When I was in college, whilst perusing the internets during class, I came across a most wondrous discovery, M.A.M.E. This stands for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, usually just MAME for short. Basically, it’s a program that uses computer software to emulate, or essentially recreate, the individual chips inside an arcade machine. You can then find the game file, called a rom image, for the game you want to play and execute it through MAME and BAM! you’re playing the arcade version of Contra on your computer. Essentially, the point of the MAME project is to preserve arcade game technology for future generations through software rather than through old, finicky, chips that are increasingly rare. The fact that you can play these classic games on your PC is really just a nice side-effect.
Perhaps you’ve dabbled with Nintendo or Sega Genesis emulators in the past or played a PC game that required you to use your keyboard for movement and quickly realized that it’s not nearly as conducive to fun as the original control scheme the game was designed for. This conclusion was also reached by many people more clever than I. They began to figure out ways to make arcade joysticks and buttons interface with the PC running MAME software and a cottage industry was born. More and more programmers became interested in the project, porting the MAME program to different operating systems and creating Frontends to make the system more user friendly. People even went so far as to build custom arcade machines with computers in them, hooked to arcade monitors and controls. It’s when I saw these that I caught the bug.
I decided I was going to build a full-size, stand-up arcade machine like comes to mind when you think of an arcade machine. I found some plans online and set out to build my masterpiece. Keep in mind, I was still in college at the time and was, therefore, a bit lacking in the funds department. My plan was to build the cabinet according to the plans, but substitute an old TV for an arcade monitor and use an old PC for the actual emulator. The only area I really didn’t skimp on was the control board. I purchased real arcade joysticks and buttons. That part, at least, looked pretty good.
The arcade machine turned out to be a monstrosity. Although, I wasn’t particularly lacking in engineering skills, my woodworking skills at that time were sorely lacking and my lack of funds really limited me. The machine was heavy, couldn’t be moved easily, and looked like something a grade-school class would make for a play. But you know what it did? It played freakin arcade games pretty freakin well.
I had two joysticks with six buttons a piece plus three extra buttons for each side that served miscellaneous purposes within the emulator. The directions on the joystick and buttons corresponded specific keys on the keyboard. I’d hacked apart a keyboard and set up a matrix so when you moved the joystick or pressed a button on the control panel a specific action would happen within the game. For example, the 1st player’s joystick pressed the up arrow on the keyboard when you pushed the joystick up and pressed the down arrow when you pressed the joystick down. You get the picture.
Outside view of the control panel
Outside view of the control panel
Inside view of the control panel
I also purchased a large trackball like you see in those Golden Tee games at restaurants. This functioned as the mouse for the computer so I could navigate around the screen. It also had a two arcade buttons above it that functioned as the mouse buttons. All in all, a pretty cool layout.
The emulator itself ran on an old eMachines PC that I’d gotten from my Mom. It was fairly old back in ’04 when I built this thing, but the good news is, it doesn’t take much in the way of computing power to emulate an arcade game from the 80′s or early 90′s. I formatted the hard-drive and reinstalled a fresh copy of Windows 98, then I used the Windows version of MAME, MAME32. (This is now know as MAMEUI, just in case you’re trying to follow in my footsteps.) I also ran CLRMAMEPRO to keep my roms in order. Speaking of roms…
MAME without roms is essentially worthless, so you have to go about acquiring them. This is where things get tricky. Unless you own the actual arcade boards for the game you want to play on your PC, it’s illegal to have the roms, but since MAME focuses on obsolete hardware that plays old games, no one puts up much of a fuss. In fact, several arcade manufacturers allow you to download their games as long as they’re for non-commercial purposes.
Acquiring roms and building the sets was one of the most fun things about building my original arcade machine. You’d have to search all over the internet for the proper versions of games. There are many different versions of almost every arcade game, for different countries, regions, etc., but most of them share common hardware. So, roms typically come in zip file form and for each game there is a parent zip file, called a set with all the common hardware roms inside it and then all the other versions of the game have the extra roms needed to run that version of the game. It’s a really efficient way of doing things and saves a ton of space on your hard-drive. (Not every hard-drive had 500gb of storage 7 years ago.)
To make things even more challenging with respect to acquiring roms and sets, is that the way the files are split up between versions of MAME would change from time to time. The developers would add in new hardware, or make a different rom the parent rom for a game, and you’d have to reorganize your rom database to match their new MAME version. To do this you’d use a rom scanner like CLRMAMEPRO. It would move the files all around and rename things if necessary. But you’d still have to go about acquiring
All in all, I had a blast playing my ugly ass arcade machine for a couple of years. My dad and I would play Centipede and Asteroids and Golden Tee every night during the summer when I worked with him, and I’d have Contra and Metal Slug marathons with my roommate when I dragged the behemoth back to school. Unfortunately, after I graduated I had to move into a smaller place and just didn’t have room for the thing. I took it all apart and tossed out the PC and the TV. I used the wood for a ramp to get my motorcycle into the back of my truck. The only thing I saved was the control panel with the joysticks, buttons, and trackball.
I’ve had that control panel sitting in my storage unit for nearly 5 years now, always saying to myself that I would build another arcade machine, but this time do it right. The time is now right. I’ve got the woodworking skills (another hobby I’ve picked up in the last couple of years), which has led me to Google Sketchup for designing things properly before attempting to build them. I’ve also started using Linux as an operating system, which has shown me the error of my Windows-using ways when it comes to getting the most out of old PCs. And most importantly, now I have the cash to buy the right equipment and won’t have to rely on scavenged material to build this bad boy.
Let the second great arcade machine quest begin…
Oh man, I KNOW I have a picture of the 2003/4 version somewhere, when it graced our living room. Sad to see it in pieces now.