Why would I bother spending my time and money doing something like this?

I grew up not only fascinated with computers, but spending as much time as I could dropping my share of coinage into the arcade hits of the late 70's & early 80's. The games didn't provide the outstanding level of complexity today's games have, but they were challenging nonetheless. The introduction of game consoles like the Atari 2600 and the like provided us with a home version of the experience, although they did remove the financial limits which kept me going back to the arcade with as many quarters as I could find.

As home and hand-held video game systems became cheaper, faster and capable of incredible life like graphics and gampeplay, arcades have dwindled in numbers. I rarely see the kind of fanbase in the arcades today which existed years ago. Most of the classics like Starwars, Pacman, and Kung-Fu Master which I spent most of my time on, have all but disappeared.

Fortunately, Mame came along and provided the closest thing to that experience by emulating the old arcade hardware allowing me to play the old classics again. Unfortunately, doing this in front of a computer on a keyboard did not  provide the complete experience. As I contemplated buying an old video game and putting a computer in it to convert it into a MAME machine, I decided it would be a great project to design and build one from scratch. In an effort to locate resources for parts online, I ran across several websites with individuals whom had the same idea I did. Good thing too, insanity loves company and I learned a LOT from others whom have traveled down this road before me. In the end, was it worth it?? Most definitely. I learned a LOT about design and construction, but most of all how you can completely screw things up without the right tools. ;o)