Deluxe and Super Deluxe arcade cabinets have shaped the modern amusement floor. From eight-player racing tables and enclosed cockpits to motion simulators, VR rides and giant multiplayer attractions, these machines turn video games into major venue draws.
This first instalment traces the development of Standard (SD), Deluxe (DX) and Super Deluxe (SDX) hardware, from the 1970s through the renewed interest in large-format amusement machines during the 2020s.
For readers comparing cabinet sizes at home, RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide explains why the footprint and features of a full-size machine matter.
Why deluxe cabinets matter
Although ticket redemption games receive much of the public attention, video amusement has continued to attract serious investment. Apart from the disruption of 2020, the industry has seen a steady flow of new releases.
Arcades and family entertainment centres compete through attractions. Large simulator-style machines can command attention more effectively than a standard upright, while their additional screens, motion systems, seating and environmental design help justify a higher price. The definitions are not governed by a universal technical standard, but SD generally describes the conventional model, DX a larger or more feature-rich version, and SDX the biggest attraction-scale designs.
The first steps towards bigger cabinets
Since Computer Space, the upright cabinet had been the dominant arcade format. Smaller cocktail machines broadened the choice after Atari released Quadrapong, but the first major move beyond the usual scale came in 1975 with Atari’s Indy 800, produced under the Kee Games label.
Based on Atari’s Sprint racing series, Indy 800 was the first eight-player video game. Its large four-sided marquee included angled mirrors so spectators could watch the action, while a colour monitor was still an unusual feature. Each driver also had an individual horn. Atari later applied the same basic approach to Tank 8, produced a reduced four-player version as Indy 4, and saw rival Exidy use a comparable four-player arrangement for Car Polo.
The price reflected the ambition. Standard machines sold for roughly $745 to $1,145 at the time, whereas Indy 800 cost $6,495—equivalent to $36,632 in 2023 dollars. Few venues could absorb that expense, but the locations that did install one gained a powerful centrepiece.
Atari’s 1978 cooperative two-player Fire Truck offered another deluxe format. Its single-player counterpart, Smokey Joe, followed the next month. Their prices were $1,495 and $1,345 respectively, a much narrower gap than the one created by Indy 800.
Enclosing the player
High purchase costs kept standard uprights at the heart of most arcades, but Exidy found another way to make a machine stand out. Released in 1980, Star Fire used the first cockpit cabinet to fully enclose the player with a ceiling. It was not the first sit-down machine, yet it pushed the format towards the simulator by placing the player inside the experience.
The game was effectively an unlicensed take on the public’s desire for a Star Wars-style starfighter experience. With no official Star Wars arcade game then available, Star Fire gave players the feeling of climbing into a spacecraft. A smaller upright was also produced, but the cockpit was the model intended to impress.
Atari responded with a limited cockpit version of Missile Command, of which only 100 were made. Its more direct answer to Star Fire was the cockpit Red Baron, produced in a run of about 500. Atari achieved stronger results with a sit-down cockpit for Namco’s Pole Position in 1982.
The company’s most celebrated deluxe cockpit arrived with STAR WARS in 1983. The upright sold more than 10,000 units, while the cockpit exceeded 2,000. The DX model cost $3,095 against $2,295 for the SD version, an $800 premium, and also consumed considerably more floor space. Its appeal was clear: the player could take the role of Luke Skywalker in an X-Wing.
Atari repeated the two-model strategy with its only laserdisc title, Firefox, in 1984. The same period also produced the extraordinary TX-1. Developed and released in Japan by Tatsumi Electronics in late 1983, then manufactured for North America by Atari, it measured 71 inches high, 55 inches wide and 73 inches deep, and weighed 650 pounds. Three screens created a wide display, explaining much of its enormous cabinet.
Environmental cabinets and mechanical spectacle
Bally-Midway took the idea beyond a conventional cockpit with the “total environmental cabinet” created for Discs of Tron. The EDOT design kept the player standing rather than seated while surrounding them with the game’s presentation. These machines are highly prized by collectors today.
American manufacturers produced many unusual simulator designs, but Japanese companies would later establish the terminology and product structure most associated with Standard, Deluxe and Super Deluxe machines.
SEGA defines the categories
SEGA experimented with oversized cabinets during the 1970s, including Bullet Mark and Galaxy War. In 1981 it answered the cockpit trend with Space Tactics, a science-fiction shooter whose monitor moved on gears in response to the player’s movements. The concept demonstrated how arcade hardware could combine mechanical movement with digital gameplay, though the same complexity that delighted players created significant problems for operators and technicians.
Space Tactics was not a strong seller, but SEGA continued exploring the format. Its 1982 and 1983 range included the cockpit Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator, designed around a “Captain’s Chair”, followed in 1983 by Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom and SubRoc-3D.
The breakthrough came in 1986 with multiple versions of OutRun, Hang-On, Space Harrier and, soon afterwards, After Burner II. The most impressive versions added motion, showing how arcades could offer hardware and physical immersion that home consoles could not reproduce with a low-cost accessory. As home systems began catching up in graphics, this attraction value became increasingly important.
From Deluxe to Super Deluxe
By 1990, SEGA was promoting large-format systems under the “En-Joint” space concept. These machines anticipated the SDX and Medium-Scale Attraction categories. Examples included R-360, AS-1 and the elusive Cyber Dome.
SEGA’s “Hi-Entertainment game series” was intended to supply miniature attractions for amusement-theme parks, or ATPs. Japanese venues such as SEGA’s JOYPOLIS and Namco’s Wonder Egg reflected the industry’s ambition to move beyond traditional arcades and towards amusement-park businesses.
