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i built a mame machine in college and we loved that thing. it was just an ikea cabinet with an xarcade stick and a computer monitor hung on the wall with an ol

i built a mame machine in college and we loved that thing. it was just an ikea cabinet with an xarcade stick and a computer monitor hung on the wall with an old computer inside but man did we play that thing. I even remember ordering the MAME roms on a DVD set online and having them shipping. i always dream of building a new one but its not like i live in a house with 5 other dudes have parties every night of the week like in college. would I play it? would my three kids (6, 3, 1) play it in a few years? just a pipe dream i guess. just for kicks i just loaded up golden tee fore 06 on my thinkpad and the sound still stutters, guess you still need a lot of oomph for the newer stuff

pizza234 6y ago
The design proposed by the article is very interesting - it's cheap and compact (in an amusingly humorous way, I find). Considering it's not demanding in terms of space, it can be built and used as "filler activity" with children. While the geek's dream is certainly playing arcade games on a real-world cabinet for hours, with a child, it can be an activity to do more or less frequently on small sessions (e.g. half hour). My very wild guess is that children should be able to enjoy arcade games when they're around 7+ years old - arcade games are on one designed to be quickly challenging, on the other, at home, they have virtually infinite lives; every child is different, of course. On the other hand, a real PC with a couple of arcade joysticks, and maybe Wii remote controllers, is considerably more flexible, and can be a good test drive to see if the activity works :-)
- flatiron 6y ago
  very true. my six year old is way more into her tablet and the games there in than normal controller video games. she does enjoy a bit of sonic 2 but that's because she can race me on the screen and it doesn't involve much more than "go forward and jump over stuff." as for the activity, i think much older than 6. my daughter would get very frustrated wiring the controller and all of the computer stuff would be way over her head. but i remember being 12-13 and installing Linux in the mid 90s so somehwere between 6 and 12 i guess kids get the patience to sit down and tinker!
ubercow13 6y ago
MAME has become more demanding over time as its accuracy has increased, rather than less so.

pizza234 6y ago

The design proposed by the article is very interesting - it's cheap and compact (in an amusingly humorous way, I find). Considering it's not demanding in terms of space, it can be built and used as "filler activity" with children. While the geek's dream is certainly playing arcade games on a real-world cabinet for hours, with a child, it can be an activity to do more or less frequently on small sessions (e.g. half hour). My very wild guess is that children should be able to enjoy arcade games when they're around 7+ years old - arcade games are on one designed to be quickly challenging, on the other, at home, they have virtually infinite lives; every child is different, of course. On the other hand, a real PC with a couple of arcade joysticks, and maybe Wii remote controllers, is considerably more flexible, and can be a good test drive to see if the activity works :-)

flatiron 6y ago
very true. my six year old is way more into her tablet and the games there in than normal controller video games. she does enjoy a bit of sonic 2 but that's because she can race me on the screen and it doesn't involve much more than "go forward and jump over stuff." as for the activity, i think much older than 6. my daughter would get very frustrated wiring the controller and all of the computer stuff would be way over her head. but i remember being 12-13 and installing Linux in the mid 90s so somehwere between 6 and 12 i guess kids get the patience to sit down and tinker!

ubercow13 6y ago

MAME has become more demanding over time as its accuracy has increased, rather than less so.