How we decide which classic cabinets to rebuild next

The catalogue grows slowly on purpose. We add between three and five new cabinets a year, and the process for each one takes longer than most players expect.

It starts with the licence. Not every studio or rights holder is willing to allow a web-based remake, and not every one that is willing asks for a fee we can afford. Several of our most-requested cabinets have been waiting for a licence conversation to resolve for more than a year.

When a licence is confirmed, a small team plays the original cabinet as extensively as possible — physical machines, verified emulators, archival documentation. We are looking for what made the game worth rebuilding: the one mechanic or the one feeling that defines the experience.

After the rebuild, three months of quiet testing in a small beta room within the lounge. Players who find the beta get in by noticing a small notice in the host chat. No announcements, no waitlists. Just an open door for anyone paying attention.

The final step is a lounge vote on the title. We rarely change it, but the vote serves a different purpose: it makes the community feel ownership over the cabinet before it goes live. The cabinets that arrive with a story behind them — with people who watched them being made — are almost always the ones that find their audience fastest.