Bartop Arcade FAQ

Q. What is a barcade or bartop arcade?

A. It is an arcade gaming system placed in a small cabinet that isn't quite as big as a full-size arcade cabinet. Cabinets that are 3/4 size are called cabaret or cabriolet cabinets. One recent example (2018) for this is the Arcade1Up home arcade system. True bartop arcades are smaller and have monitors on them ranging from 9 inches to 21 inches (giver or take) and can fit on a desktop or stand. The term comes from back in the day when there were mini arcade machines on the bars at pubs, restaurants, casinos, etc.

Q. What is in the guts of a bartop arcade?

A. The gaming systems inside range from anything from a JAMMA cartridge (short for Japan Amusement Machine and Marketing Association), a Raspberry Pi system, a small PC computer to some other dedicated system. JAMMA was the standard for wiring established so all games could be interchangeable in systems. It simplified upgrades and increased re-usability of cabinets with kits that could just be swapped out and maybe cabinet art changed.

Examples of a JAMMA based system would be a Pandora's Box cartridge, an Arkanoid board, 60-in-1 board, and a lot of your favorite arcade games. Pluses are that you get the exact arcade experience if you own the original board. Minuses are that the compendium cartridges (Pandora's Boxes, etc) are not always that great and have weird game play, mono sound, etc.

Raspberry Pi systems are hobby style mini small PCs. Pluses are you can have a lot of console systems working on the system. Minuses are that a lot of arcade games just aren't playable due to limitations of these small computers.

Small PCs can be put together inexpensively. Pluses are you can jam in a lot of systems and the sky is the limit if you have a large enough hard drive. Minuses are that you have limited space and you will have heating and ventilation problems depending on the type of PC you are running.

Q. Should I buy or build one?

A. Depends on what kind of hobbyist you are. If you like to build things, you've answered the question yourself. Please check the forums and you can see some amazing builds by our members. Download the cabinet plans from the site or check out the Internet and groups for ideas. It may be cheaper than buying a pre built system but you may be putting in a lot of time (opportunity cost) and sweat equity. Costs may grow if you are a perfectionist (do you really need to have all that ambient lighting around the barcade? :) ).

If you just want to get the games going, have no patience - yes, that is most of you in the community I am looking at, my brother and sister rom hoarding weasels, you should consider buying a bartop. Pluses are if you have money you can get custom built whatever you want. Minuses are quality varies among builders and kits and you probably still will need to do some labor for setting things up.

Things That You Probably Didn't Know'

If you are building or buying a barcade or any cabinet system, check to see if the material is MDF. If so please wear gloves and don't breathe in the dust when working on it. Work outside and make sure the area is clean when you are done and no pets, children or people are around (common sense here, right?).

Depending on how deep you want to go you don't need much horsepower to run games and consoles in a barcade which is why the Raspberry Pi machines are popular. Just remember you get what you pay for and even though size isn't everything, it can limit what you can run :).

Prices of systems vary and this is a over-simplified list is only current as of late 2018. These are suggested specifications:

PC with embedded video graphics and 4 GB memory - Most of MAME, most console systems up to year 2000

PC with added video card (4-16 GB) and 16 GB memory - More of MAME, most console systems and whatever it is that is playable up to 2018 - but be warned it probably won't fit and if it does, you will need cooling, cooling, cooling.

This post is open to being updated. Thanks for your interest, happy gaming and have fun! It is supposed to be a hobby :).

sputnikim