1. I am...

... Sairuk, from Melbourne, Australia.

I am 28 at the time of writing this and can barely recall the last day I didn't play a game of some description.

If there was one word to apply to my game habits it would have to be "addicted". Everything I do revolves around games, which to some seems a little disturbing. Addiction is a generic term for the adrenaline rush one receives when experiencing a massively induced sensual overload ... now how could that be bad?

And remember kids:

"Another characteristic that makes addictive habits different from non-addictive habits is their ability to produce a positive feeling while at the same time getting rid of a negative one. A non-addictive habit only gets rid of a negative feeling."

Don't play to forget.

2. I got into MAME...

... a while after I originally ventured into the emulation scene when I went looking for 720 and/or Skate or Die. I had known of emulation before this but had never really followed it up.

Shorty after I had found those games - and a few more - I thought myself a master of the scene, with my elite CD containing 80MB of miscellaneous ROMs. Oh, what little I knew then!

Shortly after this, my Action Reply cart died on my MegaDrive2, hindering my attempts to run Shadowrun which I had imported some years back. So on it was to Genecyst to get my game up and running again.

Whilst chatting to a friend in a skateboarding games java chat, he mention a game called T&C Surf n Skate for the NES, which I had never heard of. Being a skateboarding game, I wanted some of the action, and sortly after that I stumbled across MAME - and to my amazement, the original arcade versions of games like 720, Wizards of War, Ikari Warriors & Phoenix.

My jaw dropped and it was from then that my addiction to this project has engorged my life.

3. I love playing...

Everything! Everything I never had the pleasure of experiencing because it was either shelved after its Japanese/US debut or because my local arcades never stocked it.

My favourite of all memories would have to be playing a cocktail Phoenix one year on the family holiday in a caravan park, two states away. Needless to say I never saw that game again until MAME. Also learning that a game had an arcade release before it hit the home market (C64 for me) is something I am still finding out about some of my favorite games.

4. I would like to say to Nicola and the MAME team...

Thank you, all of you.

You are doing a fantastic job for what little fame (and infamy) you may get. You have given me many, many chances to relive old times and countless moments of extreme joy when I make a new discovery or learn something new about arcades & games.

Machine specs: 1400MHz (AMD) | 1GB RAM | (no HD specs)
Graphics: GeForce4 Ti (128MB) | Sound: Vibra 128
Controllers: Custom Arcade PC/PSX Hybrid

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