those with arcade machines - how often do you play them?

[qbertandernie]

i have a punch out machine that is in my bedroom. i see it every morning and every evening, and almost never fire it up to play. i bet i havent turned it on in 2 months. talking to some other folks who have cabs, they say they dont play theirs often either, going months sometimes between playing.

just wondering how often the other folks who have arcade machines play theirs?

[Time]

Same here, but I have a lot of comfort in knowing they are there ready & waiting.

[dave2236]

I only play mine about once a month.

I find more enjoyment in fixing them and restoring the cabs than I do in playing them.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

i've gone months not firing them up, but then i'll play them everyday sometimes too. i guess it just matters. winter seems more like one of those play them everyday period.

[bazariah]

all of my cabs are in storage at the mocovered in dust covers and blankets... as such it's a tad hard to get to fire the things up... when i move into my new abode they'll be on all day in the living room though

[ClubNinja]

While I don't have any real stats for each game individually, games (one or more, nothing particular) are played in the arcade on at least two unique occasions a week. I've heard similar from others, though, about how infrequently they actually fire up an arcade game if they have one (or more). For me, it's the console stuff that is lucky to get played once every other week or so - the arcade games see regular play.

[Player-2]

I almost never play. Biggest waste of money on gaming I ever spent. It was really cool for about a month. Now, they are just mouse houses. It's sad.

[Flack]

I'm lucky if I play mine once a month. One of the biggest drawbacks I have is that my arcade room is separate from the house, so I don't have a reason to go out there that often.

[max 330 mega]

ive got 2 machines, time pilot and time soldiers, i play time pilot 1 or 2 times id say within a 2 month period, and time soldiers gets played absolutely never.... i fire it up sometimes when i play time pilot, and maybe play it for 2 minutes, but god its just not a very fun game.
the only arcade machine that i would really really like to buy in the future would be a neo candy cab, because neo geo is pretty much the only system i play on a regular basis other than my gamecube and DS.

[tonyvortex]

whenever somone comes over i like to turn on all my machines,people always get a kick out of seeing and playing all of them.by myself i play them maybe once a month.

[Goblin]

Just this past weekend, I realized that it's months since I turned on. So I went downstairs, fired it up and let it run for about an hour just to give it a workout.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

If the monitor in my Kickman machine were working properly, I'd play it a lot more often. Heck, probably even once a day. Thing is, I picked a game that I'm sorta-kinda-good at, but not a master of, so I have lots of room for improvement! :P

[ventrra]

Unfortuanately, my Sea Devil machine is in storage where I can't play it. :(
When I move into my current upstairs appartment, there was no way to get that monster of a machine up here. When I lived in a downstairs appartment I played it almost every other day or so.

[MagicMajenta]

Wow. :eek 2: I'm amazed that there are lots of people here that hardly play their cab at all. I haven't played either of my 2 cabs in quite some time. I have played one of my cabs maybe 2 times and I have had it for over 2 years. And I have a lot of boards that I still haven't seen in action. Although I like knowing they're there if I do want to play them. It's just that feeling that satisfies me I guess.

[Phosphor Dot Fossils]

I like knowing that I've saved a game with a unique look and a unique control system from (A) the scrapheap, or (B) MAME conversion.

I can play Kickman in MAME (hey, I own the machine, I can do that!) or on my C64. And it's really hard to fall back on those, because that big beautiful behemoth with a sideways-only trackball is right behind me in my game room. Probably about once a month I fire the poor old thing up and play it even with the screen screwed - think of it as an extra challenge. :P

[blissfulnoise]

I play my MVS regularly. At least 2 or 3 times a week.

I play my STV fairly regularly. At least once or twice every other week. Normally, if I do, I'm playing Souky.

The other cabs get played on a less frequent basis but each gets a run at least once a month.

[Scoots]

i was playing my asteroids machine several times a week but it really needs to be recapped so i haven't been firing it up to frequently lately. the other two cabs i play now and then, usually when company comes over. i dont' mind that they don't get played all that much. i don't have much time for *any* gaming, arcade or otherwise, so i have to portion my time out wisely. also, all three machines cost less than an xbox 360 or whatever, so if they sit for awhile no biggie.

[vespertillio]

The Space Dual and Galaxian Cocktail in the basment get played almost every day by my two year old. LOL

As soon as I get rid of the Crazy Climber Coctail and replace it with the Atari 2 Player Football from the garage, that will see much more play time.

If I can get the right controller of the Batltezone to go forward sometime I would play that much more.

