There are many things to do with an old Mac, but one of the most enjoyable is using it to create an arcade cabinet. While both Macs and PCs can be used to power the emulators used for playing games, this article focuses on using Macs as the solution. Arcade cabinets fall into four categories, and which one you choose depends on financial investment, computer hardware, upgrade options, aesthetic preferences, and the space available for the finished cabinet.

Cockpits create an enveloping experience for the gamer by including monitors, speakers, controls, and seating in an enclosure. In the arcade, cockpit designs were often driving, flight, or space simulator games. Because the player is seated he can use both arms and legs, with controls arranged appropriately to further enhance the simulated experience. These are the largest and most expensive cabinet option because of their construction and space requirements.

A cockpit cabinet kit can be purchased from FlexArcade.

Uprights include monitors, speakers, and controls in a cabinet designed for standing game-play. This cabinet style was originally used for the majority of arcade games, so it the most recognized. Uprights require far less space than cockpit cabinets which made them popular in non-arcade retail locations. A mini-cabinet is usually a smaller variation of the upright cabinet, popular for children and home use.

There are many upright cabinet kits suitable for Mac use, including Dream Arcades Upright, Mameroom Designs' Ultimate Arcade II, SlickStick's 27" & 33" Arcade Cabinets, and XGaming's X-Arcade Machine.

Cocktails are designed for seated game-play by combining a monitor, speakers, and controls into a table. The monitor faces directly upwards so players from all sides of the glass tabletop can see the action. Duplicate controls for two players are located at either end of the table, and the game display changes orientation based on which player is active. Cocktail arcade machines were often originally found in hospitality businesses, such as hotels, bars, and restaurants.

ArcadeDepot provides cocktail kits made with cabinet-grade materials suitable for natural finishes. Dream Arcades offers multiple options, including the 3-Sided, Side-to-Side, and Head-to-Head kits. The Ultimate Arcade Cocktail from Mameroom Designs comes surfaced with black melamine.

Bartops combine the monitor, speakers, and controls into a unit designed for tabletop use. Like cocktail designs, bartops were often found in service-oriented locations. These cabinets usually contained card, board, gambling, puzzle, sports, or trivia games to appeal to the widest range of users and cognitive abilities. A barfly can enjoy video poker, whereas the traditional arcade action becomes difficult when coordination skills are lost after multiple drinks.

Lunacade's bartop Atomic Jamie includes everything except the monitor and computer, making it one of the easiest and complete cabinet kits available. This kit is especially well suited for use with older 15" CRT iMacs but can also handle some 17" monitors.

Consoles are a variation of consumer video game systems, and are not traditional to arcades. As with home video games, an arcade console includes the hardware, software, and controls but uses an external monitor and speakers. This design is popular in homes where space is at a premium and users want the arcade experience on a larger television instead of a computer monitor. There are many inexpensive arcade emulators available that output to a television, with most under $25. Arcade emulation is also possible on all video game consoles manufactured since 1995. These inexpensive and practical alternatives make more sense than building an arcade console.

The choice between kit assembly or building a cabinet from scratch should be primarily based on your skills. Obviously, a kit will be easier. Kits are also better suited to those without the time, tools or space necessary for full-fabrication. Some of the kits mentioned are also very affordable.

If you have the time, tools, and space, fabricating the cabinet yourself can save money and offers greater options for customization.

Many people have older Macs laying around that are no longer useful for mainstream productivity. These old computers can be perfect for powering an arcade machine as long as they are still functional and the required software is available. With additional setup, your arcade machine can also be used for many other tasks.

All Macs produced in the last several years use G3 or higher processors and come included with USB. It is possible to use an older pre-G3 machine, but their emulation performance will be limiting. It is suggested to use the more recent G3-USB machines as a minimum for powering a cabinet. USB-equipped Macs are more compatible with the variety of controller solutions.

Emulator performance is generally affected by three things. A faster processor will translate to better game performance. The capabilities of the video card also affect performance, but also determine display features such as scaling. More memory will enable the emulation of recent games that use greater resources and fancier graphics.

The earlier G3 iMacs (1998-2001) use processors ranging from 233-500 MHz and video cards with between 2-8 MB of VRAM (Video RAM). These machines work well emulating most older pre-1986 games, but suffer performance problems with many later titles. Out Run (1986), After Burner (1987), and Street Fighter (1987) require sound completely disabled for proper graphics display. Batman (1990) and most later games do not perform well regardless of how many features are disabled.

