Hi all,
I have to chine in on this one...
Like philby85 I was a kid (okay teenager) during the 80's and I spent my fair share of time in arcades. Like most, I loaded up MAME on my PC a few years ago and thought it was quite cool to see the games I remembered come alive on the screen...but it was lacking something, and it lost interest. A couple of years later, on a quiet evening, I once again looked up MAME on the net and also discovered BYOAC. I was soon hooked, spending untold hours reading through the posts on the site and realized what MAME was missing....it's own CAB! My odyssey began in the fall of 2005 and I'm also finished.
That's a bit of the background, but to address the spirit of this thread...all of my efforts...the planning, purchasing, construction, finishing and programming of my arcade machine has been a labour of love. I actually think I'm taking my time completing the control panel (the last piece) because I want to prolong the experience. I too remember the first time I fired-up MAME on my 27" arcade monitor and played Robotron, Pac-Man or Galaga...playing with a keyboard wasn't perfect but I didn't care! What really brought me back was that magical moment when, after a few hours of reading and configuring, I pressed enter, waited 30 seconds (or so), and was greeted by the opening scene of Dragon's Lair. That was truly an emotional moment. I had a friend in high school who could play Robotron all day on a single quarter and finish Dragon's Lair with ease; I used to watch with amazement! This is the strongest connection for me....the carefree times spent with friends...the music, the movies, the first date, the graduation dance. Ya, I'm rambling, but for me this collection of MDF, microchips, laminate, glass and plastic has created a connection to a time I look back on with great fondness. Perhaps this is why we toil so tirelessly on our CABS? Some would say the past is the past, don't dwell on it...heck we aren't dwelling, we're celebrating! For me the CAB is a tangible connection to the people I grew up with and the influences during those formative years that shaped who I am today. I think Stephen King may have said it best in a line from 'Stand By Me'....
"I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"
The game is never over,
Breaker.