Depending on the multicade it might be illegal.
it might use MAME, one of those 60 in 1 boards, or be specific for home use (free play only). There are a few that are fine for commercial use, but they are usually limited on the number of games.
That being said, 99% people aren't going to care or even think about it.
There are a bunch of bars with playstations sitting out for patrons to play (technically that is illegal, but no one is going to enforce it)

I think pandoras box is set-up to accept coin, though I've never tried it.
I went the ultracade route since it was technically legal for commercial use and it had the most old-school games on it. Found a bootleg hard drive on ebay for $100 bucks, think it had 280ish old school games on it. The computer is type specific, you can still find them on ebay and KLOV.

For me having a bunch of old-school arcade games doesn't make a lot of sense, based on earning potential and the room they take up. I understand the appeal of the original cabinet and board (no missing frames, original controls, artwork) but...

here is the cocktail version.

For me I just bought a custom cabinet, wired it up and installed an ultracade computer in it.

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As far as old-school games, I have a few. Think the hardest thing with those is the monitor, just recap em and replace the flyback and they are usually fine for commercial use. The joysticks and buttons break every now and again but other then that, it's a lot easier then maintaining a pin.

Pretty sure Namco made a commercial arcade with defender on it recently.... I'd have to look around though.
you could buy a replica from that guy on ebay or the game room goodies store. But your essentially buying a look alike cabinet with a multicade computer for over 3k. Even old school arcades are getting expensive.

Kids seem to play the older games but I would assume they would be more interested in the stuff from the 90's, like street fighter 4, tekken 5 etc.
I'd get a crane game or key master if I had stuff at a movie theatre, heard those do phenomenal in family friendly places.

Look in a raspberry pi 3b+

Arcadepunks.com

Retro pie

If you are trying to earn from kids maybe something like air hockey instead?

Ive got a nice multicade with large crt on route at a local kids bounce house. It doesn’t really make much money. It’s a 60-1 that’s technically illegal to use on location. I also have a nice Nintendo playchoice that’s legal to use, you could always get one of those if you like Nintendo games.

Honestly if you’re trying to earn money from kids, I’d get a driving game like cruisin or shooting game like big buck hunter. They seem to get a lot more play.

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Just buy a legal game if you are concerned. They are very nice and play correct.
https://pinballpro.net/shop/pac-man-pixel-bash-coin-operated-arcade-game-namco/

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For what's it's worth I have a 60 in 1 table style and it never gets played. My wife had to have one since I had the pinballs. All it gets used for is extra space for people to eat. I'm going to sell that thing when she's not looking.....

Mine has somewhere around 20k games on it. I play it occasionally. It didn't grab me the way I thought it would. Pins are just more fun to me right now.

Yeah, same for me. I have an emulator with 28K games on it and even I don't play it much. I guess it just doesn't seem to be the same as I remember it back in the day.

I have a 412 in 1 multicade I've had 9 months now. It gets played a good bit. Now all the games aren't perfect and some are unplayable(depends on controls), but I still like it. Plenty of good games on there. We play the bowling a lot as well as Donkey Kong, Galaga, Phoenix/Pleiades, Frogger, Gorf, Burgertime, Carnival, Satan's Hollow, Carnival,etc.Tron and Qbert are unplayable. These can be built for less than what people sell them for. Check one out before you buy one.

I think if you spent the time to pair it down to say...100 games, you might find yourself playing it more. +20k games is just too much and you find you're spending more time wading through the UI than playing games. It's like browsing through Netflix for an hour trying to find something to watch vs actually watching anything.

For me personally, I would compile a library of my favorite fighting, beat-em-ups, and schmups, maybe a few classics sprinkled in there, and call it a day. 30-40 games at most.

It is very easy to scroll through the systems and find the game you want. I'm actually kinda bummed that the Atari 2600 games on mine don't seem to work properly.

I can move around in mine fairly easy enough. I've not ran into games that will not play correctly but as I say, I don't play it often.

You can buy an atari flashback for cheap. It has the games built in and is officially licensed. It has 110 games.

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Better get it now then, Walmart gets those from China so they'll go up like pin prices.

They are even cheaper on eBay

More than likely all these people with setups like this in their basements are OK (MAME, Jamma, or whatever). But, that thing is filled with licensed games, no way would I put that out in the wild set up to take money. Sure those games are old, but the IP owners are still out there and active. And Nintendo? They are seriously mean about stuff like this. I would not want to ever cross paths with them. And their lawyers.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/santa-clara-group-charged-with-selling-pirated-‘pac-man’-other#post-3985234

that's the one I was thinking of, wasn't 100% they made a commercial version of it. I might wind up getting one of those... it's a 4 way joystick?

I'd get one of these:

big-bass-wheel-spin-ticket-redemption-game-baytek-games1 (resized).jpg

My son and his friends love to pump money into it. Of course, you need to have junk to redeem the tickets. I don't understand the allure (pardon the pun), but hey, I'm old right? And he doesn't get my attraction to pins and old games, so we're even I guess.

4 way or 8 way adjustable

by the player or op?
via the restrictor plate?

They didn’t even test to make sure all was working before shipping? WOW!!!
Those are major components to the game

So they must have noticed this at the factory, cos they shipped it unplugged. Says a lot about that company .

Has the commercial Use issue been figured out? Are there machines that are ok?