The first ones were wood cabinet arcade games.

Pong was released in 1972 as an arcade cabinet and in 1975 as a home console version by Sears under the brand of "Tele-Games".

Mame is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, based on the book and play Auntie Mame, about a socialite and her nephew trying to make it through the Great Depression. It is also an emulator for Arcade games. People will often build their own arcade machines and use Mame to run classic arcade games on a computer in the cabinet.

A Jamma board enables an arcade game cabinet to be used by different games. The Jamma board has 56 inputs which games can utilise. Not all games need to utilise them all, but the cabinet can take any game that uses up to 56 of them.

There are two options to build: either get an old used standup or cocktail cabinet arcade machine, gut the contents and insert your own computer, monitor, and controls. Or, build your own cabinet from scratch. You can find plenty of free plans on the internet, or you can purchase prebuilt ones.

Now, the cost. The most expensive is buying a pre-built cabinet, they're well made, but can cost upwards of $2500. A used old cabinet can be found for many prices in want-ads and craigslist, you just have to pick up the item yourself. About $100 to $800 for the really nice ones. Building your own from wood is the cheapest alternative, and the most work involved. From $50, to $350 depending on what you want.