History Of North American Arcade Cabinets?

Drogulus

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Hey guys, long time member who rarely posts here. I am wondering if we can get a discussion going on the history of arcade cabinets in North America. I am 30 so as an adult, by the time I started collecting the arcade era was almost dead. My question as far as my own teen years is where did cabinets come from in the 90s? If you ordered say a Street Fighter or a Mortal Kombat machine, where were you ordering them from and from who? I would really love a set of matching cabinets for my Street Fighter games but ordering from Japan is far too expensive and there only seem to be a few people in the states still making cabinets and they are also very expensive.

Even in Japan it seems that dedicated cabinets with side art and marquees barely exist and most games there are but into mass produced cabinets that are far too expensive to import to North America. I guess that I would be really interested to know where these games that I now collect as an adult actually came from and what the prices were like. If anyone has any knowledge of cabinet history I would love to hear about it.
 
Hey guys, long time member who rarely posts here. I am wondering if we can get a discussion going on the history of arcade cabinets in North America. I am 30 so as an adult, by the time I started collecting the arcade era was almost dead. My question as far as my own teen years is where did cabinets come from in the 90s? If you ordered say a Street Fighter or a Mortal Kombat machine, where were you ordering them from and from who? I would really love a set of matching cabinets for my Street Fighter games but ordering from Japan is far too expensive and there only seem to be a few people in the states still making cabinets and they are also very expensive.

Even in Japan it seems that dedicated cabinets with side art and marquees barely exist and most games there are but into mass produced cabinets that are far too expensive to import to North America. I guess that I would be really interested to know where these games that I now collect as an adult actually came from and what the prices were like. If anyone has any knowledge of cabinet history I would love to hear about it.

The cabinets were made and sold domestically in NA. For the most part, there was nothing *cabinet wise* shipped in from Japan. Depending on the era of the 90's, you're gonna want to search the forums for "Z-Back" "3Koam" and "Dynamo". A lot of different discussions on the different cabinets used in the 90's for MK and Street Fighter (some investigations still on-going).
 
The cabinets were made and sold domestically in NA. For the most part, there was nothing *cabinet wise* shipped in from Japan. Depending on the era of the 90's, you're gonna want to search the forums for "Z-Back" "3Koam" and "Dynamo". A lot of different discussions on the different cabinets used in the 90's for MK and Street Fighter (some investigations still on-going).

Thank you. I would love to know how much the Dynamo and Z-Back cabinets went for when you ordered one new. I assume both of these companies shipped these with everything but the JAMMA board. Just for fun I have been looking at Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV prices from Japan and looks like Capcom only sells them in sets of four with and at prices over 22,000 dollars pre-shipping costs.

If anyone knows the answer to how much these cabinets retailed for I would appreciate the response.
 
Capcom had a facility here in san jose. 3koam used to make the cabinets in fremont,ca.

the 3koam 25" red zback cabinet would probably be considered the dedicated cabinet for SF II champion edition. As for who put the art on the cabinets and did final assembly, I would assume 3koam.

Midway did their production in or around chicago, IL. I think they handled all their own production.

now if your looking for the new stuff, like SSF4, thats probably done in japan. If it was not released in the USA someone like coinopexpress would have to import it. If released in the usa, then you should be able to get it from an arcade game distributor like betson.
 
Capcom had a facility here in san jose. 3koam used to make the cabinets in fremont,ca.

the 3koam 25" red zback cabinet would probably be considered the dedicated cabinet for SF II champion edition. As for who put the art on the cabinets and did final assembly, I would assume 3koam.

Midway did their production in or around chicago, IL. I think they handled all their own production.

now if your looking for the new stuff, like SSF4, thats probably done in japan. If it was not released in the USA someone like coinopexpress would have to import it. If released in the usa, then you should be able to get it from an arcade game distributor like betson.

Thank you for the info. I found this website that has pictures and info on all of the Dynamo Cabs.

http://www.drzero.org/videogames/dynamo/

It has pictures of the the HS-1 all the way to the HS-27. I am learning a lot just by studying the different cabinets. It's helping me narrow down what I should start looking for.
 
The 3KOAM Z Back was $1025 new with no game in it. The Dynamo HS5 was $995 also no game in it.

Theres also Grand Products which builds games currently but started building for Sega in the 90's I think.
 
The 3KOAM Z Back was $1025 new with no game in it. The Dynamo HS5 was $995 also no game in it.

Theres also Grand Products which builds games currently but started building for Sega in the 90's I think.

Thanks, and wow I just found their website. Looks like it was put up back in the late 90s.
 
ICE made some universal cabs also they have a 25inch and Showcase cab.
I called them and they can still make them if requested.

Atari made a showcase also.

My Z-back was made by a cabinet company in chicago that I cant seem to find any info on
 

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