo Happ joysticks but these are the ones we prefer.

4-8 Way Auto Switching Servo Powered Joysticks

I guess you could call this the  Tesla of the arcade joystick world. Using a Sanwa JLW-TM-8 as a base, a servo is attached which auto switches to 4 way mode if necessary. It's pretty cool when you start up pacman for example and you hear the sequential whirring of the Servos locking into 4 way mode. They feel the same as a JLF joystick and can have either a ball top or bat top handle.

What is 4 or 8 way?

This is a common question and easy to answer! The older arcade games around the early '80s sometimes used 4 way joysticks which allowed for up, down, left and right (but no diagonals). This isn't great if you're trying to play Street Fighter 2 for example as you cant jump diagonally. You'll be able to jump up and crouch but not jump towards or away from your opponent. For this you would need an 8 way joystick which is the standard on all arcade machines.

So you would presume all you would need is an 8 way stick? Yes and no... If you were playing Pac-Man and having the best game of your life and went up and left instead of left there will be a 50-50 chance of going up or left. So it's not ideal but also not a deal-breaker. For most purposes a Happ joystick will suffice unless you're a particular fan of that era of game. I will add that the non servo Sanwa sticks aren't great for 4 way games as there is a much tighter / sensitive travel so its much easier to make a mistake...

Buttons

Once again you can simply choose an unbranded chinese button- they will do the job and shouldnt give you too much trouble. The main choice of preference is Japanese style (Sanwa / Seimitsu / Crown being the market leaders). Or the American / European choice being the Happ / Suzo Concave button.

We'll concentrate on the 2 main options.

Suzo Happ Concave Pushbutton

These are the buttons which us Europeans grew up with and know and love! That familiar, reassuring click when a button is pressed feels great. These are the more popular choice for arcade gamers who want to play the classics as much as the fighting games. The other choice to consider is which microswitch would you like to attach to the arcade button? The market leaders and most famous are Cherry who also make premium keyboards. Again- there are many Cherry microswitches to choose from so the decision is up to you! Approximately £3.50 each

Sanwa Pushbuttons

The Japanese alternative currently used in arcades and the brawler's choice of buttons. With a far more sensitive touch and less travel these buttons are perfect for the Street Fighter 2 style games. Not so great with classic games but will certainly do the job just fine. Approximately £6 each

There are notable variants of these 2 arcade machine button styles:

LED Illuminated Buttons

SImply put- these are third party variants which you can choose a colour and have your arcade buttons lit up for a bit of bling. Should the led fail, they are easy to replace. These normally have to be powered via plugging it into the 5v rail on an arcade power supply or the 5v rail on a pc power supply.

RGB Illuminated buttons

Using 3rd party software like LEDBlinky and RGB encoder like a PAC LED 64 by Ultimarc, these buttons are the cream of the crop. Once the buttons are properly wired and encoders configured the buttons will light up. They even illuminate in the arcade machine's original colours to work with the corresponding game. So lets say 1942- only 2 buttons will light up, they can even tell you what each button does before the gamer starts. Now not knowing which button does what is a thing of the past. If you have a 6 button control panel- in 1942's case buttons 3-6 won't brighten. Magic stuff.

These can be complicated to wire up , with 6 wires per button things can get messy. Best way to do it is step 1- mount the controls and buttons to the control panel. Step 2- wire up the common grounds which will daisy chain each button and will now be out of the way for the next steps. Step 3- Wire up the buttons to the RGB encoder. Now this is done, use cable ties to bunch them together nice and neatly. Step 4- Now wire up each button to your encoder of choice, not forgetting to wire up the common ground cables and using cable ties to keep everything tidy. If these steps are followed you won't be left in an eventual mess of wiring.

It can be daunting setting up these buttons so it's best to familiarise yourself with what to do- especially if using a PAC LED 64 but it is straightforward once you get your head around things.

Light Guns

Fan of Time Crisis or Operation Wolf? Well 1 or 2 light guns would be up your street. These are now available for Pi, JAMMA boards and Windows platforms. Windows far excels the rest thanks to the ability to play current light gun games doing the rounds in arcades as they share the same architecture. Titles like House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn and Transformers all work perfectly via the Tekno Parrot emulator.

JAMMA boards have their own guns so there is little choice. But Pi and Windows have the choice of Aimtrak which is Ultimarc's offering and our solution of choice. Sinden has their lightgun which dont require a mounted sensor but you will have a white rectangular border which the gun uses to triangulate the aim. And you have Gun4IR which is an open source solution. They all do the job and also have the extra option of recoil. If you use the correct power adapter you certainly feel as if you're letting rip with Dirty Harry's Magnum 45 :)

Spinners / Trackballs

Ever tried playing Arkanoid or Missile Command on a joystick? You'll leave your arcade machine thinking those titles aren't that great. We all know they are awesome but you'll need the right controls for the job. A spinner or Trackball can certainly be added onto your machine so you can play the games the way they were meant to be. I should also mention that an illuminated trackball looks awesome as part of an RGB controls setup. 