For older Macs manufactured prior to 2002, using OS 9 (not Classic) will usually improve emulator performance over OS X by 5-15%. The speed gained may help some titles, but the use of OS 9 will not completely solve performance problems with later games using large resources. For example, playing Batman on a Bondi iMac running OS 9 will improve graphics frame rates to make the game more playable, but all sound features must still be disabled. MacMAME 0.66 (2003) is the last OS 9 compatible version.

Generally the later G3 and G4 Macs running above 500MHz are better suited for emulation, but they may also be limited by their video cards. These iBooks, iMacs, eMacs, PowerBooks, and Power Macs have a range of video cards with between 8-64 MB of VRAM. Video cards with higher VRAM usually have more processing power and features.

All Macs manufactured with processors 800 MHz and above include video cards with at least 32 MB of VRAM. These are well suited for emulating almost all pre-1995 arcade titles, the exceptions being the few 3D games such as SEGA's Virtua Racing (1992).

Development for MacMAME ceased in early 2006, but those with recent PowerPC and Intel Macs can run MAME OS X. This newer MAME port is a universal application, meaning it runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel processors. While MAME OS X runs on earlier PowerPC machines, we found its performance to be less reliable than MacMAME when used on older hardware. MAME OS X requires OS X 10.4 or later.

This 1998 G3 iMac can run OS X, but it is much faster with OS 9 and MacMAME 0.66 or earlier. With the OS 9 configuration most of the classic pre-1989 arcade titles will run well except for graphics intensive games like Outrun and After Burner.	A 2003 G4 iMac will run best with OS X and a later version of MacMAME. This computer can use MAME OS X, but MacMAME is more reliable on the older hardware. Non-3D arcade titles will run well, especially the pre-1995 games. It is possible to run OS 9 with MacMAME 0.66 or earlier on this computer, but the speed advantages are offset by decreased stability.	This 2006 Intel iMac cannot run OS 9 natively, so it must either run OS X or Windows. Later versions of MacMAME are usable on the Intel Macs, but MAME OS X performs better. If the computer is running Boot Camp and Windows, the later Windows-compatible versions of MAME also work well. MAME does not run well or at all when using Parallels, VirtualBox, or other virtual machine software. When running either OS X or Windows, many 3D games from the 90s are playable.

MacTracker is an invaluable freeware utility with information about Mac hardware history and specifications. If you are planning to buy a used Mac for your arcade cabinet, use MacTracker to verify the model specifications before your purchase.

If you already have a Mac and need to check its hardware configuration, the information is easily accessed using the System Profiler. If the Mac is running OS X, System Profiler is located in the Utilities folder. For Macs running OS 9, go to the Apple Menu, Desk Accessories, and Apple System Profiler to find the information.

There are many Mac emulators and related resources available on the web:

• Emulation.net is an excellent software index for Mac emulators.
• Emuators.cc has links for Mac emulator software along with links for Windows and Linux emulators.
• Emuscene provides news, discussion, and community support about Mac emulation and related topics. Be warned that the discussion of acquiring and sharing ROMs is prohibited, not only on Emuscene but from most web sites.
• Richard Bannister ports many classic console and computer emulators to the Mac.

Regardless of which MAME emulator is used, it is important to make sure the game ROMs are the same version as the MAME emulator. For example, the ROMs for MAME 0.66 must be used for MacMAME 0.66. This applies to all MAME versions, including those for other hardware and operating systems. Using an X-Box to power an arcade cabinet requires MAMEoX — and that software is based on MAME 0.84, which requires 0.84 ROMs.

Most decent games, no matter how old, are still licensed and copyrighted. Publicly asking where to obtain ROMs is frowned upon everywhere, including emulation-related forums and web sites. The official MAME site provides ROMs that are legal for download and use. There are companies that sell licensed ROMs for private use, and they can be found by doing a web search. Make sure to check out the legitimacy of a company before giving them your private information and credit card.

Original arcade games offer two configurations, either controls for one-player at a time or multiple players simultaneously. Multiple players using a one-player control panel would alternate, usually taking turns when the previous player lost a life. Traditional arcade control panels were almost always designed for the single game contained in each cabinet.

While joysticks and buttons were the most common inputs, some games used flight yokes, knobs, light guns, pedals, shifters, steering wheels, trackballs, triggers, or even custom control devices that combined multiple inputs. Multi-game arcade controls have different requirements than the original arcade — because the controls from one arcade game do not match another, a multi-game control panel must be generalized.

