# Arcade

> Arcade machines, from 1970s cabinets to SEGA's NAOMI, Model 2 and Model 3 boards, and the emulators that preserve them, led by MAME and FinalBurn Neo.

Web page: https://emulationking.com/arcade/
Page updated: 2026-09-28

Arcade machines were where video games first reached the public. Computer Space arrived in 1971 and Pong in 1972, and through the late 1970s and 1980s games such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Street Fighter II made arcades the centre of gaming.

Unlike home consoles, arcade games were built on hundreds of different boards, often designed for a single game. That makes them hard to preserve: each board has to be dumped and documented before it breaks. MAME, which began in 1997, has spent almost three decades doing exactly that, and today covers tens of thousands of machines. FinalBurn Neo focuses on the most popular boards, such as Capcom's CPS systems and SNK's Neo Geo, and is known for low input lag and good netplay.

Later arcade hardware, such as SEGA's Model 2, Model 3 and NAOMI boards, has its own dedicated emulators, listed on each system's page.

## Consoles

- [SEGA NAOMI & Atomiswave](https://emulationking.com/arcade/naomi/index.md): SEGA NAOMI is a 1998 arcade board based on Dreamcast hardware. Sammy's Atomiswave, released in 2003, uses a similar design.
- [SEGA Model 3](https://emulationking.com/arcade/model3/index.md): SEGA Model 3 is a 1996 arcade board with Real3D graphics, used for Virtua Fighter 3, Scud Race, SEGA Rally 2 and Daytona USA 2.
- [SEGA Model 2](https://emulationking.com/arcade/model2/index.md): SEGA Model 2 is a 1993 3D arcade board with texture-mapped polygons, home to Daytona USA, Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Cop.
- [Arcade Machines](https://emulationking.com/arcade/arcade/index.md): Coin-operated arcade machines ran on custom hardware from the early 1970s. MAME and FinalBurn Neo emulate thousands of these boards on a modern PC.