I’ve been building arcade machines for about **40 years**, but this is my **latest creation** — a fully handcrafted **vertical bartop cabinet** (which can easily be wall-mounted if needed).

I’ve tuned the setup so everything loads quickly and feels just like playing on a real CRT cab.

I built it mainly for **vertical SHMUPS**, but it also handles **horizontal arcade** and **console titles** (SEGA, NES, SNES), as well as **Pinball Tables (FX2 and FX3)** — all running on a **customized CoinOPS build** I’ve been tweaking for about eight months to achieve that perfect CRT-style performance and visual feel — the glow, the vivid colors, and those subtly rounded screen corners.

At first, I wanted to power it with a **Raspberry Pi 5**, but a few specific **MAME titles** (and Pinball FX2–3) just didn’t run the way I wanted — sometimes not at all.

So I switched to a **Windows 10 x64 system**, powered by an **Intel i5 quad-core mini PC**, **8GB DDR4 RAM**, and a **120GB SSD**. That extra horsepower lets me enable **MAME HLSL**, giving it a genuine CRT-style glow and smooth scanlines — buttery performance, zero lag.

**Some build highlights:**  
• **22" vertical display** – 100 Hz, 1 ms MPRT, 178° viewing angle, rich colors, adaptive sync  
• **Sanwa Denshi joystick and buttons** – authentic Japanese controls for that late-’80s arcade feel  
• **Xbox 360 gamepad support** – works alongside the main panel or as **Player 2** for two-player games when switching modes  
• **Virtual marquee** – changes per game title, a small touch that adds a lot of retro charm

I’m really happy with how this one turned out — still can’t get over how **smooth, glowy, and colorful** the visuals feel with that HLSL CRT emulation.

Sharing it here because I know this community appreciates that mix of **nostalgia, craftsmanship, and technical tinkering**.

*(Photos below — full cabinet, control panel close-up, internal wiring, and a gameplay shot)*

**Cheers,**  
*An old-school arcade builder* 🎮

*(Happy to share advice if someone wants to try building one themselves — time permitting!)*

40 years of building arcade machines — my latest vertical bartop build (custom CoinOPS + CRT glow)