I’ve been playing with M.A.M.E. arcade emulator for quite a few years now. It’s an amazing piece of software that lets you play all the arcade games you used to play as a kid (assuming you’re a thirty-something like me that is!). It basically lets you ‘plug in’ the original ROMs from the arcade machine and the software emulates the actual hardware that was used. The result – you can play all the old arcade games in the way they were intended! Well, almost….that’s where this page comes in.
Whilst it’s fun playing you’re old favourites on you computer, there is still something missing…the part where you are standing in front of a large cabinet thrashing buttons and joystick to death. Recently I discovered that lots of people were either converting old cabinets they had picked up cheap or were building their own cabinets from scratch and installing a dedicated M.A.M.E. computer inside it! Bingo! Over a thousand arcade games in one full size cabinet. Bliss!!
I couldn’t resist trying this myself. I opted to build my own for various reasons: didn’t want to spend time searching out an old one out then having to find a way to lug it home; I also wanted the satisfaction of building my own (I’m funny that way). So….here it is.