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"Western" cabinets (upright, cabaret, cocktail)

An overview of Western (US/EU) arcade cabinets — as opposed to Japanese candy cabs. These include the tall upright, its scaled-down cabaret / mini version, and the cocktail / table cabinet. Wooden cabinets (MDF/particleboard), usually a smaller, fixed monitor, and JAMMA wiring from the mid-1980s on.

The Western form factors

Format Description Screen Note
Upright tall vertical cabinet (~1.8 m / 6 ft), control panel at waist height, lit marquee on top CRT ~19–25″, often fixed the dominant format in North America
Cabaret / mini scaled-down upright, less bulky, aimed at small spaces / the home smaller CRT compacted "upright" style
Cocktail / table low table cabinet, screen flat under glass, 2 players seated across horizontal CRT, image flips (game-controlled) each turn common in 1980s bars

(Per Wikipedia — Arcade cabinet.)

Construction & materials

  • Wood: MDF or laminated particleboard panels, unlike the moulded plastic of candy cabs. Heavier to move, but simpler to repair/rebuild.
  • Artwork: side screen-printing, backlit marquee, bezel around the tube. Dedicated cabinets (Pac-Man, Mortal Kombat…) carry game-specific artwork.
  • Monitor: usually smaller (~19–25″) than a candy cab's 29″, and most often non-rotatable (orientation fixed at build time).

Wiring & power

  • JAMMA (56-pin edge) has been the standard for generic uprights since ~1985 → JAMMA wiring. Pre-JAMMA cabinets use dedicated harnesses.
  • Power: cabinet PSU (often 110/230 V by region) — see the power principle; the +5 V rail is critical for logic.
  • Controls: fixed panel (dedicated) or rewired (generic JAMMA cabinet) — see Control panels.

Western vs candy cab (JP)

Western upright Candy cab (JP)
Material wood (MDF/particleboard) moulded plastic
Monitor ~19–25″, often fixed 29″, often rotatable
Artwork dedicated screen-print + marquee neutral shell, interchangeable panel
Ergonomics standing seated

(See also the overview: cabinet types.)

Repair (cross-cutting)

  • CRT monitor: recap + adjustments — see Nanao MS8 / MS9; ⚠️ high voltage.
  • Wooden cabinet: re-glue/reinforce panels, replace T-molding, redo artwork.
  • JAMMA contacts, harness, buttons/joysticks.

Playing a PCB at home

As with candy cabs, you can wire a JAMMA board without a cabinet via a supergun.

Photos / assets

(To add: dedicated US upright, cabaret, glass-top cocktail.)

Repair & maintenance

Modernise (video, PSU, JVS, upscaler, PC/FPGA) → Modernising a cabinet. CRT monitor (discharge HV!) → CRT safety · Wells-Gardner / Sanyo 20-EZ (US) / Hantarex (EU) chassis · 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.

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