Your Arcade Cabinet Is an Investment --- Treat It Like One

I've been building and servicing game room equipment in Lexington, Kentucky since 1975. Pool tables, shuffleboards, hot tubs, and arcade machines. Every one of these products lasts longer and performs better with basic maintenance. The good news about arcade cabinets is that they're the easiest game room equipment to maintain. A little attention goes a long way, and most of what you need to do takes minutes, not hours.

Here's the maintenance guide I give every customer who buys an arcade cabinet from Lexington Billiards & Spas. Whether you bought your machine from us, built it yourself, or picked up a vintage cabinet at a flea market, these basics apply.

Screen Care and Cleaning

LCD Screens (Modern Cabinets)

The screen is the most visible part of your arcade cabinet and the component most people clean incorrectly. Here's the right way:

Turn the machine off first. A dark screen lets you see dust, fingerprints, and smudges more clearly, and you eliminate any risk of static issues.

Use a microfiber cloth. The same kind you'd use on eyeglasses or a phone screen. Never use paper towels, which can scratch the surface. Never use household glass cleaners like Windex, which contain ammonia that degrades screen coatings over time.

Spray the cloth, not the screen. Use a screen-specific cleaner or a 50/50 mix of distilled water and white vinegar. Lightly dampen the cloth and wipe in gentle circles. Follow up with a dry microfiber cloth.

Clean the screen once a month or whenever fingerprints become visible. If your cabinet has a glass or acrylic panel in front of the screen (and it should), clean the panel instead. The screen itself stays protected behind it.

CRT Monitors (Vintage Cabinets)

If you own an original arcade cabinet with a CRT monitor, the rules are different. CRTs carry a high-voltage charge even when powered off. Do not open the cabinet and touch the monitor assembly unless you know exactly what you're doing. Clean only the front glass of the screen using the same microfiber cloth and gentle cleaner method described above.

CRTs can develop image burn-in from displaying the same attract screen for years. If you're running a vintage machine, consider turning it off when not in use rather than letting it cycle through the attract mode indefinitely. This extends the life of a tube that cannot be replaced.

Glass and Acrylic Panels

The protective panel over your screen should be cleaned with the same care as the screen itself. If it's glass, you have more cleaning options. If it's acrylic or plexiglass, avoid anything abrasive --- acrylic scratches easily and those scratches become permanent distractions during gameplay. A product like Novus plastic polish can remove minor scratches from acrylic panels.

Button and Joystick Maintenance

Buttons

Arcade buttons take the most physical abuse of any component. A busy game room might see thousands of button presses per week. Here's how to keep them responsive:

Clean around the buttons monthly. Dust, crumbs, and spilled drinks work their way into the gaps around the button caps. Use a can of compressed air to blow debris out of the control panel surface. For sticky residue, a cotton swab dampened with isopropyl alcohol works well.

Check for sticky buttons. If a button isn't returning to its resting position cleanly, the microswitch underneath may be dirty or the button spring may be weak. Pop the button out from inside the cabinet (they usually push-fit from the top and lock with a ring underneath), clean it, and test the microswitch. If the switch feels mushy or doesn't click cleanly, replace it. Microswitches cost $1 to $3 each and snap into the button housing.

Replace worn buttons. Standard 30mm arcade buttons cost $1 to $5 each. Premium Sanwa or IL buttons are $3 to $8. Keeping a few spares in a drawer means you can swap one in two minutes flat. We stock replacement buttons at the shop and can match colors to any cabinet we've built.

Joysticks

A good joystick lasts years, but the microswitches inside it will eventually wear out. You'll notice it when a direction stops registering consistently or the stick feels loose.

For standard joysticks, the fix is usually replacing the internal microswitches (four per joystick, one per direction). Same $1 to $3 switches used in buttons. Open the cabinet, access the joystick from underneath the control panel, pop the old switches out, snap the new ones in. Total repair time: 10 minutes.

For Sanwa JLF or similar high-end joysticks, you can buy a complete microswitch assembly (called a TP-MA) that replaces all four switches at once. About $8 and five minutes to install.

Tighten the mounting bolts on the joystick every six months or so. Players yank on joysticks, and the bolts can loosen over time, creating play in the stick that affects accuracy.

Software and Game Board Maintenance

Jamma and Pandora's Box Boards

These dedicated game boards are remarkably reliable. They don't have hard drives, fans, or moving parts. The most common issue is connector corrosion on the Jamma edge connector over time.