The plan proved difficult to scale. The cost of SDX equipment prevented broad adoption, so the largest systems appeared mainly in flagship venues and in limited batches. During the restructuring of the 1990s, operators prioritised reliable revenue over expensive visual spectacle. DX and SDX machines continued to be built, but in smaller numbers.
The modern return of the big-box arcade
Large-format machines now occupy a prominent role on many amusement floors, with deluxe designs often replacing the standard upright as the main video attraction. Raw Thrills has been one of the Western industry’s leading practitioners.
Terminator Salvation used a three-model strategy: a 42-inch DX cabinet, smaller 32-inch and 42-inch SD versions with fixed guns, and a 100-inch SDX cabinet. That 100-inch design was unusual at the time and resembled the fictional Heroes Duty game seen in Disney’s 2012 film Wreck-It Ralph.
Fast & Furious Arcade pushed the formula further. Although it was not officially labelled SDX, each cabinet used two 65-inch UHD screens and a motion base. Linked installations created a major visual statement, with some family entertainment centres grouping four units and, in a few cases, eight.
Screen size has become one practical way to distinguish DX from SDX hardware, and this racing system made a particularly strong claim for Raw Thrills in the deluxe racing market.
Raw Thrills also entered VR attractions with King Kong of Skull Island in 2020. The two-rider machine combines a motion platform, high-end VR headsets, 4D wind effects and hand tracking. It measures 309cm deep, 121cm wide and 279cm high, with a large 55-inch marquee display that can show the players’ action or an operator-selected pre-recorded video.
The company had already reignited the contest for floor space with 2018’s four-player HALO Fireteam Raven SDX. Measuring 301cm deep, 347cm wide and 299cm high, it uses two 4K screens and encloses up to four players in an environmental cockpit. A smaller, more affordable two-player Environmental Deluxe version followed, illustrating how operators’ space and budgets influence cabinet design.
SEGA Amusement International and new attractions
SEGA Amusement International (SAI), the independent US and UK/EU operation separate from SEGA Corporation in Japan, has remained active in video amusement. In 2020 it introduced the four-player Mission: Impossible Arcade, a large Super Deluxe gun game measuring 261cm deep, 400cm wide and 286cm high. Two 55-inch HD screens and extensive LED lighting help the enclosure resemble an IMF safe house.
An early design offered an optional rear wall with a 65-inch display, although many locations preferred an open configuration. SAI later produced a two-player DLX model for venues with less available space.
SAI has also collaborated with WAHLAP Technology in China and IGS in Taiwan. One result was Jet Blaster, a jet-ski racing attraction for up to four linked players, with a design recalling SEGA’s 1996 SDX release Wave Runner.
With WAHLAP, SAI brought Storm Rider 2: Motion Twin to Western markets. Players sit astride motion-based motorcycles in a twin configuration. The deluxe setup measures 267cm deep, 306cm wide and 249cm high, with a 47-inch Full HD display for each rider. Two Twin units can be linked for four-player races. The software was developed by 3MindWave, also responsible for the SEGA-branded ATV Slam and VR Agent.
Large-format machines beyond video games
The appetite for oversized attractions has spread into redemption and prize-play equipment. Examples include ICE’s two-player Dodgeball Ultimate Arena DLX and Bay Tek Entertainment’s Connect 4 Hoops. These machines suit FECs, although venues without 13-foot ceilings may need the smaller SD alternatives commonly offered by manufacturers.
WAHLAP also worked with LAI Games on Asphalt 9 Legends Arcade, released at the end of 2021. Based on Gameloft’s consumer street-racing game and developed with IGS, it launched as a “Premium Cabinet”, a higher-quality SD-style classification, alongside a DX model described as a 5D simulator. The DX version measures 217cm deep, 137cm wide and 246cm high, weighs 43 kilograms and uses a 43-inch display. Strong sales after the pandemic made it a benchmark for the renewed competition among arcade racing manufacturers.
VR rides and the next stage
LAI Games helped establish VR as an amusement format with Virtual Rabbids: The Big Ride, an evergreen VR ride based on Ubisoft’s Rabbids property. Its Ultra HD upgrade uses HTC VIVE Pro II headsets with 5K resolution, a GeForce RTX graphics card and improvements to the D-BOX motion platform. In scale and impact, the system could reasonably be considered an SDX attraction.
LAI and WAHLAP were also developing a VR edition of Asphalt 9. The planned version retained the DX model’s motion seat and added VR, air jets and special vibration effects. It had only been seen as a pre-production version in the United States, with the finished machine expected to appear at IAAPA. Preliminary dimensions were 285cm deep, 135cm wide and 232cm high, subject to change.
The project followed Overtake VR, an IGS-developed amusement racer launched in 2018.
Why super-sized machines endure
The history of DX and SDX cabinets is a history of competing priorities. Players are drawn to scale, motion, spectacle and immersion, while operators must balance purchase cost, maintenance, revenue, ceiling height and floor space. The result is not the disappearance of the upright cabinet, but a market where major attractions give venues a way to offer experiences that remain difficult to recreate at home.
That balance will continue to shape the next generation of racing simulators, VR rides, environmental games and multiplayer attractions. For more coverage, explore the RETROCADE arcade blog, or browse racing arcades and virtual pinball machines for more compact home-focused alternatives.
Kevin Williams is an entertainment and technology specialist who assists international clients with immersive and interactive entertainment facilities. He is Co-Founder and Research & Development Director of Spider Entertainment, founder and publisher of The Stinger Report, and an adviser to other market entrants. He writes for trade publications and appears as a keynote speaker, moderator and panellist at industry conferences. He is also the author of The Out-of-Home Immersive Entertainment Frontier: Expanding Interactive Boundaries in Leisure Facilities, with a second edition scheduled for 2023.
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