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My MAME / BYOAC story...

(OK, everyone has their obligatory MAME / BYOAC story.  Here's mine!)

Like most other teenage guys who didn't live in a cave in the 80's, I was a real arcade nut!  When I was a kid, everyone had Atari or Colecovision, and every neighborhood had an arcade nearby, or at least 2 or 3 of the latest games at the local 7-Eleven.  Then, at the height of my arcade craze, I found out that one of my sister's friends had a couple arcade games standing in their front room!  From that point on, I've always thought it would be the coolest thing in the world to have my own basement arcade...

Fast forward to the year 2000.  During a slow week at work, I began searching the web for ports of classic arcade games I could play to pass the time.  I was jazzed when I found Macromedia's ShockMachine, which allowed you to download and play many classic games in Shockwave format!  But many of my favorite games were nowhere to be seen, like Pac-Man for one.  Further searching turned up some flash games based on Pac-Man, but none were really authentic.

After a little more digging, I found an emulator called PacMAME, that ran the actual ROM images from the original Pac-Man games!  I soon found that the code for PacMAME had been further developed, and integrated into a larger project, the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator -- MAME!  Through MAME, I discovered I could play hundreds of my favorite arcade games in their original glory, with their original code.  I was in heaven!!

As I became more involved in the MAME scene, I found a link to a site called Build Your Own Arcade Controls.  I was amazed to see all these crazy people building their own PC and console-based cabinets, with real arcade controls!  Sure, they're all crazy, but wouldn't it be cool...

For many months, I watched the BYOAC action from a distance.  Then, about June 2001, I saw a post on BYOAC about some Terminator 2 guns on Ebay.  I had played T2 a LOT in college, and the price was reasonable, so I picked up two of them.  Shortly after that, I found someone who was selling an original Star Wars controller yoke.  That's when I thought, "Well, I guess I'm finally buillding my own arcade machine!"

After about a year of planning, research, parts-buying, several organized protests by my wife, and a solid month off work for construction, Pac-Mamea is almost complete!   I can now play all my favorite games, on an authentic-looking, sturdy, dedicated arcade machine!

The information on this site is for the purposes of education and entertainment only.  The owner of this site makes no warantees as to the accuracy of the information, and takes no responsibility for any damage or injury sustained due to the use of information herein.  The design of the Pac-Mamea cabinet and all photos, computer renderings, drawings, schematics, and printed information relating to such are Copyright © 2005 Robert Meyers.  No ownership of other copyrighted material found on this site is implied unless otherwise noted.