History

It all started back in 1997 when I discovered a program called M.A.M.E. (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) from some friends at work. I couldn't get over how amazing it was to play the actual arcade games that I remembered playing as a kid. I must have spent hours playing games like Galaga and my wife's favorite - Ms Pacman. After a few months, the thrill of playing these games on the computer (with a keyboard) wore off and life was back to normal.

Then sometime in early 2004, I was reading a copy of Maximum PC which had a review for a "control panel" which featured 2 arcade style joysticks each equipped with a full set of buttons. Best of all was the fact that essentially hooked into a computer like a keyboard and worked with M.A.M.E. by default! The price was a little steep ($400) so I decided to find out more about it and other competitors online.

You can imagine my suprise when I stumbled on to sites like BYOAC out there, I've been amazed by the wonderful MAME cabinets created and documented throughout the internet. It was then that I decided to take on the challenge myself.

I spent about two months researching the interfaces and learning how to build my own dream cab, mixing and matching from whatever places I could find, and slowly buying the parts.

After that I got started. You can follow my progress if you have nothing better to do with your time.