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Deluxe / sit-down cabinets (racing, gun, motion)

An overview of the big dedicated sit-down cabinets — deluxe, cockpit and motion — built for immersion: driving games (force-feedback wheel/pedals), rail-shooters (light guns), simulators and motion cabinets on actuators. Unlike the compact candy cabs, these are bulky, heavy cabinets, often one game = one cabinet.

The families

Family Principle Iconic examples
Sit-down / cockpit the player sits inside the cabinet (seat + wheel/stick) Sega OutRun, After Burner, driving cabs
Deluxe (DX) / environmental the enveloping "big cabinet" version of a game (vs mini/upright) DX versions of racers, twin/linked
Motion / simulator hydraulic/electric actuators move the seat or the pod After Burner (motion), Sega R360 (360° rotation)
Gun / rail-shooter gun(s) fixed to the cabinet, dedicated sit-down or standing House of the Dead, Time Crisis
Modern HD sit-down arcade PC + large LCD Sega Lindbergh Universal

(Per Wikipedia — Arcade cabinet (deluxe/environmental/cockpit) and internal pages.)

What sets them apart

  • Specialised controls: force-feedback wheel, pedals, gear shifter, flight stick, or optical gun — well beyond joystick + buttons.
  • Immersion: enveloping pod, seat, sometimes actuators (motion); the R360 goes as far as full rotation on two axes.
  • Size / weight: far heavier and bulkier than a candy cab — transport and installation are non-trivial.
  • Dedicated: usually one game per cabinet (specific artwork, controls and electronics), sometimes linkable (twin/networked versus).

Wiring & power

  • I/O: JAMMA on classic generations, JVS on modern arcade (arcade PCs like the Lindbergh) → JVS wiring and JVS I/O boards.
  • Analog controls: wheel/pedals go through potentiometers / encoders to an I/O board; guns via an optical sensor (CRT) or infrared (LCD).
  • Motion: a separate hydraulic/electric stage (actuators, safety interlocks) — specific maintenance and reinforced safety.
  • Power: high-wattage supplies depending on motors/actuators and the large screen — see Power.

Repair pointers

  • Force feedback (wheel): motor, belt, position potentiometer, power board.
  • CRT gun: relies on the tube's scan (timing) — mind CRT vs LCD compatibility (many optical guns don't work on LCD without adaptation).
  • Motion: ⚠️ pressurised actuators / high energy — do not service without knowing the safety systems.
  • Monitor: large CRT (recap/adjust) or LCD (modern).

See also

Photos / assets

(To add: driving cockpit, actuator motion cabinet, light-gun rail-shooter.)

Repair & maintenance

Modernise (video, PSU, JVS, upscaler, PC/FPGA) → Modernising a cabinet. CRT monitor (discharge HV!) → CRT safety · recap → Recap · diagnosis → PCB fault-finding.

Sources & attribution

Review & corrections

How this space is used

Spotted a wrong value, an outdated procedure, a chip reference that does not match your board? Say so here, with what you observed (model, board revision, serial number, measurement). Every report is cross-checked against a source before anything changes — an unverifiable correction is published as “reported by …, not cross-checked” rather than silently applied.

Reading is open to everyone; posting requires signing in with Discord. Reports from the wiki's declared reviewers are handled first; anyone else's are read too, but go through a human before anything is changed.