It'd be clear plexi. it'll definitely get scratched up a bit, but it won't see near the abuse that cabinets saw in arcades.
The other thing I'm wondering is if I can find a paint that would adhere to the backside without roughing up the plexi (and making it cloudy). I'm thinking it'd be similar to the way Apple made their laptops and G4 towers. Maybe like a spray-on auto primer or something. I'm thinking of trying to paint it black.
oh, love the avatar! did you design it?
Yes I did. I was playing around in Adobe Illustrator one day drawing Hello Kitty style characters and it evolved into a hammer-wielding cyborg bunny. I should probably update it since the upright's basically done and the cocktail is the one under construction.