You can just run the emulator on your current Mac and use a keyboard and trackpad as your input devices and be done with it. When building a M.A.M.E arcade cabinet you can be as authentic to a true arcade cabinet as you desire.
Since I was already using an old Apple Cinema Display as the monitor, I figured I'd make the cabinet a complete Apple affair with with my LED Cinema Display, my 2014 Mac mini, and my full sized Apple keyboard (a third-party trackball doubles as a mouse so that was not needed). I had built up so much software cruft over the years that the system started to become quirky rather than useful in it's function. It worked very well but it was unwieldy, loud, overly wired, and frankly just old. I previously had the traditional M.A.M.E. VPN Deals: Lifetime license for $16, monthly plans at $1 & more Completely Apple-based M.A.M.E
