By Dexerto | Created at 2026-06-04 20:08:41 | Updated at 2026-06-09 08:52:52
4 days ago
Five years ago, a man in Yemen asked Reddit strangers if it was even possible to build a gaming cafe with $5,000.
Getting PC parts in Yemen was, by his own account, nearly impossible. The country had been caught in an active civil war since 2015, and Mohammed, known online as u/maho90, knew exactly what he was up against.
“I’m in a 3rd world country and would love to open an internet cafe focused on gaming,” he wrote in his original r/buildapc post. “It will be one of its kind, considering people still play GTA San Andreas in most internet cafes.” Reddit didn’t just answer his question.
How a single post built Power Net
The Reddit community began mailing hardware directly to Yemen. The first package contained an RTX 3070, and even companies like Razer and Aventen sent mousepads and keyboards.
None of it should have been logistically possible: PayPal didn’t work in the country, and Mohammed didn’t have a mailing address when people first offered to help.
“I was kind of shocked,” he said in a video update. “A few days later somebody messaged me and I had to do some research and I was like, hey, DHL works.” The cafe, which Mohammed named Power Net, opened its doors in August 2021.
The scale of what he was working against is hard to overstate. In a GoFundMe set up by an American friend around the same time, Mohammed described constant blackouts lasting most of the day, diesel prices that kept climbing, and a local currency that had lost four-fifths of its value since the war began. “Through it all we are staying positive,” he wrote, “and we hope that you will be kind enough to lend us a hand.”
On June 4, his birthday, Mohammed posted a five-year update to r/pcmasterrace. “Normally I post the update in August,” he wrote, “but today is my birthday, and 5 years ago today, I got the keys to an empty room.” He noted that June is also the hardest month of his year, having lost both his father and his little brother in June, a year apart. “It has been the most fulfilling project in my life,” he wrote.
“I’m glad I can bring great games to the community and with it some magical adventures that stay in memories forever.” As Mohammed put it in an earlier video: “There needs to be a mess before there can be a palace.”
Gaming communities have a habit of making improbable things happen, whether it’s a YouTuber replacing a stranger’s ruined Steam Deck out of nowhere or a 78-year-old keeping a forgotten virtual world alive for a handful of regulars who call her family.
