The Hairy Eyeball

Or so I have said this little phrase to explain away just about any behaviour veiwed as strange, unpleasant, or just plain silly. That said, the notion does hold true. Everyone truly does need a hobby. To not find some sort of passtime to engage your free time is a sad existance indeed. My own personal experience with hobbies is that many are simply dabblings, others are heartfelt attempts at enjoying someone elses' hobby, and a few may even be labled as passions. Since bullshitting isn't a formally recognized hobby, I would have to say that my hobby fall under the heading of Technology. Those guys who wire up their home networks before even checking to see if the phone is working. The ones that dream of 19" equipment racks in their closets or basements., of personal server farms, of home automation - these are my people.

I've done the home network, I run dual 21" monitors on my primary PC, I built a PC for my wife simply so I didn't have to give up mine when it was time to balance the checkbook. I have actually sketched out my own plans for the "server room / media center", and I think it might not result in divorice. All of that is secondary to one project though.

As some have heard me tell it, I spent an inordinate amount of time in my childhood in front of pinball machines and video games. Many of these hours occured within the confine of various western Pennsylvania pubs. Actually Pubs is a nice way to say dives. Yes, not the idyllic place for young minds, but I attribute those trips to the bars with my father as having achieved several positives, not the least of which was a realization that drinking is very rarely "cool". Enjoyable in moderation, but trust me on this, few can truly pull off a saturday afternoon bender with much self control. The other side affect was my love of video games. Had I the means I would probably be a collector of the classics - trying to find a space for dozens of machines is more than a little bit of a deterrent.

Luckily there is the joy that is emulation - all the arcade classics on your PC, exactly as you remember them, only further away from the food court. This allows the possibility to play lots of those classics without all the cabinets filling the house and enraging my better half. Playing on the PC has been fun for more than a little while, but there is one thig missing - the authentic feel of an arcade joystick. So the comprimise is made, I shall build one cabinet, and use it to play all the game I might ever be inclined to. I certainly am not the first to try this - just look here, and you'll see a whole community devoted to the notion.

So I've gotten to the point where I've found the proper Inspiration, and collected the requisite parts, even picked up the wood for the cabinet. Now all I need is a little elbow grease, and some luck, and by the end of spring I'll finally have achieved the dream of owning my own Arcade Machine, even if it is a home brew solution. I haven't decided how obsessive to get about documentig the process, but you might see a second blog sprout up for it, or possibly just get used to seeing a whole lot of odd pics posted this year. Either way I'm looking forward to the challenge, that a good hobby can provide.

go and tell me all about it