Counter Series · 16 in tall
WWE Counter Series Arcade Machine
3.8 of 542 player ratings
$184.99set at checkout in our listing
Four wrestling titles on a 16-inch counter cabinet, one stick, one button cluster, an 8-inch colour screen.
4 cabinets on this aisle
Countertop cabinets — the arcade on a bar topRetro arcade machines for the home
Sixteen inches tall, an 8-inch colour screen and the same control panel logic as the big cabinets. We built this row for the kitchen island, the office desk and the shelf beside the television, where a full-height machine would never fit.
Counter Series · 16 in tall
Centipede Counter Series Arcade Machine
4.0 of 526 player ratings
$184.99set at checkout in our listing
Five Atari boards and a real trackball sunk into a 16-inch counter cabinet — the control Centipede was written for.
Counter Series · 16 in tall
Asteroids Counter Series Arcade Machine
4.5 of 511 player ratings
$184.99set at checkout in our listing
Asteroids, Asteroids Deluxe, Missile Command, Crystal Castles and Liberator on a trackball counter cabinet.
Counter Series · 16 in tall
Tempest Counter Series Arcade Machine
3.7 of 537 player ratings
Price at checkoutBetween runs — our listing shows the figure and the ship date
A spinner cabinet — Tempest, Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Warlords and Major Havoc on 16 inches of counter.
A retro arcade machine for the home that fits on a counter
Each counter cabinet carries a whole Atari shelf rather than a single title. Centipede brings Millipede, Liberator, Avalanche and Super Breakout along with it. Asteroids packs Asteroids Deluxe, Missile Command, Crystal Castles and Liberator. Tempest arrives with Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Warlords and Major Havoc. The WWE machine runs four wrestling titles off one stick.
The control is the reason these feel right on a counter. A trackball needs a surface that will not slide, so we weighted the base and sank the ball flush into the panel; a spinner needs nothing but two fingers, which is why Tempest plays so well while you are standing up and waiting for the kettle.
Set them on something level and give the back an inch for the adapter lead. They join together with a screwdriver in a few minutes, and once the head is on, the marquee is bright enough to read across a dim room.
From our floor playbook
A retro arcade machine for the home that fits on a counter
Not every house has a wall to give away. The Counter Series is the retro arcade machine for the home that solves that: 16 inches tall, an 8-inch colour screen, and the same control panel logic as the full-height arcade machines, sized to live on a bar top, a desk or the shelf beside the television. You are not getting a toy version of a cabinet. You are getting the cabinet with the legs taken off, which is exactly how the original countertop machines worked in the bars and chip shops of the day.
Five classic Atari titles on every board
Each counter cabinet carries a whole Atari shelf rather than a single game. Centipede brings Millipede, Liberator, Avalanche and Super Breakout along with it. Asteroids packs Asteroids Deluxe, Missile Command, Crystal Castles and Liberator. Tempest arrives with Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Warlords and Major Havoc. The WWE machine runs four wrestling titles off one stick. Five licensed arcade games in a 16-inch box is a strange amount of arcade for the space, and it is the reason this row of our collection moves fastest.
Trackball, spinner and the controls that matter
The control is why these feel right on a counter. A trackball needs a surface that will not slide, so we weighted the base and sank the ball flush into the panel. A spinner needs nothing but two fingers, which is why Tempest plays so well while you are standing up waiting for the kettle. Centipede without a trackball is a different and worse game, so we did not build it that way. The authentic control is the expensive part of an arcade cabinet and the part people notice first.
Where a 16-inch cabinet actually goes
Kitchen islands, home bars, office desks, a shelf in a games room, the top of a chest of drawers. Give it something level and leave an inch at the back for the adapter lead. Because the machine is compact, the usual problem is not space but height: a counter cabinet wants to sit at elbow level, not knee level, so a low coffee table turns a good game into a backache. Check the surface before you check the width. The marquee lighting is bright enough to read across a dim room, which is a nice side effect in a bar.
Built to be handled, not displayed
People pick these up. They get carried to the garden table in summer and back to the desk in October, so the body is built for it: a wood cabinet with laminated custom artwork, a moulded bezel, and a marquee head that bolts on rather than clips. Durable is not a marketing word here, it is the difference between a cabinet that survives three house moves and one that arrives with the corner gone. Quality of the shell is why a premium mini machine still looks modern after two years on a kitchen counter.
Counter cabinets as a gift
This is the height we are asked for most often as a present, and the reason is simple: there is no conversation about where it will go. Everyone has 16 inches of counter. The box is small enough to wrap, the assembly is a screwdriver and a few minutes, and the first game starts inside the hour. If you want to give someone the arcade without giving them a furniture problem, this is the row to explore. Age is not much of a factor either, as the trackball games are readable to a kid and familiar to anyone who had a local arcade.
Power and the first ten minutes
The lead goes into the wall, the attract loop starts, and there is no coin-operation standing between you and a go. Turn the volume down with the wheel on the back if the room is small. Our advice for the first ten minutes is to leave the machine on and walk away. The attract screens cycle through the titles on the board, which is how people in the room find out what is in there without reading a single line of the manual, and it is how the excitement spreads from one player to four.
What you are buying and who stands behind it
We are a family business making arcade machines. We design the cabinets, licence the boards and deliver the hardware, and we do not run the checkout. Order status, delivery dates, warranty claims and returns all run through the order page of the partner store you bought from. What we can tell you is what is in the box, how tall it is and what the panel feels like, which is what the rest of this page is for. Creating a working arcade machine at this size took longer than the 61-inch one did.
