Nostalgia - BYOAC 5 years on

[mattv]

Nostalgia
Happy birthday BYOAC (faq)

I remember when the site address, was a mangled mess of tildes and backslashes (used to know it off by heart). I remember the site before the message board was up. I remember when the message board DID go up and there was one post a week.

I remember when there were only 6 regular posters (can't remember the names tho) no registrations in those days, but no off topic posts either, strangely.

I remember the days when modding a cabinet was unheard of and a stand alone control panel was the ultimate. I remember long before the *pac line of products, when keyboard hacks were "in" and arguments about diodes filled the board.

I remember when we didn't have the same questions posted week after week, no flames, no egos - If you didn't know the answer you'd keep quiet and if you did you'd be sure to share.

The "signal to noise" ratio seems to have dropped off a little with all the extra visitors, but compared to most every other site I visit this place is still pretty amazing


Massive respect to saint for keeping this site together (and advert free) for the last five years and to the moderators for keeping discussions on topic, this is a great resource and there are some great people here.

Hey; if any of the original people from way back in the day read this, reply and let us know what you think of BYOAC five years on. I don't visit as often as I used to, but I still drop by from time to time to stay in touch and am amazed how far our hobby has come.

So come on old timers, share your thoughts - think of it as a birthday toast to an old friend.

"To BYOAC, Saint and the mods - still going strong after five years!"

[Dave_K.]

Heh, I just looked back through some old email logs (January 1998) and still have some notes from DeCosa, Shadow, and a few others when I was on the Davesclassics board.  The topic of the time was fixing the hacked keyboard ghosting problem, and discussing the "Pounder" pc arcade stick some guys were producing.  I thought I had some emails from Saint but couldn't find them.  I do remember the early days when BYOAC actually had some females participating    500 projects later and here we are.  Thank you Saint for the dedication to keeping the dream alive for the past 5 years, and educating so many people on the greatest of hobbies!  

[planetjay]

Nostalgia
Happy birthday BYOAC (faq)

I remember when the site address, was a mangled mess of tildes and backslashes (used to know it off by heart).

You mean http://www.nsai.net/~saint/etc ??

I found the site in 1998. Lurked for quite a while before I posted on the message board.

There is advertising on the main page. Scroll down to the bottom. The important thing to realize is that the ads are all ARCADE RELATED and don't even pay for 10% of saint's cash outlay for this site. (Have you seen THIS?) And don't forget his time.

Over the years I have made some freinds here. (Have you seen THIS?) I have actually met some of the people here and have talked on the phone with others. I have looked at every project ever posted. Every page on this site. I have learned from others and have tried to pass some of it on. I love this place

More changes are coming! More than even the Board Mods and Chatroom OPs know about.   Stay Tuned!

And Thank You For Playing!

[)p(]

I also have been around from the early days  

Unbelievable how far this hobby has evolved in these years...

And yes I am a bit nostalgic about those early days when most of us were building early 80 style cabs...

peter

[Sasquatch!]

I remember accidentally finding Shadow's PC Arcade page and then finding my way here whilst searching for MAME-related stuff in June of 1999.  My jaw hit the floor.  "Holy crap, these guys actually built arcade cabinets for MAME!  That's the coolest thing I've ever heard of!!"  And, well, the rest is history.

Yeah, the boards were much smaller and slower then, but there have been some incredible innovations since then, and it just keeps getting better.

Thanks for everything, Saint and co.  My wife curses you, but I thank you!

[Howard_Casto]

Believe it or not I technically was here towards the beginning.  When I first got here (I'd say about 4 1/2- 4  3/4 years ago).  The url was still long, the messageboard had maybe a dozen posts on it, and the faq wasn't as tidy as it is now.  So my initial thought was, "well this kinda sucks" and I didn't come back for another 6 months.  Boy did that small amount of time change things!


Like it or not, I've been a regular ever since.  



Just think of all the things that have spawned out of this site....

All of Andy's products.

Analog MAME.

The second generation of front ends and the resurgance of the classic fe's.

The rather odd (but welcomed)  "mame jukebox" trend.

Most importantly the faq.

And much, much, more!


Just a site? I think not.  

[1UP]

I'm not really an old-timer here, but I started lurking about 2 1/2 years back.  I had just discovered MAME (aww, the good old days of Mame.dk   ) and was amazed at all these people making full-blown cabinets to play their ROMs!  I knew right away that I wanted to be one of them...

