MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - 'Twas The Night Before MAME

'Twas The Night Before MAME
or: A Visit From St. Nicola
by Stiletto
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'Twas the night before a MAME upload, and all through the list;
Not a member was posting, not even Mish!
The sourcecode was sent to the SVN server with care,
In hopes that St. Nicola soon would be there;

The "emu-newzboys" were holed up all snug with their sites,
While visions of DECO cassettes lit their messageboards with lights.
And I, Stiletto, in my torn jeans and cap
Had been researching tech stuff, deciphering some Jap';

When out in the 'Net, there arose such a clatter
I sprang to my desk to see what was the matter.
Away into Windows I flew, acting rash,
Opening the browser, and disabling Flash.

The URL on my homepage that was as white as snow
Linked to MAMEDEV's SVN server, as fast as it could go,
To that site, where what to my eyes should appear,
But a cool speedy Vespa with the MAMEDEV team (and beer),

With a slick little driver so lively and quick
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nic'!
More rapid than eagles, his fingers they flew,
And he chanted and cursed til' his face had turned blue;

"Now, Angelo! Now, Olivier! Now hap, and Aaron Giles!
On, 'Belmont! On, Micko! Haze and Lord Nightmare, check those files!
From the top of the server and its firewall,
Now code away, type away, hack away all!"

As Cheetos that into their hungry mouths fly,
When finding encryption, they blew it out of the sky.
So onto the server the C++ code it flew,
With a zip-file of toys and St. Nicola too.

And then, at a speed that was really quite keen,
Those coders and hackers arrived on the scene.
As I moved the mouse with my hand and began scrolling down,
Onto the webpage St. Nicola leapt with a bound.

He was dressed all in khakis, from his head to his feet,
And their tattered appearance made him look rather beat.
A bundle of arcade PCBs he had flung on his back,
And he looked like he'd taken more than one hit of "smack."

His eyes -- how they twinkled! His pimples, how merry!
His cheeks were like ashes, and his knuckles were hairy!
His droll little mouth had drawn up in a bow,
And the beard on his chin looked like it needed a mow.

The stump of a hash pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little beer belly,
And his breath reeked as if he had eaten something smelly.

He was skinny as a rail and looked pleased with himself,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;
But a look at my wristwatch, since I felt somewhat dead,
Let me know that at 3:30 AM I should be in bed.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And compiled the source code; then turned with a jerk,
Then uploading the MAME build before I began to doze,
And giving a nod, off the server they rose;

He sprang to his scooter, to the MAMEDEV team gave a whistle,
And away they all left with the speed of a missile.
But I heard him exclaim, ere they drove out of sight,
"ENJOY THE NEW MAME, GUYS, AND HAVE A GOOD NIGHT!"

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- Stiletto

[Merry Christmas, Happy Yule, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus and Happy December 25th... in other words, Happy Holidays to all, and to all a good night!]