DIY Arcade

the largest rising branch of arcading is the DIY, or Do It Yourself Arcade. While there are many sites available from which to buy, I find that the best ones are:

www.akihabarashop.jp - THE place for sanwa buttons. the prices are relatively cheap, being they are sent from Japan to the US, but the sevice is outstanding. They provide you with a picture of your order to visually confirm its what you wanted. The main thing that stood out was Sanwa buttons Dont use a "snap-action" microswitch. Instead they incorporate i believe a leaf switch design.

www.ultimarc.com - BY FAR, meaning not even the same class of quality, would have to be the Ultimarc Perfect 360. magnet sensors auto center with 99.9% response rate. (according to me).
most joysticks use, again, microswitches, which are notorious for failing after a while. long though that period may be.

Cabinets:
Wood and a drill template can work wonders when createing a cabinet. the only caution i advise is to avoid cliche's such as weird angles and little or no arm room. (i dunno about you, but my wrists hurt after holding them up after an all night tourney.)

Welcome

Hello, This is my blog spot for all things arcade. Since I was a little kid I can remember pumping my afternoon chores worth of money into just about every arcade game i could find. now with the wonderful world wide web I can relive my nostalgia. such awesome sites as www.mamedev.org provide the everyday arcade enthusiast with just about every kind of game available in a modern day arcade. while not EVERY game is available through mame, a good 80-90% are available for free, or a small cost.