Believe it or not, I actually read a lot of the FAQ first, before perusing the message boards under the alias RMFX.  (These days, it seems the newbs like to ask questions first, and find the FAQ later...   )

I remember about 2 years ago I got into a discussion with Xiaou2 on the old board about making a more compact 3-sided rotating control panel instead of a 6-sider, and being told it couldn't be done...  Thanks for the challenge Xiaou2, it ensured that I would find a way to do it!  

Actually, being told that things couldn't be done, or would be difficult, kind of helped me pick my new alias when the new board went up.  Besides the instantly recognizable reference to player one (1UP) in a video game, I wanted to reflect part of my personality: my tendency to take on challenges, to show off a little, to look at what someone else has done and try to "one-up" them!  Plus it comes up alphabetically at the top of the user list...  

Since I discovered BYOAC, I've met a lot of cool people who have helped me along the way to making a cool cab.  Sir Poonga, Oscar, Carsten, Dav, )p(, and of course Howard C and a lot of other folks.  Thanks for introducing me to a really engrossing hobby, and helping me learn how to Build My Own Arcade Controls!

[SNAAAKE]

as far as i could remember..i was here around 1999..no,i wasnt posting or anything but i just lurking around..I soooooooo wanted to built like a panel but GOD...I had no money .I was like 15 and with nothing...but it was all good checking out projects..the wrongcrowd joystick was popular(now it looks funny,with a speaker box).

I never visited the message board because i seriouslly didnt know what it actually was and i didnt have any computer to visit regular and it wasnt even like this before.(my brother had one and i am not supposed to touch that).

 :)EVERYTHING HAS BEEN GREAT ..i should make like a donation or something..(everyone should ).
I used to drool over this picture and think "WHEN will i ever built anything like this...I cant possibly be that dumb that cant do this"


How would i ever build anything like this..


If there was no byoac...again... ::)THANK YOU ARCADECONTROLS.COM !
This goes to everyone..saint,planetjay(always mad at me...LOL),tom61,justmicheal,and everyone else.

I mean the site has been so helpfull..just words isnt enough !.Everyone post how YOU found out about the site.

I remember accidentally finding Shadow's PC Arcade page and then finding my way here whilst searching for MAME-related stuff in June of 1999.  My jaw hit the floor.  "Holy crap, these guys actually built arcade cabinets for MAME!  That's the coolest thing I've ever heard of!!"  And, well, the rest is history.

DAMN DUDE ...mine is exactly like yours..I accidentally found axel buet(spelling) site when i was looking for some joystick using aol search engine(yes I am dumb enough to use AOL).
and Bam there is a site where people actually BUILDS arcades..first I was its like you know..for like showing off or somthin and they really dont work(c'mon..some 15 old is a dumbass ) but later realized they actually work.

[JLR2000]

I think in 1998 I found this thing called "mame"....played games, but on my pc it was soo slow....not really interesting at all.

Then a couple years later, I took a class thru work, and the teacher had these "emulators" running on his laptop.  One for NES....."Testicle" I think....it was weird....and another...."mame".  Oh yeah, I remember that....it's working better now??  Well, went home and downloaded it....wow, I can play PacMan! It works so much better now!   Then I sat, watching TV...thinking.....and that's when the truly *ORIGINAL* thought happened.......

Hey....I bet there's a way to connect real buttons and joysticks to a PC to make it like a real arcade.  I relished in my original thought....NO ONE has thought of this.....I could make an ARCADE machine! (if I could figure it all out).....

Did some sort of search (don't think google was around then)....and BAM! Reality set it....NO, it not an original thought......lots of people have done this (less than 100 at that point? in the examples?).  

I've been hooked ever since.  Since that day, I can honestly say that I have not gone 4 solid days without checking BYOAC.  Lots of lurking at first....but thank you ALL OF YOU........Saint, JustMichael(very scary at first....didn't post a lot but had good info), PJ, OSCAR, too many to mention.....

After a few posts and a few projects, it's still great to come here and read all what's going on......the good, the bad, and the ugly!

Thanks to all of you and this board.  I have a great hobby now thanks to this site, and you all have set a great example which has encouraged me to share.....


BYOAC!  THANK YOU.