An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Machine Manufacturers Association (JAMMA) wiring standard. Some include additional connectors for features not included in the standard.

Because arcade cabinets vary according to the games they were built for or contain, they may not possess all of the parts listed below:

The sides of the arcade cabinet are usually decorated with brightly colored stickers or paint, representing the gameplay of its particular game.

There are many types of arcade cabinets, some being custom-made for a particular game; however, the most common are the upright, the cocktail or table, and the sit-down.

Upright cabinets are the most common in North America, with their design heavily influenced by Computer Space and Pong. While the futuristic look of Computer Space's outer fiberglass cabinet did not carry forward, both games did establish separating parts of the arcade machine for the cathode-ray tube (CRT) display, the game controllers, and the computer logic areas. Atari also had placed the controls at a height suitable for most adult players to use, but close enough to the console's base to also allow children to play. Further, the cabinets were more compact than traditional electro-mechanical games and did not use flashing lights or other means to attract players. The side panels of Atari's Pong had a simple wood veneer finish, making it easier to market to non-arcade venues, such as hotels, country clubs, and cocktail bars. In the face of growing competition, Atari started to include cabinet art and attraction panels around 1973–1974, which soon became a standard practice.

Arcade cabinets today are usually made of wood and metal, about six feet or two meters tall, with the control panel set perpendicular to the monitor at slightly above waist level. The monitor is housed inside the cabinet, at approximately eye level. The marquee is above it, and often overhangs it.

In Computer Space, Pong and other early arcade games, the CRT was mounted 90 degrees from the ground, facing directly outward. Arcade game manufacturers began incorporating design principles from older electro-mechanical games by using CRTs mounted at a 45-degree angle, facing upward and away from the player but towards a one-way mirror that reflected the display to the player. Additional transparent overlays could be added between the mirror and the player's view to include additional images and colorize the black-and-white CRT output, as is the case in Boot Hill. Other games, like Warrior, used a one-sided mirror and included an illuminated background behind the mirror, so that the on-screen characters would appear to the players as if they were on that background. With the advent of color CRT displays, the need for the mirror was eliminated. The CRT was subsequently positioned at an angle permitting a typical adult player to look directly at the screen.

Controls are most commonly a joystick for as many player as the game allows, plus action buttons and "player" buttons which serve the same purpose as the start button on console gamepads. Trackballs are sometimes used instead of joysticks, especially in games from the early 1980s. Spinners (knobs for turning, also called "paddle controls") are used to control game elements that move strictly horizontally or vertically, such as the paddles in Arkanoid and Pong. Games such as Robotron: 2084, Smash TV and Battlezone use double joysticks instead of action buttons. Some versions of the original Street Fighter had pressure-sensitive rubber pads instead of buttons.