For those with money and space, multiple arcade cabinets each designed for a specific arcade genre solve most control issues. For example, the driving games are only available in the cabinet with steering wheels, shifters, and pedals. Other cabinets might offer shooting, fighting, or maze games. The Ultimate Arcade Machine site has four genre-specific cabinet examples. Because most people do not have the desire and required resources for multiple arcade cabinets, one cabinet must accommodate the differences between game controls. Multi-genre control panels generally fall into one of four categories.

Generic control panels are the most simple and affordable. These usually contain only joysticks and buttons, suitable for most arcade controls. Players compromise with the games that require other inputs, either by trying to use the existing controls or not playing the games at all.

Inclusive control panels try to fit as many types of input devices possible within the space available. Not only are buttons and joysticks present, but the additional trackballs and knobs offer better control for specialized games and provide a more authentic arcade experience. Inclusive panels offer controls for two or more simultaneous players, usually making their space requirements higher than the other options. Jeffrey Forrester Allen's Supercade uses an inventive two-tiered panel for better access to the many input options.

Modular panels are removable and interchangeable, with each module including only the inputs needed for the game currently played. The unused panels are usually stored in the cabinet. For example, Centipede (1980) uses a trackball and buttons but no other inputs. The trackball module is attached for playing Centipede, but removed and swapped for the joystick module when playing Pac-man (1980). Compared to inclusive panel designs, modular panels require less physical space when being used and offer configuration options that don't reasonably fit onto an inclusive panel. On the other hand, modules require more space for storage and time spend swapping panels when changing games. A beautifully executed example of modular panels is demonstrated by Doc's Modular MAME.

Some of the more technically skilled have designed and built rotating control panels. These are similar in concept to modular panels by providing specialized inputs for different game genres, but rotating designs offer mechanical panel swapping to save time. Frostillicus, Pac-Mamea, and Rototron demonstrate the concept.

As a minimum, the control panel should have as many controls as possible for one player to play the widest range of arcade games. Controls for two simultaneous players are even better, because the additional inputs can be configured for the arcade games with non-standard setups. One example is Robotron: 2084 (1982), which uses two joysticks for one-player use. With a multi-player control panel, what would normally be player two's joystick in other games can be used for player one when playing Robotron.

There are many options for how the control panel interfaces with the CPU, but for Macs the USB-compatible solutions are the best. The USB controller solutions are plug-and-play with no driver requirements, cross-platform compatible, and offer simple options for modular use, upgrades, and changes. A USB controller solution will continue to work with the arcade cabinet no matter what operating systems, CPUs, or computing platform changes are made in the future.

Users willing to take the challenge can build a control panel from scratch. HAPP offers a large selection of parts and accessories for many amusement, vending, and arcade devices. SlikStik, Ultimarc, and XGaming specifically cater to arcade interests.

Purchasing a manufactured arcade controller is easier than building your own, and they come in a variety of sizes and control configurations. The buttons, joysticks, trackballs, or other inputs are mounted in a pre-wired controller case and ready to plug into a USB port. Prices vary based on manufacturer and options. Manufactured arcade controllers do not need to be used with an arcade cabinet, and offer an improved arcade experience just by using them with your computer. These are great for people still unsure about building an entire arcade cabinet, or those limited by budget constraints who must acquire their parts and materials over time.

One-Player Controllers:

Two-Player Controllers:

In addition to their controllers listed above, SlikStik manufactures the Quad four-player controller and offers options for custom-designed units.

How a manufactured controller is incorporated into an arcade cabinet should be based on personal requirements. When not permanently built into the cabinet, manufactured controllers become modular solutions so other controllers can be used when different inputs are needed for game-play. The guts from manufactured controllers make great kits for permanent mounting, and the parts from multiple controllers can be combined to create a custom inclusive control panel.

Many arcade cabinet kits have pre-defined control panel designs. If you have chosen to build your cabinet from a kit, be sure to research the control panel options, design, and part requirements before making your controller purchases.

Control panel layout is determined by the number of inputs, types of inputs, space restrictions, and personal preferences. The easiest way to decide on a finished design is create cardboard templates of the components, arranging the templates to meet space requirements and gaming preferences. Blender 3D models of these controls are available in our 3D model archive.

Mix and match the controls to create a custom control panel of your choice. Here are a few examples with joysticks, buttons, and trackballs — but in no way do these exhaust the possibilities. These suggestions are to get your imagination started.

Several of our original bartop designs are available, all with basic plans for constructing an arcade cabinet.