Because I think that making my own arcade machine is an awesome idea. Specifically, I'm thinking about making an old school, sit down cocktail arcade machine. AND, I plan on using my vast supply of snes/genesis/nes/GBA roms to make a sick old school emulation machine... you know, for my kids..

I'm thinking of a sit down cabinent, with a screen angled within/through the top and two (or four) wired controllers coming out of one side so we could play together. I could fashion a way to make the controller wires rigid, like you see at a best buy or something. I don't think a regular cabinent where the players sit across from each other could work with my emulation idea.

The problem is, I have very little experience with woodworking and this seems like jumping into the deep end. But, half of the fun is in the creation process, right? So, I have some questions for the giantbomb crowd...

Has anyone here done something like this?

Aside from the woodworking issues itself, any unknown hardware/software with the computer issues I might run into? I don't know yet how to make the gaming on my old computer streamlined to the point where someone could just sit down, load up a rom and play. I want to make it as easy and simple as possible. So, a little help in this area would help me out too.

Don't be afraid to shoot down my idea for being stupid/crazy, but I think this would be a fun thing to do.