First to answer your question. Gosh man...I feel like everything is insanely expensive now. Food entertainment, resources, everything. It's brutal. I went to a local used game shop and prices have not recovered since 2020. Some games are stupidly overpriced now.

Oh, I've seen this cabinet in person! It's much smaller than I expected and would be kind of awkward to actually use. I'm 6 foot, and I would have to look down at it to use it.

It's cool, though. The artwork is really neat.

I think if I was going to get a cabinet, there were only two ways I would want to go about it.

1. I would probably make my own and spend a heck of a lot of time and money on it. It would be a pain to do, but the end product would be something that fits my tastes and works perfectly. Those cabinets that are essentially just big emulators seem to make the most sense to build imo.

2. acquiring a DDR machine. I have no idea if you can even build those. I mean, I guess you could, but those would probably be expensive as heck.

I built a custom GBA a while back and I think when it was said and done I spent around $300+ CAD on it? It was more expensive than it needed to be, but it was a fun project to try. I taught myself how to solder too, which was fun.