And if I ever get a walkout basement, the first thing that will be moved in is the Discs of Tron. Rignt now though it is relegated to the garage. :(

As it's winter, the games in the garage don't get played much at all. :(

[DogP]

Almost never :( . I spend all of the time fixing them instead, but I seem to enjoy that more anyway. I usually play my most recent game occasionally for a couple weeks, and then very little after that. But recently, I haven't played ANY games, arcade or anything else. I'm just about done with finals though, so hopefully that'll change :) .

DogP

[rjohnson]

whenever i have a party... or some kids come over (often as i have two myself)... ~twice a month

SNK 4 slot MVS and CPS2 modified data east cabinet with Super puzzle fighter two turbo in it...

it just LOOOOOOKS so cool in my Mordor gaming room from hell

[icbrkr]

Probably once every 2 weeks here and it's normally when someone comes over and wants to see the arcade. It still hasn't stopped me from wanting more though.

[20eyes]

Not often enough, although it does get played more if people come over.

[Peale]

I might play it more often if it was in the house. It's downstairs in the foyer, and I have to run an extention cord down there.

That, and whenever I feel like playing it (which is all the time, incidentally) my kids just sort of appear and cut up, and I can't concentrate on the game.

[FooFighter]

Wow, I have 5 machines and I hadn't really thought about this, but I probably only play them once a month.

[Truffle]

I like to play my machine(s) on the weekends mostly. If I have couple of beers, Im more likely to play :evil:

[skem]

The only time mine get any play time is when friends come over. I would love to play my Ms.Pacman but it is once again out of order.

[tholly]

I don't get to play them often because I am away at school for a good portion of the year and when I'm home for the summer I'm usually sleeping or working.

When they do get played, my Special Forces and Super Mario Bros. pinball machines see the most play, by far. Now that I'm home for Xmas break, they have been on once almost everyday.

I just got my Space Invaders fixed last night, so that has gotten a lot of play last night and today, but the novelty will wear off quickly.

My MVS gets the occassional play (I need some new carts.) In it, the Metal Slug and Ninja Combat see the most play. Baseball Stars sees damn near zero play (I don't like it.) The Super Spy is too repetitive to see a lot of play. Rage of the Dragons, Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury see no play because they aren't in the cab right now, and I don't intend on putting them in.

I hate my Vigilante cabinet, so that only gets play when my dad is bored and feels like playing it, which I can't say how often that is because, like I said before, I'm not home that much.

My GoGo Juggler slot machines sees very little play, bascially because there is no point. You put tokens in until you win a lot or run out. If you run out, you just take the key, open it, and get your tokens back.....no skill at all.

My sit down Nintendo Vs. sees minimal play as well. The Vs. Golf side sees no play at all (played twice for testing purposes only....I need to get a new set of chips and a new marquee for that side.) The Vs. Super Mario Bros. side sees play more often than some of the other stuff, but still not that often.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

I have 3 cabs and I play at least 1 of them several days a week. A lot of times I'll have at least two cabs on at different times during the day. My least used one is Donkey Kong. All 3 games work great. I've played about 10 games of Asteroids today.

[Ed Oscuro]

I mostly find time to plug a board into ye olde supergun when I'm testing something to make sure it's not broken. :bawling:

In all seriousness, I've been wondering how much damage I'm doing to the boards in general handling them (traces on the PCB connector should be easy to fix). I don't have space for large dedicated machines, though.

[diskoboy]

My Pac-Man gets the most attention. It is played on almost a daily basis. My Galaga cocktail comes next. I fire it up at least twice a week.

My Vs. SMB gets virtually no play. I'm probably gonna turn it back to a DKjr. this summer, or buy a DK board, and turn it into a Donkey Kong 2.

From this point forward, I may buy one or two more games, then I'm calling it a day. My attention has now basically turned to Pinball machines, lately. I hope to buy one by the end of summer - I've got an eye on a fairly nice Whirlwind.

[SegaAges]

When my monitor was working, I was playing my cab daily.

I enjoy playing Steep Slope Sliders so much to where I get enjoyment out of playing it everyday (plus one time and only one time I was able to unlock a secret stage).

[chrissylas]

I have 5 machines but I'm looking at selling Uni War S soon.

I rarely turn them on and when I do, it's usually when company is over. I just picked up a 4 player Sunset Riders over the weekend and I plan to turn that into a Simpsons/TMNT soon.

To me it's not about how often I play them but how much fun I have when I do.

