For those who need a refresher, check out our original article about M.A.M.E. We will soon be posting our next episode of Game Apparent TV which will focus on my mindless rambling about the work that went into converting the Space Invaders cabinet we acquired in Episode 2. This is an opportunity for me to offer some technical details with some of the rambling filtered out.

In creating the M.A.M.E. cabinet, I had three essential jobs:

1. Building the cabinet (or modifying a non-functioning original)
2. Configuring software (the emulator and the games themselves)
3. Building and wiring the interface (including the control panel and display)

There are a number of sites with relevant information for all of this. However, I would like to focus on the third step. The first step is mostly wood-working. Though it’s challenging, it’s fairly straightforward. The second step is pure computer stuff. Except for picking a front-end interface, this was the easiest for me. However, the third step was the most intimidating. (For those of you who haven’t wired before, be sure to view the upcoming episode to see the bundle of spaghetti that hides underneath the panel!) Though the cabinet itself may seem like the element that brings authenticity to the arcade gaming experience, I contest that it’s the interface more than anything else. If the interface is right, once you begin playing everything else will just fade away…

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Before I start, allow me to clarify a few things:

1) M.A.M.E. is the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. (For more information about the project, visit the website here.)
2) It enables people to play the original code of thousands of arcade games on myriad devices including computers, PDAs, and videogame consoles.
3) The emulator itself is free, but the games that you run on it are not. In order to play these games legally, you must either own the original arcade game (or the ROM chips that hold the code for that game) or have purchased the rights to play those games. (There are a number of titles that have entered the public domain as well.)

Now that I’ve established this, why is this relevant for parents who have children interested in videogames? Well, one of the great things about the original arcade games is that the graphics were so primitive that most titles were more abstract. They also tended to be very simple and family friendly. Furthermore, the nature of arcade games is that the player rarely gets more than 5 or 10 minutes out of a single quarter. Therefore, many of these titles naturally disengage the player at fairly short intervals.

With these issues in mind, I have been playing with M.A.M.E. for years on my computer and I have aspired to create my own arcade cabinet in order to play these games the way that they were intended.  Hence the experience that led to our second VodCast.

Originally, I had intended to build my own cabinet from scratch. However, my level-headed and realistic wife pointed out some of my “less-than-stellar” projects which required wood and the use of power tools. Furthermore, our friend Josh brought to our attention the Month of MAME (cabinet-building: episode 1 and episode 2) on Systm. The fact that two accomplished woodworkers underestimated the challenge of making an arcade cabinet was all the wake-up call I needed. If I was to make my dream a reality, I should focus on the software and hardware integration (which I knew) as opposed to cabinet-building (which I didn’t know). With this in mind, Chris and I found a local auction this past weekend where I was able to purchase on old non-functioning arcade cabinet in which I hope to install the guts of a system that will enable me to play a number of the old classics.

I will keep you all informed of my progress and I hope to let you all decide for yourselves whether or not this could be an appropriate project for you and your family.

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