[ Home ] [ 1. Cleaning ] [ 2. Resurfacing ] [ 3. Construction ] [ 4. Moving inside ] [ 5. Finishing work ] [ 6. Control Panel ] [ Final Product! ] [ Hardware ] [ Quick Notes ] [ Links ] [ Site Updates ] [ Interactive Stupidity ] [ Downloads ]

What in the hell is that?

I have been using a program for some time called MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator) for a number of years.  This basically turns your computer into the hardware that classic (and now more modern) video games in the arcade used.  With the addition of a copy of the software that these machines used, commonly known as ROMS, you could actually play your favorite hits from the 80's and early 90's right on your computer.

This is all very cool, but the games just aren't the same on the computer.  While browsing the web, I found some great sites that showed these crazy people who had either converted an existing arcade cabinet or built a cabinet from scratch.  This cabinet houses a computer running mame instead of arcade machine hardware, so basically what you get is one arcade machine that is a virtual arcade capable of playing hundreds or even thousands of games, WITH NO QUARTERS NEEDED!   

The site that provided the best examples and ideas for this project was www.arcadecontrols.com.  Finally after seeing an ad in the local paper for free! cabinets, I decided it was time to buy some power tools and try to relive my misspent youth.  

The cabinet is currently under construction (mostly weekends) and probably will be some time, I will continue to update this page as I go "blog" style.  Once finished I will re-work this website into something more managable broken down by sections.

The usual anecdote introduction:

Ok, so I'm on a quest to build a MAME cabinet out of a beat up old Soul Caliber arcade cabinet.  I picked it up free from a distributor who had a few extra cabs rotting in the side yard.  Much like every other story you hear about free arcade cabinets the cabinet was in less than stellar shape with rather poor storage conditions, this thing had lemons in the bottom of it, an old hat, a broken pool que and more bugs than Windows ME.

Of course this is a newer machine and with the need of today's kids to have more more more, this thing is FRIGGIN HUGE!  So big that I couldn't fit it in Trish's Xterra, so we talked  the guy into to getting his assistant to bring it by my house for their normal delivery charge on regular games. 

Once the delivery guy made it to my place, we found out that because of the position of the entrance of my back patio we couldn't just wheel it in so he helped me lift it over the side rails, where the machine slid and punched me square in the jaw... That'll wake ya up in the mornin!

That about covers the boring story part, it will take years of therapy to figure out why I did it, so now go click on the links at the top of the page, then you'll really ask why!

... and of course an e-mail me link!