The hardware budget for an arcade machine could be higher because the economics are to sell a relatively small number of units at relatively high unit cost. On

The hardware budget for an arcade machine could be higher because the economics are to sell a relatively small number of units at relatively high unit cost. On the other hand the hardware development budget was more limited than for consumer home computers or consoles, as that is spread over only the small number of units. The effect is arcade machines almost never had custom chips, but often had duck-taped-together designs that threw in extra chips to accomplish tasks. Contrast to a machine like the Commodore 64 or Nintendo which had custom sound and graphic chips but where the overall chip count and unit cost was ruthlessly controlled.