Comment by JKCalhoun | Hacker News Reader

Comment by JKCalhoun | Hacker News Reader

I guess I have built over half a dozen MAME cabs. Having kids was a great excuse to build them. All of my daughters kick ass at "Joust" and were born decades after its heyday.

For me, I finally got to enjoy games like "Robotron" that I sucked so bad at I couldn't, at the time, justify spending a quarter on about a minute of game-play.

MAME allowed me to discover games (I guess mainly Japanese ones?, "Guwange" is an example) I had never experienced in the arcade. I had also missed "Metal Slug" series, happy to discover these games in MAME.

With MAME I rediscovered games I had only briefly seen in the arcades before they were gone: "Tail Gunner", "Omega Race".

I also tried games with MAME I would have passed over in the arcade like "Golden Tee Golf". Really enjoy that one (you need a track ball though!).

MAME did sort of ruin "pay-to-continue" games like "1941". But I sort of hate those games now anyway for having a "pay-to-continue" model.

Pay-to-continue is a concession to the reality that an arcade is designed to generate money. The balanced and high-intensity gameplay gets you interested, the continue feature just takes your money. The solution is to never continue! Try for a 1 credit clear.

How many times will you play and not continue? Might as well continue.

And that's why I play Nethack on a public server, instead of locally. Removes these temptations.

Yes a confirmed blog post or similar link would be nice.

how hard is it to build a cabinet ? Do you use real CRT ? (I know there are lots of info on the web, but well, a first hand experience is always nice!)

/r/cade will quickly show you a lot of permutations and combinations from the builders themselves. Some of what these guys have done is mind-blowing.

No, I used LCD displays.

I "rescued" a few pieces of hardware that were bound for the trash heap. Some were laptops, some were desktops....

I tossed some old photos up here:

https://imgur.com/a/GsXrM7M

I tried to show some of the cardboard prototypes too. (A good way to start!). They're roughly in order — my woodworking skills improved as well over the 17 or so years the photos span. I can think of at least two more MAME machines I build that I did not (quickly) find photos for....

I'll add, start simple. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You can go CRT later (on MAME machine #10, ha ha).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com