ArcadeCab

5/23/04

BYOAC tokens
The highly talented members of the Build Your Own Arcade Controls forums have come up with a very nice design for tokens.  These tokens are available in either solid brass or nickel plating and will fit any .984" coin mechanisms.  They are currently being pre-sold and can be ordered through this link.  These tokens would  be an excellent addition to your MAME cabinet.

Project Arcade
Speaking of BYOAC, the originator and host of the site, John St. Clair (aka SAINT), released his first book at the end of April.  Project Arcade consolidates a wealth of information into a single volume.  Saint covers every step of building your own MAME cabinet:  building the cabinet; integrating spinners, trackballs, joysticks; mounting monitors and speakers; then hooking up the computer and transforming it into an arcade machine.  It is a must read for anyone new to the scene or, for that matter, a nice reference work for those of us who have been around for a while.  Well worth your time to check it out.

5/22/04

I'm baaacccckk!
Wow!  What a long sabbatical! Had computer problems for a while.  Two weeks ago my main computer started acting flaky.  It would turn off occasionally and then would not turn on again.  A couple days passed, during which time I occasionally tried to coax life into the machine.  I finally gave up and traipsed across town to talk with the friendly folks at ComputerDeli.  They seemed to think it was the motherboard, so I picked up a new one and went home.  I swapped the new MB in and tried to boot but all I got was a regular beep.  D'oh!  Took the machine back to the store and explained my situation.  It seemed that my 4x AGP video card would not play well with the new MB, so we went with an ASUS mini-ATX, which would.  While I was there they tried to post the machine only to discover that the fan on my video card was shot as well as the memory I had would not work.  I bought a new stick of RAM and a fan and went home. 

The story isn't over yet.  The PC would power up but shut down after several seconds most of the time.  By this time I was frustrated so I wisely waited a couple days until a buddy could come by to look it over.  After an hour, he decided that my power supply was shot and that the Windows registry was corrupted.  Another D'oh!  Fast forward: New power supply and it booted fine, but Windows would not boot.  As I had not backed up my pictures or data in a month, I didn't trust a Windows 2000 fix.  After several days of trying to get fdisk to work correctly on a spare HD, I bailed, bought a new 80 gig and a couple hours later, here I am.  Now I can get back to adding more content.

Video Gal
We have another future game player in the family.  My four-and-a-half month old niece, Emily, was over the other day and 'begged' to play on the cabinet.  She had a little difficulty reaching the controls from the stool so I gave her some help.  Didn't take her but a few seconds to figure out the trackball.  Her fine motor skills need a some honing but she enjoyed making it roll while fixated on Robotron and PacMan's attract mode.  I know, neither use a trackball but her short wing span makes playing Robotron impossible.  Give her a few more months.:-)

5/3/04

ArcadeCab as Baseball Sponsor
Some great news.  ArcadeCab has sponsored an area youth t-ball/baseball team.  The team plays against eleven other teams in the Chatham league and starts their season within the next two weeks.  The kids are there to have fun and to also learn the fundamentals.  For this age group, the coaches pitch to their own players, and the tee can be brought out as needed, so everyone can enjoy themselves.   

The team's color even matches the website's color scheme, which was an unexpected plus.  For the duration of the season, any player or family member who orders from us will receive a 10% discount.  Contact us if you have any questions. 

5/1/04

Ultrastyle Frontend
If you haven't checked out the newest MAME frontend on the block yet,  you really need to.  Chris has made a ton of enhancements to it in the last several weeks and it definitely looks to be a contender.  You can check it out at ultrastyle.