Clean the edge connector annually. Power off the machine, remove the board, and clean the gold edge contacts with isopropyl alcohol and a soft cloth. Check for any pins that look dark or corroded. A pencil eraser can clean light corrosion from edge connector pins --- just wipe away the eraser residue afterward.

Check wire harness connections. The wiring between your Jamma board and the controls, speakers, and screen can work loose from vibration. Once a year, open the cabinet and give each connector a gentle push to make sure it's seated firmly.

PC-Based Systems

If your multicade runs on a PC or Raspberry Pi, you have a few additional considerations:

Keep the system ventilated. PCs generate heat, and heat is the enemy of electronics in an enclosed cabinet. Make sure your cabinet has ventilation fans or at least passive airflow openings. Clean dust from any intake vents or fan filters every three months. A can of compressed air is your best friend here.

Update your emulation software when updates are available, but don't update compulsively. If everything is working well, there's no urgent reason to update. When you do update, back up your configuration first so you can roll back if something breaks.

Check your storage drive. If you're running games from a hard drive or SD card, these have finite lifespans. An SD card in a Raspberry Pi might last 3 to 5 years with regular use. A quality SSD in a PC will last much longer. Keep a backup image of your configured system so a drive failure doesn't mean rebuilding everything from scratch.

Cabinet Care

Wood Cabinets

If you bought a custom hardwood or bourbon barrel cabinet from us, the wood is sealed with polyurethane and needs minimal care. Dust it with a dry cloth. For deeper cleaning, a slightly damp cloth followed by a dry one is all you need. Don't use furniture polish sprays --- they can leave a residue that attracts dust and dulls the finish over time.

Keep the cabinet out of direct sunlight. UV light fades wood finishes and artwork. If your game room has windows, consider curtains or blinds for the hours when direct sun hits the cabinet.

Watch for humidity. Here in central Kentucky, summers are humid and winters are dry. Extreme swings in humidity can cause wood to expand and contract. A consistent indoor environment is best. If your game room is in a basement, a dehumidifier is a worthwhile investment for all your game room furniture, not just the arcade cabinet.

Laminate and Vinyl-Wrapped Cabinets

These are more forgiving than wood. Clean with a damp cloth and mild soap. The main enemy is edge peeling --- if you notice laminate or vinyl lifting at a corner or edge, re-adhere it with contact cement before it gets worse. A small repair now prevents a full re-wrap later.

Artwork and Decals

Side art, marquee graphics, and control panel overlays fade and peel over time, especially on vintage machines. Replacement artwork for popular titles is widely available online from companies that specialize in arcade reproduction graphics. We can source and install replacement artwork for any cabinet we service.

When to Call a Professional

Most of what I've described above is well within the abilities of any handy homeowner. But there are situations where you should call us or another qualified technician:

CRT monitor issues on vintage cabinets. High voltage components are dangerous. Period. Don't open a CRT monitor chassis unless you're trained to do so.

Power supply failures. If your machine won't power on at all, or if you smell burning electronics, unplug it and call for service. Power supply replacement is straightforward for a technician but involves mains voltage that demands respect.

Intermittent problems you can't diagnose. If a game freezes randomly, reboots on its own, or displays graphical glitches, the issue could be a failing game board, a power supply that's out of spec, or a loose connection somewhere in the harness. These are the kinds of problems that frustrate DIY troubleshooters and take a technician 15 minutes to find.

We service every arcade cabinet we sell, and we'll service machines we didn't sell too. If you're in the Lexington, Kentucky area, give us a call or bring the machine by the shop on New Circle Road. We've been doing this since 1975 and there isn't much we haven't seen inside an arcade cabinet.

Build a Simple Maintenance Schedule

Here's the schedule I recommend:

Monthly: Clean the screen and glass panel. Wipe down the control panel surface. Test all buttons and joystick directions.
Quarterly: Blow out dust from inside the cabinet with compressed air. Check ventilation fans if applicable. Clean around buttons with compressed air.
Annually: Inspect and clean all internal connections. Check the edge connector on Jamma boards. Tighten joystick mounting bolts. Inspect the cabinet exterior for any finish wear, peeling artwork, or loose trim.

Follow this schedule and your arcade cabinet will give you years of trouble-free gaming. Skip it and you'll end up paying for repairs that were entirely preventable. Just like a pool table needs leveling and a hot tub needs balanced water, an arcade cabinet needs a little love to stay at its best.

Arcade Machine Maintenance: Keep Your Games Running