Arcade machines grow old just like we do. Buttons wear out and joysticks no longer feel as sharp as they once did. The good news is that most arcade cabinets were built to be repaired. With the right parts and a little patience, you can restore the gameplay experience to how it felt the day that cabinet left the factory.

Before getting into upgrades, there are a couple of important things to understand about how an arcade cabinet is put together. The first couple of sections will help you feel more confident when you open the machine, identify the parts you need to replace and follow the wiring harness. It also makes it easier to plan which tools and replacement parts you will need.

Safety warning

You should always be cautious when working inside an arcade cabinet. High voltages are present, especially in machines that still use a CRT monitor. Always unplug the cabinet before carrying out any work and avoid touching the back of the monitor, the chassis or any high voltage wiring. If you are not comfortable or unsure at any point, seek professional help before continuing.

Control Panels: Wood and Metal

The control panel is the obvious place to start. It is important to understand what type of control panel your cabinet uses. Many UK and European cabinets use wooden control panels because they were cheaper to produce and easy to customise. These are thicker and require screw-in style buttons. They also provide a slightly different sound and feel when playing.

My own machines have metal control panels which are thinner and more durable. They are usually compatible with a wide range of arcade hardware and can use either snap-in or screw-in buttons depending on the specific panel cut.

Once you know what you are working with, you can start planning your upgrade.

The Jamma Connector Explained

Most arcade cabinets built from the late 1980s onwards use a wiring standard called JAMMA. This is a universal harness that carries video, audio, power and control signals between the cabinet and the game board. The idea behind JAMMA was to make arcade operators’ lives easier so they could swap game boards without rewiring an entire machine.

A standard JAMMA edge connector provides a large number of pins that include 5 volt and 12 volt power, ground, video out for RGB, composite sync, audio, and player controls and coin inputs. Some boards add extra pins for features such as service switches or additional buttons.

Understanding which pin does what will help when you are replacing harnesses, installing streaming adapters or adding custom button mapping. Always isolate power before working on a harness and label any connectors that you remove.

Upgrading Joystick Levers

Many joystick levers in original European have long since passed their best. Replacing a tired stick with a brand new one is one of the most impactful upgrades you can make. Many European cabs had levers made by Happ or Suzo, or later on Suzo-Happ when the companies merged. Industrias Lorenzo were the manufacturer for Happ before they merged with Suzo and they still produce the EuroJoystick today. These levers are known for a strong centring feel and robust build quality. Perfect for beat em ups and classic arcade action.

The process is usually straightforward. Remove the control panel (for my panels they have clips hidden inside the cab that you can reach through the coin door), unscrew the existing lever, unplug the microswitch terminals and then fit the new lever into place. Most metal panels already have the correct mounting pattern for an IL stick, although it is still worth checking before you start.

Replacing Buttons with IL Arcade Buttons

The original buttons often tell a story. Cigarette burns. Yellowing from years of play. A slightly mushy feel that no longer inspires confidence when gameplay gets frantic.

In my opinion new, high-quality buttons are a must!

Again, sticking with European cabs, they generally had either clicky microswitched buttons, or they had springy leaf-spring buttons. 

Leaf-spring buttons are becoming more difficult to source and so many people are turning to the more common microswitched buttons. If you do have leaf-switches and want to keep them, the buttons are often referred to as pinball flipper buttons online. And the leaf-switches themselves can often be cleaned up with some contact cleaner and reused.

My cabs didn’t have original buttons anyway. They had cheap microswitches and just didn’t feel great, so I opted to swap them out for some new IL buttons. 

Remove the old button, disconnect the spades from the microswitch, then install the new button in its place. Snap-ins sometimes do not suit thicker wooden panels, so screw-ins are often the better choice.

Improving Cabinet Audio

Speakers in cabinets experience years of loud volume, dust and general wear. A crackling speaker can ruin an otherwise perfect cabinet.

Swapping the speaker for a modern equivalent is often very easy and can make a very noticeable improvement to audio quality. Before fitting new speakers, there are a few important checks to make sure everything works as it should.

Begin by confirming that the size and impedance of the replacement speaker match the original specification. Many JAMMA wired cabinets are set up for mono audio only. If you install two speakers and simply connect them together, the overall impedance will change. This can overload the amplifier or make the sound far too quiet, so it is essential to confirm how your cabinet is wired before proceeding.

You should also check the condition of the audio wiring inside the cabinet. Look for loose spade connectors, brittle insulation or any signs of corrosion. 

If your speakers are mounted close to a CRT screen, you must ensure that the replacements are magnetically shielded. Unshielded speakers can distort the picture or even cause permanent discolouration on a CRT, so it is always worth choosing the right type.

In my case, I found that only one speaker was present, so I chose to replace it with a speaker of a similar size and the same impedance. It was located behind the marquee, fairly close to the top of the CRT, so I opted for a shielded spear to be on the safe side.

To replace it, I just had to screw the new speaker into place and reconnect the spade terminals.

Adding Streaming Capability with a JAMMAStream Adapter

When I got back into retro gaming, I started streaming on Twitch as it gave me a reason to play games and was a great way to share the games I was playing with a wider audience.

That is fairly easy to do with computers and consoles, but streaming games from a real arcade cabinet isn’t as straightforward. 

There are a few adapters on the market that will help you to do this, but at Arcade Parts UK, we have been developing the JAMMAStream adapter, which will be available very soon. This adapter sits between the JAMMA connector in your cab and the game PCB and provides breakout connectors to send the cabinet’s video and audio signals to a capture device while the machine continues to run normally.

This lets you stream gameplay directly to platforms such as Twitch without altering the cabinet’s authentic look and feel.

Final Thoughts

Arcade cabinets were designed to be maintained and repaired. Replacing a joystick or buttons and refreshing internal parts can restore the fun and keep gaming history alive.

As always, feel free to reach out with any questions or share your own cabinet projects.