What Arcade Mchine Encoder Do You Want To Use?

JAMMA Wiring Harness

This will depend on what hardware you're going to use. If you're going to stick with an inexpensive multigame arcade board, then a straightforward JAMMA harness is the way to go. This gets the job done and is a no frills solution and are used in authentic, native arcade machines worldwide.

Chinese Arcade Machine Encoder

Perhaps the most common example of this is a Xin-Mo adapter which costs around £25. Again- a no frills adapter which works fine and offers little to no customisation options. There are many more available.

Ultimarc Mini Pac or iPac keyboard encoder

These are the best encoders money can buy. Infinitely versatile and can be reprogrammed to suit whatever you need your arcade buttons to do. PC emulation usually requires the control panel to act as a keyboard encoder and an Ultimarc encoder can be reprogrammed using its awesome GUI. On top of this it can be set to act as an Xinput (Xbox compatible) encoder, Dinput (Directinput Windows / Android / Linux compatible). This is the choice of professionals and what Bespoke Arcades use in all of their arcade machines.

What are you going to run your arcade machine on?

This is perhaps one of the most important factors and will govern most of the other aspects mentioned in this guide.

Multigame Arcade JAMMA Board

One of the cheapest solutions. Whilst the emulation is far from perfect this is the choice for the cheapest manufacturers and those who aren't confident with their assembly skills.  It's an all in one solution which many people go for due to its ease and turnkey attributes.

Raspberry Pi 4 or 5

A good choice to start your retrogaming journey. Pi's are relatively new so emulation is progressing and in some cases not quite there yet. They are however a great solution due to the Pi 4 and 5's power and popularity among retro enthusiasts. Lakka and Emulation Station do most of the work for you and there are tons of customisation options to suit your preferences. The Pi emulation scene is still evolving and very much a good choice.

Windows 10 or 11

Definitely the most mature and versatile choice. This is undoubtedly the way to go if you want the best the emulation scene has to offer. Perhaps the most expensive option but also the most powerful one. Modern graphics cards can not only tackle the classics but also consoles like Playstation 3, and Xbox. Xbox 360 emulation is coming on leaps and bounds thanks to Xenia. Playstation 4 is round the corner as well as current arcade games doing the rounds.

FPGA Emulation

This is for purists and emulates systems at a hardware level, not software. This will result in perfect emulation but to be honest in most cases can't be differentiated from a properly configured Windows setup. Not many people go down this route but if you do the MiSTer is an open source project which contains hundreds of cores to choose from.

The last piece of the arcade machine puzzle- What screen?

The purest form would be an original CRT screen. These are hard to come by now but there are still some companies who make them at a premium. But this would also mean that you wouldn't be able to play the more modern titles whose resolution goes beyond 640 x 480. Also even more modern games moved to widescreen which also complicates things... Fortunately there are enhancements to make the classic gaming experience more authentic. 

Hardware Scanlines

An overlay of scanlines to replicate the CRT screen. You can even add the bulge of a CRT screen and the bloom of the original's display. This is power hungry but an adequate PC can cope. Pi's not quite yet but they're getting there.

Arcade Machine bezels

So what are you going to put in place in the empty space on a widescreen display? Thankfully arcade enthusuiasts have replicated most of the well known bezels so coupled with a dynamic marquee, it really feels like you're playing the original arcade machine.

 

The Final Touches

Glass or Plexi?

If you are going for that true arcade feel- you want to use either glass or plexiglass in front of the screen. If opting for glass- its paramount you get toughened glass with the etched watermark on the side. Go for 6mm thick which will ensure it'll take a knock.

Or you could go for plexiglass which is far cheaper and you can cut it yourself down to size. If this were the case I probably wouldn't bother as it scratches easily and doesn't have that premium look so you might as well go without (this is personal preference so feel free to disagree). 

So how much does it cost?

In short- a passable semi reliable arcade machine to build from scratch will cost you conservatively around £700.

A decent well made, trusty, one-off arcade machine which will serve you for decades will set you back approximately £2000 but can exceed well over £3000-£5000 depending on parts and specs. When building yourself an arcade machine take the time to see what parts you want to use as this will affect the longevity and your enjoyment of your new hobby!

Or feel free to give us a shout and we'll do the hard work for you and you can be guaranteed bang for your buck and a machine which will last you for decades to come.