The MAME Frame
The MAME Frame is my dedicated computer game station. It was created by removing the electronic components of a derelict arcade cabinet and replacing the insides with personal computer hardware.
The primary
game program that the eponymous MAME Frame runs is MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). MAME
is an application that allows for emulation of old videogame programs on
personal computers. With MAME, you’re not just playing a rewrite or update of,
for example, Donkey
Kong…you’re able to play Donkey Kong straight from the binary files
contained in the original game hardware.
MAME
was a fantastic discovery when I first discovered the program back in 1998.
Like almost everybody in my target demographic (1964-1982), videogames were a
big part of pre-adolescence and teenage years. Ours was the first generation to
make them an integral part of our culture.
But
for myself, the luster of videogames began to wear off sometime around the end
of the 1980’s when it seemed to me that nothing original was being produced in
terms of gameplay. Game manufacturers were churning out essentially the same
game every six months with a new face reflecting whatever was the fashion du
jour. For example: Konami’s The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and
The X-Men all used the same game engine, or program, but with different
graphical elements superimposed over the game elements. Videogames had either
lost their soul or I had just gotten older or both.
The
MAME Frame is, in a sense, my personal time machine and lets me relive playing
the games I enjoyed; from the era where they were more unique than the present,
and when the games placed more of an emphasis on skill as opposed to sucking
the next quarter out of your pocket.
So why
build something like this? For the same reason one can spend months restoring a
1968 Mustang instead of buying a new car with better mileage. For the same
reason one would buy a jukebox for the home and stock it with old tunes from
Elvis or Buddy Holly in lieu of Britney Aguilera or Limp Bizkit. It’s a
question of recapturing a spirit which defined one’s youth. For my generation,
a large part of our soul was etched in ones and zeroes, vectors and sprites.
Moving
past all this pretension, this section of Zeno’s Zone will provide a slightly
technically detailed explanation of how the MAME Frame came to be. Hopefully
this information will be useful to those who are endeavoring to build their own
cabinets.