Looking to get a custom arcade machine/megacade and I have questions
So, I want to have my own arcade machine to play classic arcade games. I’ve been looking around, and I’m honestly split on either buying a fully prebuilt machine or buying a shell and installing everything else myself (building one is out of the question as I have no experience in using power tools)
On one hand, buying a prebuilt would just be plug and play. On the other, so many I see are bloated with crap that I don’t need (console games on an arcade machine???) and usually have designs that are ugly (the giant mosaics with like 500 video game characters on them, you know the ones). Plus they’re much more expensive than the other option, which is buying a shell and just doing it myself. Then, I would be able to choose which arcade peripherals I do and don’t want and the whole build with a screen, controls, and whatever else would probably be less expensive and buying a prebuilt machine. However, I simply don’t know any places to buy those from, and all the Arcade1UP machines with 6 buttons are being sold online for much more than they’re worth. Where to from here?
Posted Aug 14, 2026, 12:44 AM UTC