Mame
Once upon a time, several years ago, I discovered one of the most amazing and important pieces of software in the world! It was called Mame (Multiple-Arcade-Machine-Emulator) and it allowed my PC to pretend it was an arcade machine, and to play all the classic videogames of yesteryear. For a while I was in a state of bliss, revisiting old favourites, and having the joy of discovering new titles that I had never tried before.
Joystick
After a little while the joy faded slightly. You see, playing arcade games on your PC is great, but the experience is severely dampened by having to play using the keyboard. It is all very well suited to games like Quake, which are designed for a hot mouse/keyboard combo with mouselook and easy straffing etc, but when it comes down to the raw instintive twitch control needed for Defender or R-Type, then you can't do better than a great big clicky joystick that can be wrenched left and right. Because everyone knows that the harder you force the joystick then the faster that little ship dodges across the screen, it is just the same with racing games: tilting your head as you go into a powerslide always helps the car to corner better. Eventually the temptation got the better of me, and so I went out, purchased all the bits, and made my very own arcade joystick. All of a sudden everything clicked into place, I could hum round those screens with blistering dexterity, reaching new levels of gaming goodness.
I Want One
For a long time I wanted a full size arcade game cabinet. Imagine having one of those beasts in your home! I mean, who wouldn't want one of these (drool):
Poor Substitute
Then reality kicked in and I realised I couldn't really justify the space or the money. But despite this, my wishful thinking kept breaking out, and mysterious paper models would appear on my shelves.
