MAME

I rediscovered the magic of MAME today. I haven’t touched an arcade emulator since about 2000 but I’ve been really itching to play Tron lately, ever since Jammie and I played it a few times at that museum in New York. So I got my three all-time arcade favorites and I’ve been playing them this evening…

Tron, Galaga and Speed Rumbler. Yes, those are my favorites and I don’t care if you make fun of me for them. I spent hours each day, on my way to/from high school, inside 7-Eleven playing Speed Rumbler with my friend Mike. I’d get out of bed an hour early some mornings, just to have more time to play it. All lunch money was diverted to Speed Rumbler funds.

I think my Tron addiction happened in 1991 when I was homeless in Galveston, Texas. The campground that I hung around in had a Tron machine in the lounge area which I played as often as possible. I’d played it many times throughout the 80’s, but it was in Galveston that it really got out of control. Tr0n 0wns me!

Galaga was just a favorite of mine throughout the 80’s. Every arcade on earth had that one, including Tilt at our local mall. In 1993, my Galaga playing became really competitive when I worked at Lafayette Square Mall and I spent my time before work, after work and sometimes even on breaks playing Galaga at the mall’s arcade. Someone with the initials JTS was constantly beating my score and I spent a lot of time beating his. I always hoped to meet JTS someday but it never happened.

So I have Mame now. Tron is a pain in the ass to play without the normal controls but I’m slowly adapting. arcadeathome.com is a great place to learn about and download MAME. This should effectively eliminate any hope of me doing anything productive this weekend.

I did another PLA Radio the other day. Go listen to it. I might redo some of that this weekend since I’m not completely happy with it. Or maybe I’ll just do an Episode #5. Or maybe I’ll just play Tron a lot so I don’t have to worry about anything else. Oh yeah, speaking of PLA Radio, go to podcastalley.com and vote for my show. Right now it’s at #3. I’ve been whoring for votes for two weeks now. Please?