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Credits
Most of the images and information found here is drawn from other sources. My intent is to combine all
of these valuable resources into a single comprehensive source. Think of it as a web based front-end for MAME.
I have tried my best to give credit where credit is due, but most of the information is extracted automatically
by MAME, so in some cases I don't really know the true source.
Here is a list of sites where images/information has been extracted:
MAME
Catlist - category files for MAME
CrashTest's Arcade Screenshots
Mr. Do's Control Panels
Marquee Images
Cabinets Images
About
I am in the target demographic for MAME. Born in '69 I was about ten or so when I saw my first video game, Space Invaders at
Disco-Mart (grocery store in Portland). Not long after that my dad who was an elementary school principal would bring home
the school's computer (Apple II) and I would play different games on the weekends. I mostly remember Oregon Trail and
Breakout. The first time I played Breakout I was amazed that the ball could bounce off the paddle - how did it know
where the paddle was?? Or the ball?? These things don't really exist - how can they interact with one another?? It was
mind blowing. I was hooked on video games for a long time after that. Some of my fondest memories
growing up are all nighters playing games or else heading to the nickel arcade with my friend Jimmy and just staying there
until we were numb.
It wasn't until about 1990 that I quit playing games completely. Absolutely no interest at all until about 1999 when I discovered,
probably the best open source project of all time, MAME. This project was fascinating
to me from both a technical aspect and from a blast to the past aspect. I mostly got sucked into Tapper
for a few weeks then I was done with it.
In 2004 my father-in-law was cleaning out his basement and ran into an old Atari 800 that my wife had growing up. He brought
it down and I went to hook it up, but didn't have the right connector for our TV. After this I hopped on the internet
thinking there has to be an emulator somewhere for the Atari 800. I run on a Linux box at home, so this search led me to
the xmess/xmame project. I never actually made it to the xmess Atari 800 emulator once I
built xmame. I loved playing some of the classics again like Galaga, Track & Field and Pac-Man,
but I mostly wanted to play Robotron again. Trying to play Robotron really sucks on a computer keyboard, which
started my search for a control panel, which led to my discovery of the Build Your Own Arcade Controls site, which
led to building my own cabinet. Once I built the cabinet my earlier addiction was back in full force.
I have a couple little kids and am proud to say they are learning about the computer game industry from a historical perspective. My oldest
is up to about 1983, I'll probably break down and get an x-box in 2015.
At first I thought MAME's claim that it's main purpose is to "document the hardware and software of the arcade games"
was kind of like getting Playboy for the articles. I can now say that I completely understand their stated purpose. Without MAME it
would be very difficult (or impossible) to ever play many of those old games.
- mamedb
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