Arcade1Up assembly
A 3/4 scale arcade cabinet in a flat box. Build it with a hand screwdriver, not a drill.
Arcade1Up cabinets bring a licensed arcade machine into a normal room at about three quarters of the original size. They arrive as flat-pack particleboard, and almost every wobble people complain about later comes from the same three things: a power driver in soft MDF, the riser hardware bag nobody finds, and tightening the panels before the cabinet is square.
It is a flat-pack cabinet, not a steel arcade machine
Arcade1Up, part of Tastemakers, makes officially licensed home arcade cabinets at roughly three quarter scale: Pac-Man, Galaga, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, NBA Jam and dozens more, usually with several games on one machine, a seventeen inch LCD, real arcade controls and the original cabinet artwork. They are coinless and plug into an ordinary wall outlet. There are also Countercades that sit on a table and the Infinity Game Board for digital board games.
The scale is deliberate. A genuine arcade cabinet is a piece of commercial furniture that dominates a room; these are built to live in a family house. What that means practically is that the cabinet is particleboard panels shipped flat, and you assemble it much like a bookcase, except that the finished thing gets leaned on, hammered by an eight year old, and expected to stay rigid.
That is why the technique matters more here than the parts do. The instructions are clear and most people finish in under an hour, but the failure mode is specific and avoidable: soft board plus too much torque equals a screw hole that never holds again. Build it patiently and it stays tight for years.
How long it takes
Most cabinets are a single evening. Two people makes the panel stage much easier.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| Upright cabinet, first buildA first Atari Deluxe build ran about an hour and a half. | 1 to 1.5 hr | 2 |
| Upright cabinet, done one beforeIt goes quickly once the order is familiar. | 30 to 40 min | 1 to 2 |
| RiserSeparate hardware bag. See below. | 20 min | 1 |
| Countercade or tabletopFar less to build than an upright. | 20 to 30 min | 1 |
| Position and set upNear an outlet, on a level floor. | 10 min | 1 |
Nothing here needs a workshop. A single hand screwdriver does the whole cabinet, and the box contents are complete, but do open and sort the hardware bags before you start.
What actually goes wrong
Use a hand screwdriver, not a drill
This is the one that matters. The cabinet is particleboard, and a power driver sinks a screw straight past where it should stop, chewing out the hole so it never grips again. Arcade1Up recommend a hand screwdriver, and the reviewers who have built several say the same thing: if you must use a driver, wind the torque right down, because otherwise you risk damaging the wood and ending up with a cabinet that wobbles. A stripped hole in the side panel is not really repairable without dowels and glue, so it is worth the extra ten minutes of hand-tightening.
The riser instructions are not in the manual
If you bought the riser, the pedestal that lifts the cabinet to full standing height, do not go looking for its instructions in the main booklet. They are printed on a sheet inside the small plastic bag that holds the riser hardware. More than one person has torn the box apart convinced the instructions were missing. Build the riser first if you are using one, then set the cabinet on top, rather than building the cabinet and trying to lift it afterwards. The riser adds a bit over fourteen inches and weighs around seventeen pounds.
Start every screw loose and square it up before tightening
The awkward moment in every build is attaching the second side panel, when the half-built cabinet is trying to fold up on you. The trick experienced builders use is to run every screw in only halfway first, leaving the panels a little loose so they can be shifted into alignment, and only then go round and tighten everything down. Tighten as you go and you will find the last panel is a quarter inch out with nowhere to move. The monitor corner brackets are the other fiddly step, they are not hard, just awkward to line up, and the same loose-then-tighten approach helps.
Decide where it lives before you build it
These are coinless and run off a normal wall outlet, so plan for a spot near a socket, and think about whether you want the riser, because that decision changes the height from a seated machine to a standing one. If children will mostly play it, plenty of people skip the riser and leave it at cabinet height. Once assembled it is awkward rather than heavy to move, so it is much easier to build it in the room it will live in than to shuffle a finished cabinet through a doorway.
Check it sits flat once it is together
A cabinet that rocks slightly on an uneven floor will feel loose no matter how well you built it, and every knock during play works at the joints. Set it on a level patch of floor, push the top corner gently to check it does not rock, and if it does, shim it. Doing that at the end, while everything is still fresh, is far easier than diagnosing a wobble six months later and assuming the cabinet was badly made.
Before the pro arrives
Clear the spot where the cabinet will live, ideally within reach of a power outlet, and keep a clear run from the front door. The box is bulky rather than heavy, so the issue is width through doorways rather than weight.
Keep the packaging and every small hardware bag together, including the riser bag if you bought one, since the riser instructions live inside it rather than in the main manual.
Decide whether you want the riser fitted before the day. It changes the machine from a seated height to a standing one, and it is far easier to build it underneath than to lift a finished cabinet onto it later. Mention it too if the floor is carpeted or uneven, because that affects how the cabinet is levelled at the end.
Why people get help with these
Not because the build is hard, but because it is unforgiving in one specific way: get the torque wrong on soft board and the damage is permanent. Someone who has built a few of these does it in half an hour, gets every panel square, and leaves you a cabinet that feels solid rather than one that develops a lean.
It is also a common gift. A cabinet arriving the week of a birthday, in a big flat box, is exactly the scenario where paying someone to have it standing and playing by the afternoon is worth it.
What an installer will usually do
- Unbox and sort the hardware before starting.
- Assemble the riser first if you have one.
- Build the cabinet, hand-tightening in the right order so it finishes square.
- Fit the control deck, monitor brackets and marquee.
- Position it, check it sits flat, and shim if needed.
- Power it up, test the controls and run through the game menu.
- Take the packaging away.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
How long does an Arcade1Up take to put together?
Around thirty to forty minutes if you have built one before, and about an hour to an hour and a half for a first build, particularly on the larger deluxe cabinets. Two people make the side-panel stage much easier, though one person can manage.
Do I need any tools?
A hand screwdriver, and that is deliberately all. Arcade1Up recommend against power tools because the cabinet is particleboard and a driver will strip the screw holes, which is the most common cause of a wobbly finished cabinet.
Is the riser worth it?
It depends who is playing. The riser lifts the machine to roughly full standing arcade height, which feels right for adults, while the cabinet on its own suits seated play and younger children. Its instructions come inside the riser hardware bag rather than in the main manual, which catches a lot of people out.
Why does my cabinet feel wobbly?
Almost always one of two things: screws over-tightened during assembly so the holes no longer grip, or the cabinet sitting on an uneven floor. Check whether it rocks before assuming the joints are at fault, and shim it if so.
Can it be moved once built?
Yes, but awkwardly. It is bulky rather than heavy, and moving it through doorways with two people is fine. It is much easier to assemble it in the room where it will stay.
Arcade1Up is a trademark of Tastemakers, LLC. We are not affiliated with or endorsed by Arcade1Up. Assembly times and details are drawn from published manuals and hands-on builds and vary by model.