[InsaneDavid]

I'll be honest in that I use the Galaxian cocktail as more of a table and less of a game. I probably turn it on every couple weeks and play a couple dozen games. Last time I played it I was working on a new strategy and was getting back into it pretty heavy, so I think it'll start to get more play again.

The Klax cabaret gets at least one play session a week, especially now that I think I've locked down the problem with the monitor to some adjustments. I love Klax but still have never completed the game. In a marathon session a couple weeks ago I plugged away at Wave 100 for an hour or so but it was getting late (or is that early) and I know the game is loud, so I was a good apartment resident and shut it down. Once I build or buy a JAMMA harness extender (anyone here have one to sell, about two feet?) I'll play my Tetris board in the Klax cabinet much more. I also plan on building an alternate control panel for it since up to the control panel molex connectors the harness is fully wired. Still haven't found matching connectors though. Then I can have expanded capabilities with that little cabinet.

When I'm at my parents I put a couple hours on my mini Galaga MAME cabinet each day. I know my brother plays it quite a bit and I really wish I had the space to have it here.

[MoreEbolaForYou]

RE: my first reply in this thread from 2005, games are played even less now. I think last time they were on was almost a year ago. I'd sell em if I wasn't so lazy. Probably would just keep ms. pacman. Anyone in Milwaukee want a project Defender? Used to work, dont know whats wrong now. Too lazy to figure it out.

[jcalder8]

Since I just bought a Street Fighter II game I've been putting a lot of time in with that which has sparked my interested once again with my pinball machine. I really thought that there was something wrong with the flippers but after opening it up again I found that I just hadn't tightened the screws enough so they work much better now. Right now I'd say I'm playing at least once a day but that'll wear off shortly I'm sure. That's why I really want to get another game.

[cyberfluxor]

To me it's not about how often I play them but how much fun I have when I do.
QFT.

My machines have been stored in an unfinished, detached garage. The peak winter and summer months can be miserable out there. I haven't fired them up in nearly 2 months now, but I've been in the process of renovating a house over that time. Two of my machines, Rygar and X-Men, will be at the library next month for a local, small sci-fi convention along with some consoles with sci-fi themed games. Once I've finished moving I expect at least once a week the machines will be turned on.

[XYXZYZ]

The advantage to MAME machines is that there's always something new to play without dedicating more space to another machine. The point of me having arcade machines in the first place is to be able to play arcade games they way I remember them, standing at a cabinet as opposed to with a console controller or PC or something.

I go in phases. I'll play them two or three times a day for a couple weeks, then I'll go for two months without touching them, then two months playing once every couple days. There's lots of times when I'll just turn them on and let the attract modes run just for the ambiance.

I certainly enjoy them enough to justify the investment and the space they take up.

[AceAerosmith]

I still fire up the machine about once every two weeks just to keep things working. The guns are a little wonky at times but I still play and have a couple beers to kill time when downloading podcasts.

[DefaultGen]

.....

[NoahsMyBro]

I've got three cabinets now -
1) Frenzy - picked this up a couple of years ago, free and non-working. Turns out the main board is dead, so the machine has never been played. Hopefully I'll one day get a replacement board for it.

2) Time Pilot - our very own Stonic set me up with this one. It lives in my garage, and I play it several times per week. Basically, anytime I enter the garage to grab something from the freezer, get the lawn mower out, put the lawn mower back in, ditto for the snow blower, etc... I sneak in a game or two. Last week I scored my all-time high score, 145,000, and this morning I hit about 128,000.

3) An empty, ugly 'Wheel of Fortune' cabinet that I picked up a few weeks ago, and hope to one day turn into a MAME cabinet. But unfortunately I did a lot of reading about various MAME cabinets and all of the possibilities, and that, combined with my own ideas (fantasies) about how to do the project are so intimidating I don't know that I'll ever actually get off my butt and start anything. For the moment, the cabinet is just taking up space in the garage.


Short answer - I play the Time Pilot 3 or 4 times/week.

PS: MoreEbola - What's the condition of the Defender, and what's wrong with it? Defender is my all-time favorite game and my dream arcade machine. You've got me wondering just how far Milwaukee is from NJ, anyway.

[MasterFygar]

I want to play them daily but I realistically don't get a chance. Once or twice a week is the usual.

[namzep]

I have five cabinets but only two are currently working. Haven't played them in awhile but will be playing them a bunch more over the next few months (been too busy with other projects). Working on turning my garage into an arcade/gameroom/comic room and should have that done by about the end of July so I'll be playing alot more after that, as well.