You just plug everything in, pretty much. If the game is standard JAMMA (ie: four buttons or less plus Start, 8 direction joystick and coin button, per side) then that's all you have to to. If its something with more buttons there is usually a special extra harness to hook up directly from the PCB to the controllers. If there is an analog controller or something then its kind of on a game by game basis.
Cool! That doesn't sound too difficult at all! Now all I have to decide is whether to get a CMVS or a SuperGun. Gotta wait until tax-time though.
If you want to play more then mvs get a supergun if not then a,cmvs is fine if you want to save on space.
Though i warn ya collecting arcade pcb can get expensive depending what game it is.Beside the risk of getting a defective board.