A few months ago I got the bright idea to try and build my own MAME cabinet. For those of you who don't know what that is, its a Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. Basically its a video game arcade cabinbet that can play any any arcade video game from when I was a kid.

Since this forum likes creative things I thought you might enjoy to see some pictures. I am not totally finished but I did all woodwork, wiring, and programming myself.

Also the cabinet has a Mega Man theme. I built a bunch of mega men (about 60 I think) out of perler beads. I plan on gluing these guys to the outside of the cabinet. Let me know what you think.

Wow! Very impressive! That's some fine woodwork, wiring, and programming there! How long have you been working on it for?

This is UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! Really nice work!!

I totally just creamed my jeans. Not only is the idea of building and owning your own arcade cabinet the most freaking wicked thing ever, but then you go and cover it with mega man 3 sprites. I ... can I come over??

are you available for hire? Mario and DK theme please!

Stunning, just stunning... I want one.

oh fu ck yea!

Impressive work. Inspirational too!

this is really cool. and i thought i was cool for owning a regular atari lol...

Thank You!! I have been working on it about 6 months on and off. About 2 months for the cabinet, 2 months for the control panel and 2 months building the computer. Building the computer and programming is something I have never done before so that is taking me a while. I am a mechanical engineer so the building was easy. Computers are definately not my strong siut.

Plus with 2 small kids its tough to find time for myself for this hobby. I am aiming to be done by the time I hit 12 months.

As soon as its done I plan on throwing a party to christen it. Mega Man 3 was your favorite? I was more of a Mega Man 2 kind of guy. I have sprites built up to mega man 10 though. NERD ALERT!

I wish, it takes so long it would take me a year to do another one. I have had people approach me who saw me outside working on it that they want to go into business together making them and selling them on the internet, the problem is I have a good paying job that is "ok" and I am too chicken to take a leap and try to do something I love full time.

So how many games can you load onto a MAME?

What games do you plan to load onto it? Hehe! Other than Mega Man that is

In theory you could load every video game from the first Atari to the Playsation 2 era of games on the computer, including every game ever made for the arcade. This would be close to 10,000 games. Obviously that is a bit of a grey area though, because some of the games would be considered "pirated".

I usually don't believe in pirating things though (music, movies, video games) because the only way the things I enjoy in life are able to sustain themselves is by showing support with my money. So I don't really know what I will do yet. I will cross that bridge when I get there...

I also made these for my daughter. She loves Spongebob