This is where the crap ends ... For now!

Since you made it this far, you must really like reading. So lets review.
First, we'll go over common 'feedback' that the site gets:

1. YOU'RE A JERK!

• Yeah.

2. Shit man, you fucking swear to god damn much.

• Consider this: I think the swearing actually takes the bite OUT of the criticisim. If it was all in proper english and filled with five dollar words, it would be even more demeaning and cruel.

3. You can't design a web page to save your life.

• You're ASSuming there's a "design". Pictures, text and VI. That's all.

4. Lamer maddox wannabe!

• Believe it or not, I had never heard of maddox when I made these pages. I have seen his page now, and I must admit. That's pretty fucking uncanny. COINCIDENTAL, but uncanny.

Second, even if you don't find the delivery to be hilarious, the following points are all valid:

1. Shelf paper is crap.

• It's not durable enough to use for a control panel and it looks like crap, especially in mass quantity as sideart.
• If you can't decide what do do with your art, painting it black is a safe bet. I worked in an arcade for four and a half years. Almost every conversion we did or had was just plain black because jerk teens would just pick off the stickers if we put them on anyway.
• There are a large number of sources for generic control panel overlays available as well, if you don't have the coin for custom.

2. Cluttering up the controls is crappy

• MAME is extremely configurable, so you can re-use things. The same buttons you use for your 1 and 2 player sticks can be used as left or right handed buttons for the spinner you just had to have, or with the trackball you insisted on. For example, if you've got a six button street fighter (common) style set-up, you've got a perfect row of three buttons to use for Missle Command with your trackball. Adding extra buttons just for the different types of controls easily ruins a control panel.
• 'Function' buttons don't really belong on the main control panel. They take up space, and more importantly obfuscate what should be easy to use and understand controls. If you ever expect anyone other than yourself to actually use your MAME box, simple goes a long way. Hide a wireless keyboard on top or behind a coin door. Or maybe build a NICELY CONCEALED keyboard drawer.
• Everybody wants to cover a lot of bases with controls, but sticking every control under the sun on one panel in a big mish-mash looks like trash and is confusing to use. Again, if someone other than you tried to use your MAME machine, would they know what buttons to use for any particular game?

3. Televisions are crappy monitors.

• True, most old arcade games are low res and TVs can do them OK, but only if the orientation matches properly. Vertical on a horizontal TV looks bad (and is only somewhat helped by advanced MAME and/or an arcade VGA card). Finding a decent 19 inch CRT for not too much money isn't that hard, and makes everything look nicer, and the higher resolution really helps out the vector games immensly. Or, if you've got the coin, go for something awesome, like a 27" WG or Betson VGA monitor, those rule.

4. Construction paper makes a crappy bezel.

• The whole time you play a MAME box, you are looking at the monitor and it's surrounding bezel. If the bezel is done poorly, you're staring at the suck all the time.
• While it may be true that lots of old arcade games used cardboard and/or paper bezels, it's also true that they weren't crappy. They were high quality printed materials that fit the cabinet well.
• Happ has inexpensive molded monitor bezels for several size monitors that come with extra flashing you just trim to fit. They look fantastic. There's no excuse for taping together black construction paper on the back of the glass. None.

5. Console games VS arcade games

• I may be a lunatic purist, but console games belong on the living room TV. That's what they're designed to be used on. Why on earth would you build an arcade style cabinet to stand at (or sit on stools hunched over) for console games, instead of kicking back on your couch?

See, that's not anywhere near as fun as the other way.