Unseen Footage: How Atari Built Arcade Cabinets in the 80s 🕹️

Before gaming was digital downloads and microtransactions, it was wood, wire, and CRT monitors. Newly unearthed footage shows Atari's Battlezone cabinets being built in 1980 — and it's a mesmerizing look at analog craftsmanship. 🕹️

The video shows workers hand-assembling the iconic tank cabinets. Real wood frames, hand-wired circuit boards, and massive CRT displays that weighed as much as a person. Each machine took days to build. Now? Your phone runs better games and fits in your pocket.

The manufacturing process:

• 🪵 Wood frames cut and assembled by hand
• 🔌 Circuit boards hand-soldered
• 📺 CRT monitors tested individually
• 🎨 Cabinet art applied with stencils
• ✅ Each unit play-tested before shipping

For Gen Z, this is ancient history. But it's worth appreciating: Those old cabinets in retro arcades? They were built to last decades, not months. The craftsmanship is obvious when you see how they were made.

Gaming nostalgia is big business now. But watching the actual creation process adds a new dimension of respect for the medium's history. They literally built the future of entertainment by hand.