It's a strange and amazing hobby!

[Anubis_au]

I don't even have space for a cabinet, but is that going to stop me?!

I'd rather spend $1000 on making a MAME cab than spend the same buying a PS3. Games today have awesome graphics, but you can't play a quick fifteen minute game of Bombjack... I want to play the games I remember from my childhood, just like all the guys in this forum.

When I had my 4-player cab, it was the big hit at every party we threw at our house.

[Rip]

For me, it is the smell of an old cab that immediately sends me back 25 years.  It is a not a particularly pleasant smell, but once that monitor warms up, it smells just like all the arcades I grew up in.

In high school, the school bus home left 1hr after school let out and there was an arcade right next door.  From 1983-1987, I literally spent 1 hr of every single school day in the arcade (usually broke and mooching quarters).  And when I wasn't there, I was in the back game room of the donut shop in my local suburban strip mall.

Having spent a good part of my formative years playing arcade and pinball games, it is no wonder that 25 years later I have a strong sentimental attachment to these machines.

[cowguy]

I wasn't an 80's child but I still love arcade games.  I'm only 12 and I'm building my first MAME machine by myself.  There's just something about classic arcade games that I love.  I'm not sure what it is but I've always loved them for as long as I can remember.

[Anubis_au]

I wasn't an 80's child but I still love arcade games.  I'm only 12 and I'm building my first MAME machine by myself.

We hereby make you an honourary child of the 80s. You love the classic games, the Smurfs... you are an 80s child in spirit

[kiwibrick]

I used to spend at least an hour a day at the local dairy playing Street Fighter 2 everyday after school back in the day.

The hours (and dollars) I spent practicing so I could reliably do a dragon punch! and now it just comes as second nature 

I only just discovered this site a few days ago while searching for joysticks and buttons. My friend and I went and saw Spiderman 3 last week and had some time to kill so we did something we haven't done in ages, spent a few bucks playing the X-men vs SF machine they have at the theatre and I said "man we HAVE to build our own machine" and here I am, just waiting for my omni-stiks and buttons to come next week then it's building time.
I already have half a dozen mates who are keen to do a SF marathon weekend. it's going to be wicked and liek old times when we would rent a machine for the weekend!

[danny_galaga]

I wasn't an 80's child but I still love arcade games.  I'm only 12 and I'm building my first MAME machine by myself.

We hereby make you an honourary child of the 80s. You love the classic games, the Smurfs... you are an 80s child in spirit

the arcade spirit lives on (",)

[vidmouse]

I wasn't an 80's child but I still love arcade games.  I'm only 12 and I'm building my first MAME machine by myself.

We hereby make you an honourary child of the 80s. You love the classic games, the Smurfs... you are an 80s child in spirit

the arcade spirit lives on (",)

You're in good company.  My four-year old to loves all 80's material... he's growing up with Superfriends, He-Man, and a healthy dose of arcade games, even though right now he has to stand on a stool to reach the controls (he'll grow faster than I can build a short cab).