I spent many many hours playing arcades and my Atari 2600 at home during my childhood. My father first took me to the arcade in the late 1970's when I was a little kid living in Fresno, California. The first arcade games that I remember playing were Space Invaders and Red Baron. Not long after that, my father brought home video game entertainment into our living room with Pong and then the classic Atari 2600 VCS.

We moved to Springfield, Illinois in 1979 and I lived in walking distance to Aladdin's Castle Arcade located at White Oaks Mall. I'd also go over to Showbiz Pizza Place next to Franklin Middle School.

Now that I'm an adult, I realize that I'm still an over grown kid who still longs for those fun days of yesteryear. With the help of my brother-in-law, Mike Trello at arcadecab.com, I spent 2006-2008 building my own MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) arcade. This homemade arcade plays all the classic arcade games and Atari games that I grew up with. It also plays classic Nintendo 64, video pinball emulation, Intellivision and other emulators. My custom arcade is called "The Blue Meanie" and provides me and my kids with hours of entertainment.

If you're interested in the blueprints and plans to build your own arcade like mine, you can visit Mike's website where he has documented the process we went through.