The 10 Best Commercial Arcade Machines

The Creative Arcades 2-Player Stand-Up suits a cafe, barbershop or small bar that wants one classic cabinet. It pairs arcade-grade Sanwa joysticks with a trackball, and it can run on coins or on free play. The 60 built-in games are a short list of familiar hits instead of a pile of filler, and the maker covers parts for three years. Creative Arcades doesn't say the games are licensed, which matters once players pay.

Bars that want guests to sit and play over a drink should look at the Creative Arcades Tilt-Top Cocktail. Its wide screen lies flat under tempered glass for table play, then lifts and tilts so seated players can face it. Players sit across from each other at Sanwa controls with a shared trackball, and stools come with it. The 3,500 games are mostly filler, and a few buyers have found broken or dead parts out of the box.

Four friends can play side by side on the Creative Arcades 4-Player Stand-Up, which makes it a good fit for party rooms and busy bars. A big screen sits in a slim cabinet with curved wood-grain sides, and the wide control deck holds Sanwa sticks and a trackball. It runs on coins or free play. Few owners have written about it so far, so its long-term record is still thin.

Built to look like a wine barrel, the Creative Arcades Wine Barrel blends into a pub or tasting room in a way a black cabinet can't. The screen sits under thick tempered glass on top, so the barrel doubles as a high-top table, and two bar stools come with it. It carries 60 classic games and works with coins or free play. The screen is small for a table this size.

Small cafes and game rooms on a budget can get a real sit-down table in the Top US Video Arcades Cocktail. The seller says it's built from thick plywood instead of particle board and backs parts for five years, but those are its own claims, and few owners have weighed in. A coin door comes ready for paid play, and stools are included. By the seller's own note, it holds fewer games than its title promises.

A glass-door drink fridge fills the lower front of the Creative Arcades Drink Fridge Stand-Up, so a game lounge or office break room gets cold sodas and a two-player cabinet in one spot. Up top are Sanwa sticks, a trackball and more than 400 classic games, on free play or coins. A fridge inside a cabinet is one more part that can fail, and few owners have reviewed this one.

Golden Tee has been a bar fixture for decades, and the Arcade1Up Golden Tee 3D Deluxe brings eight versions of the golf game, plus bowling, home on a smooth trackball. Scores post to online leaderboards over Wi-Fi, and the light-up marquee and side art look the part. It's a home cabinet, not a coin-op one: the coin door is molded plastic, and the warranty is short, at 90 days unless you register it.

For a waiting room or family game room, the Arcade1Up Pac-Man Deluxe is a low-cost way to get a familiar cabinet with officially licensed games. It holds 14 Namco titles, Galaga and Dig Dug among them, behind a light-up marquee, and Wi-Fi posts high scores online. The cabinet is lighter and smaller than a true arcade build, and its stock joystick can loosen or start to stick after a couple of years.

Fighting-game fans get the first three Mortal Kombat games, plus Rampage, Paperboy and Gauntlet, in the Arcade1Up Mortal Kombat II Deluxe. Two players stand side by side at a button layout like the originals, and Wi-Fi adds online matches against players elsewhere. Arcade1Up sells it for home use with a 90-day warranty, so it isn't meant for heavy paid play, and its joysticks feel lighter than arcade parts.

The Top US Video Arcades Upright gives four players a big screen and a trackball in a plain black cabinet. Its control deck comes off the cabinet and bolts on in minutes, so the cabinet fits through a normal doorway. The seller claims thick plywood and a long parts warranty, but little owner feedback backs that up, and most of its thousands of games are filler.