Breakdown of the Relationship - Part 4

Well it's been a slow couple of days in MAME land, I've got the Win98 box up and running, however I'm having a bugger of a time actually getting MAME working on it.

I remember when MAME was a piece of piss DOS application that would 'just work' now it's a 32bit Windows application that essentially, runs like shit. I think it really likes DirectX & 3D acceleration & all that bizzo...

So where am I at, I have a machine but Galaga runs like a pig on it, I've dug up sold old DOS distro's of MAME & I'm going to have a ping with those, if they run I might ditch windows all together & just go for a DOS setup, although it's been so long since I've used DOS in any serious way I'm probably going to cry.

Most people building cabinets seem to run DOS & ArcadeOS as a frontend. I will problaby do the same I spose...

I think I'm adding a new circular saw to my Xmas list which is going to help when it comes to me ripping the timber for the cabinet...

& maybe a plunge router too...

In cabinet decoration directions I think I'm going to try & work out how to get this



on to the side of it, most of my time spent playing video games was also spent with on foot resting on the tail of a skateboard, maybe vinyl cut....

could be expensive. but it will be rad

(why does Blogger ALWAYS think I enter the verification letters wrong on the first time.....)

MAME tabletop Reference

Breakdown of the Relationshop - Part 3

Well after the success of nabbing a massive monitor on the cheap which was only a matter of minutes from my house, My thoughts changed to scoring the now required dirt cheap PC for the heart & soul of the cabinet..

errr.. yeah eBay... we have a history... not helped by my mate Dave who's ebay knowledge possibly surpasses mine & his level of boredom at work is at least on a par..

he spent the afternoon bombarding me with cheap assed PC for the job. I settle in for a session of scoring one of them as cheap as possible, but I have some time to kill

To pass that I thougth I'd swing by works Help Desk & see if they were throwing any PC's out.

"yeah we have some junkers... I might be able to give you an old P4..."

"sweet..."

"I'll get back to you"

I know Help Desk enough to know that means I ain't seeing anything for a month.. but a free PC may still come my way..

The guts of this part of the story starts now, on driving home I encountered one of those moments that makes me squeel with delight.

HARD RUBBISH!!!!

Driving through Monty I see someones dumped a PC on the nature strip.. I slow down & look..

IBM Aptiva... Hmmm it wont' be a powerhouse. but it might just do..

I throw it in the boot & drive off.

get it home, turn it on.. get beeping..

OK... crack it open.. no RAM.. well that will slow shit down

I'm not real smart so I just start throwing old RAM sticks in there. on the third try beeping stops & I hear the monitor kick in..
we're in business I think, but expect a hard disk failure or something...

get into the BIOS, what have we got? it boots from CD.. WTF!!!!

reboot, win98 screen... you fucking beauty...

BONK!!!

virus's etc.. boot.ini gone (whatever) OK reinstall time...

long story short(er) get a fresh version of 98 on the bugger & what have I got?
500mhz AMD K62 with a (wait for it) 20GB HDD!!!!!!

fucking A-ONE perfect for the job... it's got PS2 KB & MOuse inputs onboard soundcard.. everything, it's even reletively quiet..

Boys.... it's coming together.

I should warn you, the missus came downstairs & saw PC's & monitors strewn about the room & almost shat kittens

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY HOUSE!!!"

The title is starting to ring true

Breakdown of the Relationship - Part 2

Well I'm getting amped about this now, there's something about the weather getting good & us having had a couple of BBQ's already that shows me just how essential it is to have a MAME cabinet sitting downstairs to entertain the kids & settle arguments..

I gathered all my hardware together.

a 19" monitor I snagged from work for free ages ago, works a treat although it's a touch small.. more on that later

the X-Arcade controller, it's been gathering dust for a year... but soon my dear... soon.

& I dragged the intended PC out from the depths of the house last night, this was a 'do you want it, I'm gonna throw it out' machine.

The first test was to fire up teh PC & the monitor & see how everything works.

Monitor, works a treat. I thought there was some burn in issues, but I couldn't spot them last night, however I have another slight problem because I accidently scored this



21" monitor on ebay, for $20 pickup from 5 min's from my house...

So I'm sorted for monitors, & Stomp problaby scores a free 19" to use as a second monitor cause I don't want the bloody thing laying about.

The problem now is the PC, I fired it up thinking it was a 450mhz something or other... no dice.

166mhz, 1 GB drive & 48MB RAM. no PS2 keyboard or mouse ports. struggling like an asshole to run win2K... it takes 10 mins to boot (true story) & 15 mins to run Mame32 & once that's up it wont even run galaga...

I could problaby reinstall the OS to something a bit more suited to it like win98se & get it running the earlier games (I dont think it will ever run any of the 90's games like Street Fighter) but at the end of the day I think I'm going to pour way to much time into trying to get this thing running.. so now I have to source another PC.. on a self imposed budget of $50-75

I figure it needs to be at least a 450mhz & located within 10km's of my house... & that's about it

The game begins, eBay... be kind to me baby

Breakdown of the relationship (part 1)

OK first things fucking last... I want a MAME cabinet just as much as you guys...

Well actually... maybe not quite as much. you guys really want it... I fear that when I build it, my weekly food bill is going to triple mainly due to what i call. 'the Dorito factor'.

But here's the deal, I don't actually have much of the stuff I need. I've got the controller, I've got a shitbag old 19" monitor & I just remembered I have a really shit PC that I can use for it..

fuck I do have most of the stuff...

but you see...

fuck...


I really have to do this don't I?


I don't have alot of time? does that count for much?





no. I didn't think so.

The Last Starfighter

My dreams, made real.