If you are, like me, old enough to remember the ’80s, you may remember the glory days of the arcade. I myself have spent quite some time playing games like Street Fighter, Pacman, Space Invaders, Centipede and all those wonderful, addictive, coin-guzzling games. Those games may be old, but to some people they haven’t lost their appeal. That’s why there is a thing called Mame, or Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. With this software, you can emulate and play almost every arcade game ever made.
Since playing them on a pc with a keyboard, or even a gamepad, isn’t the same as the real thing, an entire subculture of arcade builders has emerged. Thousands of hobbyists have built arcade cabinets themselves, complete with custom made controls.
Project Arcade is a detailed how-to on designing and building your very own Mame-cabinet. The book starts with planning for available space and budget. Cabinets can range from small table-top units to gigantic beast complete with flashing light effects. Next, the design and construction of the cabinet and the controllers is discussed. Arcade cabinets don’t use standard PC controllers, but large joysticks and buttons that can take a few punches. Finally, the book explains how to install all the software and get games up and running.
The book comes with a CD Rom wich contains all plans and layouts, the Mame software, an evaluation version of Paint Shop Pro and links to hundreds of websites related to Mame cabinets.

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