We're going again!

So...

We're gonna go again!

A couple of years later, a little older, a questionable amount wiser, and a completely new life. I've always regretted not continuing the last attempt. But there's a different woman in my life and all the things that were important to me, that I never started or never finished, are important again.

As most everything in life, my renewed interest in this came entirely by chance. My son is now 5, and he's as addicted to all things computers as much as me - a good thing or a bad thing - I can't yet tell. We were on the laptop together a few weekends ago - he stumbled across my mame roms and said "what's this, dad?".

Yes - you're absolutely right. A five year old asks you THAT question when browsing your laptop and you panic.

We spent the next while (I'll claim 20 minutes, but it probably was a couple of hours) cracking open the old games and bashing away on the up, down, left and right, ctrl and alt buttons until they nearly came off.

I asked him if he remembered the last attempt (from here on in, referred to as version 2.0) and he didn't. Shame. We used to play the Work In Progress together, but he was 2 or maybe 3 at the time. They're too young to remember the stuff you'll cherish forever.

So, I'm going to have another go at this arcade machine thingy. I'm sure I'll try and kid myself that this is as much for him and his sister as for me, but the jury's out on that one.

Version 3

The new one's called gMame 3.0 - might knock up a marquee at some stage with that on. Not sure, but I think I should mark the passing of those that came before.

Ubuntu

I'm still a massive Ubuntu fan (haven't used windows for a few years now - Windows 7 - that was NOT my idea) so we'll keep the Operating System, but obviously the later version - 10.04 is round the corner.

The interface

I'm not as keen on Java as I was, and I've been playing around with a little Python lately - not 100% struck but there's a lovely little environment in Ubuntu called Quickly that has a great Interface editor, source editor and it all packages up nicely, so when I get round to coding my own interface again, I'll likely pick this. Coming to a sourceforge near you soon.

So that's the new start. I'll let you know where I'm up to in the next post.

Wish me luck?