Some of my most vivid memories as a child are walking into the various malls and restaurants and getting a glimpse at the various arcade games sitting in the corners.

Something about the buttons, colors, sounds, and pictures that were mesmorizing to me. I guess it's no wonder that I grew up with such a fascination of video games...

Even at 31, I find myself scanning the local malls and gallerias for any kind of electronic game to throw my quarters (or nowadays dollars) into.

Well, about 6 weeks ago, I got an crazy idea into my head that I wanted my own arcade game to build and play.

First, I got a book about how to do it. Yeah, I was shocked that they have one too. It's called: Project Arcade: Build your Own Arcade Game.

It helped me draw up blueprints and guided me as to what materials to find and buy to build it.

My first step was finding 3 large sheets of 8 foot by 4 foot MDF board and cutting the cabinet parts out of it. The general assembly of the cabinet itself was rather easy and only took about a week.

I also purchased buttons, joysticks, a trackball, and a spinner from online vendors to fit in the control panel.

Along the way, I kept re-modifying the design to make it easier to play, move, and a bit more durable. These little changes added more and more time and if I did it all over today, it'd like take a week or two to make.

The monitor is an old TV that we had in our bedroom (my wife is such a sport) and the computer (brains of the arcade game) are pieces to an old computer that were hooked up inside. Having these two things greatly reduced the cost of building it.

If you're curious as to what games it plays: anything that you can play on the computer, you can play with the machine, whether it's a CD-ROM game or an internet game.

My wife and I have already had a few hours of entertainment with it, and hopefully we have plenty more.

So, the big question is. What next? Well, I have always wanted a pinball machine... Hmmm....