M.A.M.E. (Horizontal)

1st  M.A.M.E. Cabinet: Data East “Bad Dudes” Cabinet
2nd M.A.M.E. Cabinet: 3-Koam JAMMA Cabinet

M.A.M.E… it’s a word that is very decisive in the arcade collector community.  It stands for Multi Arcade Machine Emulator.  Basically,  it’s a project that emulates the hardware that arcade game code runs on.  There are two very polarized opinions on M.A.M.E. and what it has done TO or FOR the arcade restoration and collection community.  The Anti-M.A.M.E. crowd believes that the project has done more harm than good primarily because there are people out there who have taken working arcade video game and gutted them to create M.A.M.E. machines,  which goes against everything that the arcade restoration and collecting community is about.  There is no denying that many arcade machines have died a premature death due to someone converting it to run M.A.M.E.  What’s worse is that oftentimes those who are converting these cabinets simply throw away the (oftentimes) working internal parts to these machines.  To make matters even worse is that while it’s a shame that an individual person looking to create a M.A.M.E. cabinet would destroy a working arcade machine to do it,  some folks take the destruction to a whole other level by starting M.A.M.E. farms turning out converted cabinets for the sake of (illegal) profit.  The Anti-M.A.M.E. crowd make a good point when they bring up this aspect of what M.A.M.E. has brought to the table… and would handily win the argument if,  in fact,  that was ALL that M.A.M.E. did to/for the arcade collecting community.  Fortunately,  there is another side to the coin.

The Pro-M.A.M.E. crowd are quick to point out that the M.A.M.E. project has HELPED the arcade collection and restoration community in a number of ways.  First and foremost,  it’s been the “gateway drug” of sorts for many people (including myself) to get in to arcade restoration and collection.  If it weren’t for M.A.M.E.,  I would likely still be playing the constant “catchup” trying to keep up with the technology necessary to play the “latest and greatest” PC games.  Another benefit that the M.A.M.E. project has provided is the documentation and preservation of the actual game code for many of these games,  enabling us to repair the arcade machines we have.  I know I have personally used more than one CHD file from M.A.M.E. to image a hard drive to get a game going.  I know I have personally used a ROM file that would only be as available as it is now due to M.A.M.E.  I know I have personally compared what I thought might be a glitch or bug in my hardware with the ROM running in M.A.M.E. only to discover that what I thought might be a glitch or bug was actually native/correct behavior.  While I understand the Anti-M.A.M.E.’s primary argument,  hell,  I support it (converting working arcade machines to M.A.M.E. is bad),  I feel the good outweighs the bad by a HUGE margin.  If it weren’t for M.A.M.E. I am betting much of the artwork we use to restore our machines wouldn’t be available today.  If it weren’t for M.A.M.E. I am betting many of the vendors we’ve come to rely on to restore our authentic machines, wouldn’t be in business today.  If it weren’t for M.A.M.E.,  well,  I wouldn’t likely be enjoying this hobby myself.  And to be 100% clear,  the organizers of the M.A.M.E. project HATE it when people use working arcade machines for their M.A.M.E. project themselves,  especially if they are dedicated classic arcade machines.

Now that we have that out of the way,  lets talk about my Horizontal M.A.M.E. cabinet.  One day back in 2006 I was tinkering with M.A.M.E. on my PC when I have this epiphany … “I bet I could wire up a real arcade cabinet to use this!” I thought to myself.  10 minutes of searching later,  I realized I was far from the first person to think of this idea… and that is how the addiction begun.  First I searched the local craigslist for a suitable shell.  I came across a “gutted Street Fighter II” machine for a hundred bucks and figured it would make a good candidate.  I knew NOTHING about arcade machines other than how to play them before this.  So I met the guy at his door and he took me down to his basement where I found an odd looking Street Fighter II cabinet.  It had a rounded Street Fighter II marquee,  Street Fighter II control panel overlay,  and Street Fighter II bezel.  There was no game PCB in the cabinet,  but other than that,  it was complete.  I paid the man $100 and took it home.  After a month of learning,  purchasing parts, etc,  I had the first iteration of my Horizontal MAME.  The control panel was too small for a trackball however so I did a little research and determined that “The Real Ghostbusters” used the same cabinet but had a 3-person control panel.  I managed to source one and was quite surprised when it didn’t just drop on.  Whoops.  A bit of modification to the cabinet later and I had a nice sized control panel.  It took me another month or two to get everything “right”.  By this time I’d already begun on a 2nd “vertical” oriented M.A.M.E. cabinet.  I decided the paint the cabinet blue simply because it was what paint I had on hand.  This version of my horizontal M.A.M.E. cabinet served me well for well over a year,  but I was never quite satisfied with the 19″ monitor in it.   Having acquired a Rampage: World Tour conversion at the time,  I decided I was going to move everything from the 19″ cabinet to the 25″ 3-Koam cabinet.  All I really needed to do was cut a new custom control panel. Swapping to the larger cabinet didn’t take much time.  I probably spent more time cutting the new control panel as I did setting it all up afterward.  I took the opportunity to update the M.A.M.E. software and updated my ROMs as well.  The machine has been running strong since.  I’ve had to do very little maintenance to it.  It just works.  It still plays as well today as the day I built it.  I’ve always found the easiest way to set up a M.A.M.E. cabinet to look the most “authentic” to the original PCB is to use a ArcadeVGA + JPAC combination.  Of the 4 M.A.M.E. machines I’ve built 2 of them used this combination (the 3rd being my cocktail cabinet which uses a decased 15″ PC CRT monitor).  When I upgraded my PC to a Core 2 Duo BITD,  unfortunately the onlyl ArcadeVGA video card I owned was an AGP model and the newer PCB used PCI Express.  So this is the M.A.M.E. I built using a software solution to attain proper resolutions.  While it’s not as elegant a solution as the ArcadeVGA,  it does work.

SO,  while I can respect the Anti-M.A.M.E. crowd’s opinions … and even support much of what they have to say,  I,  personally,  fall on the Pro-M.A.M.E. side of things.  If it weren’t for M.A.M.E.,  I would have NEVER been an arcade collector.  If it weren’t for M.A.M.E. I would not have EVER restored a single game.  M.A.M.E. is what brought me to the table.  M.A.M.E. has helped me troubleshoot numerous times.  Thank you M.A.M.E. Developers … Just remember… DO NOT DESTROY WORKING CLASSIC ARCADE MACHINES TO MAKE YOUR M.A.M.E. and for the love of [enter your deity here] … don’t buy a M.A.M.E. cab from a M.A.M.E. mill that destroy classic arcade games.  That is all.

Please share...