From the garage · Owner build
My X-Men Arcade Cabinet Build
New coin doors, a homemade acrylic cover, sound brought back to life—and a few lessons from inside the cabinet.
When I found my four-player X-Men arcade cabinet on Facebook Marketplace, it was already in great shape cosmetically. It had brand-new T-molding and side art, so a lot of the work that makes a cabinet look good was already done.
But it still needed replacement coin doors, protection for the control-panel artwork, and some serious attention inside. The biggest problem? The audio didn’t work. A whole cabinet full of mute-ants.
A little X-tra protection
I bought replacement coin doors on eBay. With the outside of the cabinet already looking good, those were one of the remaining pieces I wanted to address.
The control panel had artwork but no clear protective cover. I wasn’t comfortable putting the machine into regular use with that art exposed, so I went to Home Depot, bought a sheet of acrylic, and made a protective top for it.
That let me keep the existing artwork while adding a layer between it and everyone playing the game.
Getting the sound back
I removed the main game board and ordered a replacement Konami 054544 Audio Hybrid Module from pxlmod. The module cost $54.95, plus $4.90 shipping, when I bought it in April 2026. Once the module replacement was complete, the sound was back.
The wiring lesson
The wiring was a mess, and I ended up rewiring the entire machine.
Looking back, that’s the part I would approach differently. I should have started by looking into a new JAMMA wiring harness suited to the cabinet instead of rebuilding what was there. That’s a lesson I’ll carry into the next project.
Back together in the garage
This build reminded me that a cabinet can look great when you buy it and still have plenty of work waiting inside. The fresh side art and T-molding gave me a good starting point. My part was replacing the coin doors, protecting the control panel, sorting out the wiring, and getting the sound back.
With the artwork protected, the controls back together, and the sound restored, this X-Men cabinet was a lot closer to where I wanted it.
Update: the little plaque has a history
Between the coin doors is a small metal tag marked F.A.C. 2238. I contacted Family Amusement to see whether they recognized it. On September 29, Family Amusement replied and confirmed that this was one of their arcade-route machines. Their reply also noted that it had spent a long time in their arcade.
Their representative said he believes it was among the games involved in a fire a few years earlier, after which the insurance company sent games to auction. That is the representative’s recollection, rather than a documented timeline for this particular cabinet. Family Amusement could not provide its specific locations or where it had been played, so those details remain unknown.
I bought the cabinet on Facebook Marketplace, as described above; the possible earlier auction is a separate part of its history. I thanked Family Amusement and told him I would keep the F.A.C. plaque on it proudly. It is a small piece of the machine’s working life worth preserving as it gets a second life.
Source: direct email correspondence with Family Amusement, September 29, 2026.
Another X-Men, out in the wild
On a July 28 visit to Morristown Game Vault in New Jersey, I photographed another four-player X-Men cabinet. These trip photos show a different machine from the one I restored above.
For the game’s wider story, read The history of Konami X-Men.
Keep playing the good stuff.
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