ok let's all tell a story on how we found BYOAC.

[bossyman15]

here's mine

i signed up for X-arcade newsletter. one month i got the newsletter with this link to this site http://www.peterhirschberg.com/arcade/gameroom.htm

i looked around a thought "wow!!!!" and i looked at link section there, i clicked on http://www.coinopwarehouse.com/ link and looked at pictures there.

as i looked at the pictures, i thought "oh my god that's so sad. (i did really felt so sad inside) i remember back then i played those games in arcade and they were new and now look at them! they are rotting away!"

then i don't really remember what i did next but i know i googled arcade and went to BYOAC site but at that time i didn't care what that site was because i don't know what that site was lol.

about 1 week later or so i came back to BYOAC after few times and when to this fourm and now i know this site.

THAT'S MY TEE STORY!

[canoshiz]

Referred here from SRK when I was researching how to build an arcade stick for PS2 fighters.

[Bones]

It was a pop-up at an adult site. I clicked it thinking I was gunna see boobs.

[Samstag]

Same way I find everything else:

[Franco]

Right, lets see...

Started looking into making a cab for a college project last september. Planned cab using all kinds of internet sources, mainly the mameworld.net tech forum. Started to build cab in december, two weeks prior to finishing I actually found the message boards on this site, all together now D'OH!!

I had seen this site before but didnt realise it had a forum. If only I had found it earlier im sure my cab would have turned out much better. Oh well, at least I know where y'all are for future projects. 

[vornar]

I googled my way here and it took me ages before i found the forum section. (I was waaaaay to busy looking at the examples ) Once i found the forum it also took a long time before i had the balls to post...

Glad i did...

[elvis]

About mid-way through completing my first cabinet, a friend asked me if I was going to add it to the BYOAC database.  Not having heard of the place before, I asked him for the link, and the rest was history.

[NIVO]

one day I was carrying my bucket, on a trip to nantucket, when I was approached by this odd fellow..........

[AlanS17]

I think I discovered it after discovering MAME. Didn't realize there was a message board at first, and I'd never posted on any message boards before. I don't remember the circumstances, though. That was like 3 years ago or something.

[Effayy]

Google.  Looking for MAME-specific things to do.

When I was younger (Nintendo 8-bit Years), I remember seeing a homemade cabinet for the NES in an issue of Nintendo Power I got, and that planted the seed....  Now I'm here.

- FA

[AmericanDemon]

I found MAME.  Then I took the chance and typed in www.arcadecontrols.com and wallah.....  I found home.

BTW - That NES Cabinet was done by one of our one.  Nannuu. 

[MustardTent]

After messing around with MAME for a while (Wow!  I can play the arcade version of MK II in MY OWN HOUSE!), I was doing my daily slashdot rounds when I read a comment linking to this site.

That was two years ago, and I've never spent so much money on toys in so little time before 

[Havok]

A burning bush told me about this site...

 

[ROMbler]

I was looking for GBA ROMs and came across MAME - Googled MAME and landed here. 

[Nannuu]

I have no idea how I found it.  But it was weeks wasted at work afterward.  I started drawing up a rotating cabinet and a week later 1UP's hit the front page, that thing is great.  I looked through the examples for months before I ever hit the message board.  Never been to a message board before because of the usual internet childishness of people.  But after spending more months reading posts I noticed that the guys here are much nicer than a normal board.
Funny, I'm here so often I feel like I know most of you guys.  Too bad I don't post much, I tend to be more of a browser  .  Now that I have kids and don't ever go out anymore, you've become the guys that make me laugh during the day.  Thanks!
I've been here 3 years and even though I've made plenty of cabinets for other people, I still can't decide what my own cabinet should be.  I've redesigned at least 458 times.  Should I make a ridiculous rotating 4 player or a nice simple Taito style or a rotating or a simple.....

[KenToad]

I found the link on the left side of mameworld.net in 2001.  I don't normally sign up for forums, only once in a while hit one in a Google search, so I didn't think much of the forum  and just tried to make sense of the main page and all the info there. 

Now I'm hooked.  Just trying to reserve the ability to post for when I have a pressing question or actually know something unique (or that the experts are sick of answering), not a very frequent happening.

Cheers,
KenToad

[Goz]

I was reading an article in Maximum PC which was a project on building an arcade. It listed this as the site to go to. I came I read for a while and asked a few re-affirming questions and started building. 6 MAME(tm) based cabs, a few restores, a jukebox project and a couple of slots later and here I am.

[AlanS17]

Well I'll have to admit it REALLY all started for me when I bought a working machine - a Killer Instinct. The place where I grew up playing it was selling it because it was too violent for their family fun center. So I got online to learn more about arcade owning. That led to MAME and that led to here.

[Crazy Cooter]

I don't remember.  It was a long time ago though.  Back when the I-pac came out.  I don't think it was much of a message board back then and I didn't know anything, so I didn't register .

Now I still don't know anything, but I need a website to switch windows to when someone walks in during my 24-hour a day porn addiction.

