Most 2D fighters have a lot of buttons. Many shmups have vertical monitors. Most beat-em ups are simple JAMMA cabinets. So if you are asking if you could take a board from one of those types of games and swap them into another one of those types of cabinets I would say it would not be plug-and-play.

It's probably me, but I'm still having a hard time figuring out exactly what you are asking. Are you talking about just owning one arcade cabinet, and swapping boards into and out of that one cabinet?