Arcade Cabinet Footprint Planner
A two-player upright arcade cabinet occupies about 28 in by 34 in and needs roughly 3 ft of standing room in front, so plan 28 in by 8 ft 10 in of floor per cabinet. Cabinets stand shoulder to shoulder, so a row of three needs about 7 ft of wall. Full size cabinets are 68 to 77 in tall and need an 8 ft ceiling.
Arcade cabinets are the easiest anchor to fit and the hardest to get into the room. The footprint is small, they stand against a wall, and several can sit shoulder to shoulder. What catches people is height and geometry: a 77 inch cabinet does not bend around a stair turn, and a riser under a basement duct does not stand up.
Plan an arcade cabinet as 28 in of wall and 6 ft of depth, which is 34 in of cabinet plus 3 ft of player. Side clearance is almost nil, so cabinets are the most space-efficient game per person you can put in a room.
Cabinet footprint planner
Pick a machine type and how many you plan to put side by side. The plan redraws to scale.
Depth includes the control panel overhang. Cabinets can sit shoulder to shoulder, so side clearance is nearly nothing.
Every machine type and what it occupies
| Machine | Depth x width | Standing room | Total floor per unit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arcade cabinet, 2-player upright | 2'10" x 2'4" | 36 in | 3'10" x 8'4" |
| Arcade cabinet, 4-player upright | 2'10" x 4'0" | 42 in | 3'10" x 11'0" |
| Home arcade cabinet with riser | 2'2" x 2'0" | 30 in | 3'2" x 7'0" |
| Pinball machine | 2'5" x 4'7" | 36 in | 3'9" x 10'7" |
| Alley roller (Skee-Ball), 10 ft | 2'6" x 10'0" | 42 in | 4'6" x 17'0" |
| Arcade basketball, 2-hoop | 4'2" x 8'4" | 36 in | 7'2" x 14'4" |
Cabinet heights, screen sizes and weights are in the arcade dimensions chart.
Height is the constraint, not floor space
A commercial upright is 68 to 77 inches tall before a riser. A riser such as the Arcade1Up Classic SE riser adds about 14 inches, and a 10 inch pedestal with a locking drawer adds ten. Risers exist because the machines they sit under were designed for a standing adult and are otherwise slightly too low, so most people who buy one also want one.
That puts the working ceiling minimum at 8 ft for a full size cabinet and 7 ft 6 in for pinball. Measure at the spot the machine is going, not in the middle of the room: a basement duct, a soffit or a beam that clears the rest of the space will stop a cabinet standing up. All the figures are in the ceiling height chart and the ceiling height guide.
Full size against home cabinets
The category splits cleanly, and the split is not really about price.
| Commercial grade upright | Home cabinet | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical price | $1,500 to $4,000 | $400 to $750 |
| Height | 68 to 77 in | 57 to 62 in with riser |
| Width | 28 to 48 in | 19 to 26 in |
| Weight | 250 to 400 lb | 60 to 110 lb |
| Controls | Genuine arcade sticks and buttons, replaceable | Lighter parts, sometimes proprietary |
| Game library | Hundreds to thousands, often a multicade board | 3 to 20 licensed titles |
| Gets down a stair | Check the diagonal carefully | Usually yes |
A four-player commercial cabinet is a genuinely different object from an Arcade1Up Pac-Man , and both are correct answers to different rooms and budgets. Full picks are in the arcade cabinet roundup and the under $1,000 roundup. The multicade question specifically is covered in cabinet against multicade.
Pinball is a different planning problem
A pinball machine is 27 to 29 inches wide, 55 inches deep and about 76 inches tall with the backbox up. The footprint is small, but three things differ from an arcade cabinet: you need about 8 inches behind it for service and backbox clearance, the coin door at the front has to swing open, and the machine has to be levelled with a bubble level built into the playfield because the ball's behaviour depends on the pitch.
Machines from Stern and boutique makers such as Jersey Jack sit at the top of this hobby and are priced accordingly. Cheaper options exist, including the Wonderland Alice machine. Everything on that is in the pinball roundup and pinball against arcade.
The wall to plan around
Because cabinets stack sideways and need nothing at their sides, the practical unit of planning is a wall run, not a room. Two useful numbers:
- A game wall of three uprights needs about 7 ft of wall and 6 ft of depth including the players. That fits along the short end of most basement rooms without touching the pool table clearance at the other end.
- A single cabinet plus a pinball machine needs about 5 ft of wall. This is the combination most people actually end up with, and it fits almost anywhere.
Add a pair of stools and the wall becomes a place people stay. Layouts that combine a game wall with a table game are in fitting multiple games in one room, and a full arcade wall is priced in the full buildout.
Frequently asked questions
How much space does an arcade cabinet need?
A two-player upright cabinet is about 28 inches wide and 34 inches deep including the control panel overhang, and it needs roughly 3 ft of standing room in front. Cabinets can sit shoulder to shoulder with only a few inches between them, so a row of three uprights needs about 7 ft of wall and 6 ft of depth including the players. Depth is what people forget.
How tall is a full size arcade machine?
Commercial upright cabinets run 68 to 77 inches tall, and a riser pedestal adds another 10 to 14 inches. That means an eight foot ceiling is the working minimum, and a cabinet on a riser under a low basement soffit will not stand up. Measure the ceiling at the exact spot the cabinet is going, because basements are full of ducts that are lower than the rest of the room.
Do I need space behind an arcade cabinet or a pinball machine?
For an arcade cabinet, almost none: a couple of inches for the power cable and airflow. For pinball you want about 8 inches, because the backbox has to be folded or lifted during a move, the service door is at the back on many machines, and the coin door at the front needs to swing open. A pinball machine flush against a wall is a machine you cannot service.
Can I get an arcade cabinet down a basement staircase?
This is the real question, and it is not about weight so much as geometry. A full size upright is 68 to 77 inches tall and does not bend, so a stair with a low ceiling or a tight turn at the bottom can be genuinely impassable. Measure the diagonal clearance at the turn before ordering. Bartop and countercade machines exist partly because of this problem.
How much does a full size arcade cabinet weigh?
Commercial grade uprights run 250 to 400 lb, and pinball machines run 250 to 350 lb with the backbox. Home cabinets of the Arcade1Up type are 60 to 110 lb and one person can move them. The weight itself is rarely a floor problem in a house; the problem is getting it through doors and around stair turns without damaging the cabinet or yourself.
Do arcade machines need their own electrical circuit?
Not individually, but a room full of them does need planning. A CRT-era commercial cabinet can draw 200 to 400 watts, a modern LCD cabinet far less, and a pinball machine sits around 200 to 300 watts. Three cabinets, a pinball machine, a kegerator and a projector on one 15 amp basement circuit will trip it. Plan a dedicated 20 amp circuit for the game wall.
Measuring your own room before anything is delivered? The Game Room Layout Planner is the paid version of these pages: 8 printable worksheets you fill in with your own numbers, plus the full PDF, $29.
How we work: we compare published manufacturer dimensions, the governing playing standards for each game, and reviews from owners who live with the equipment. We do not test games in person, and we say so on every page. Clearance figures here are researched guidance for planning a room, not professional advice: measure your own space, and have a slate table delivered, assembled and levelled by an installer rather than moving it yourself.