[Setabs]

Trying to find a way to plug a nes controller to a computer.  Somehow found the page in this site that talks about it.  Bookmarked the page about four years ago.  Lost interest in emulation.  Looking at the site 2 years ago noticed the forums and lerked around until I had a question about a mamewah problem I was having.

[pointdablame]

After finding MAME "again" after not using it for a few years, I did some google searches and wound up here.  I wound up reading examples for days and days and finally noticed the forum.  I lurked for a month or two, signed up, and now it is my daily means of procrastination

[Elfman]

I was at the Costco Home store in Kirkland, WA (only one I think) and they had an Ultracrap machine there.

[MrTroy]

Being a hobbiest game programmer I was on the forum at http://www.allegro.cc and someone posted Jubei and I thought it'd be amazingly awsome if when I went back to school I showcased one of my projects in. So I clicked a link and ended up here... 3 years later I started actually using the forum.

[Q*Bert_OP]

I already had some knowlage about mame, I bought the project arcade book, and found the website link in there.

[DaveMMR]

I was looking into buying an arcade cabinet (either Simpsons Bowling or Marble Madness).  Though some deft Googling, I stumbled upon this site.  I spent the rest of the evening reading the contents of BYOAC and since that day two years ago, I've been keeping up with the progress in cab building (even though I have yet to show my very unfinished masterpiece).  The BYOAC boards remain the only message boards that keep my consistently coming back when I grew bored of others in a month or so.  I credit all the bacon, Floyd10, and political posts.

[Lord Iceman]

I was looking on cab plans and all kind of info I could find about it, long time ago, and in almost all the documenting cab building pages I found was a link to BYOAC, saying how important it was, a must visit.

Odd thing is that I just "found" the forums last month. in the past, all I did was browse through the examples page, reading other people's achievements...

and here am I, building my first cab right now.

[sgfootball2006]

I was looking at a popular science magazine and they had a article on how to build an arcade. I went to one of the sites they mentioned and that site had a link to here.

[Thenasty]

I'll be honest, I forgot, its been to long. 

[missioncontrol]

saw something on TechTV a few years back about building a cocktail cabinet. I figured if THey could order all the parts to make on then I could build one. Caught the bug did all the research I could used google alot. Then bought Project Arcade the book came out I decided to join the forums..........

[CthulhuLuke]

I've been a big game fan since I can't remember how far back, and my bro and his roomies in college all had Zsnes and Nesticle running, but none of em could get Mame running.  I had just got a PC, and I discovered the world of emulation, when I found MAME and figured out exactly how to use it.  Then I started reading about these mame cabinet things people were making on the little link of cabs at arcadeathome dot com.  I started searching through the cabs, looking at their websites, and a few of them pointed here.  I showed up on the chat room when I was 16, built my first arcade joystick, got my first cab to build on when I was 17, became an OP on the chat room after major server problems, and now I've gone idle for the last year because of school.
  - anyways, my mame story in a nut shell

[RayB]

I can't remember 

[Avery]

Saint's book.

[The Man]

I don't remember when it was exactly... I can tell you about 6 months after finding this place I started testing the ability to have two TrackBalls to play Marble Madness (there was a special build for Mame to do it back then Optimame? can't remember). TwistyGrip had just come out with their blueprints for the StarWars yoke and they showed me how to hack a mouse into a spinner.

That's what I remember.

TM

[ultramagnus]

the first time i found this place i was looking for a guide on how to connect my N64 pad to my PC, the first time i actuallly posted on the forums was when i was looking for how to connect pedals to my flight Yoke

[markb]

I ran out of things to do with all the computer parts lying around the house, so I googled "what to do with an old pc". One of the answers was build a retro games machine, from there it led to Mame and then BYOAC.

[Gamecab]

X-Arcade was the cause.

[SteveJ34]

Many moons ago I got an itch to relive my younger years and acquire a Galaga machine. This is probably my all time favorite. I made a few trips to Super Auctions in Dallas in the hopes of picking up something I could clean up and/or restore.

I was discouraged by the prices these beat up and some converted machines went for. I gave up on the idea because it was out of my price range.

I then got to thinking that I perhaps I could build my own replica machine, acquire the boards, monitor, controls, etc cheaper than the $800+ I used to see some really beat up machines go for.

Of course, google is our friend. I discovered MAME and BYOAC probably in the same surf session. Once I got a couple of games operational I was hooked.

Why build a single replica machine when I can build a multigame. I went that route and completed my first upright at what is probably 3 years ago now. I've built a few additional machines and bartops since then for friends and family....and I've still got plans to do a replica or restore on a Galaga at some point in time just for nostalgia sake.

Cheers!

[RacerX]

I found it on one of the old search engines like HotBot or something.  1999 was a long time ago.

[shmokes]

I stumbled across....aw damn, I can't even remember the name of the site.  It's the one run by that tool who used to go by Cyberpunk here, until he started making idle threats about having his team of lawyers shut this website down.  After that he pretty much became universally hated so rarely shows up here anymore.  Anyway, whatever else I think of him, I have to admit that I'm grateful that his site led me to this site.

I read the site a bunch of times before I stumbled across the goldmines that are the forums.  And I hung around reading them regularly for months before posting for the first time.

[bossyman15]

why did he threated to shut this website down?