I'd be interested in hearing from folks that love cocktail tables

[courtesi96]

If you love cocktail tables, how come? I know this sounds stupid.. and pointless.. but shit.. I am all out of room and need to get some love..

[Arcade Antics]

I am all out of room and need to get some love..

?

Maybe you've typed this into the wrong forum then?

[diskoboy]

I like them because you sit instead of having to stand up.

Plus, they're easier to move than uprights..

[50s Brawler]

A guy I know has a sit down MR.DO! cocktail that I've been offering to buy off of him for years off and on. I think they're just a nice difference from upright cabs, and had even thought about going this route for my NEO GEO MVS 2-Slot, but I'm not ready to gut my upright to convert to this format, still wonder if such a thing exists actually made by SNK though. My daughter is slowly getting into gaming (currently 16 months), and made it to the end of stage one of Super Mario Bros the other day. She loves watching me play the NEO games on the Big Red TWO as well. I'm thinking if I had a cocktail cabinet... maybe, just maybe I could get her into gaming a bit easier. I know she loves Ms.Pacman as every time I fire that one up on my 7800 she claps her hands and laughs. I could so see a Ms.Pacman (if not that MR.DO!) cocktail cab in my private arcade room. Ahh... Wishfull thinking indeed.
http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w318/50s_Brawler/Bogart.gif

[Flack]

If you love cocktail tables, how come? I know this sounds stupid.. and pointless.. but shit.. I am all out of room and need to get some love..

I've owned one or two and I quickly found that they actually take up more space than a regular cabinet because of space needed for chairs on both sides.

I wouldn't say I love them but I appreciate them. They bring back memories of hanging out in Pizza Hut after work and playing games.

[Arcade Antics]

Cons:
- Take as much, or more, floor space than uprights
- No sideart
- More difficult to "get at" stuff inside when you need to make repairs

Pros:

They bring back memories of hanging out in Pizza Hut after work and playing games.

[skaar]

I'm eyeing a Frogger sit-down locally here. Going to check it out in a few hours. The guy wants $350 canadian for it.

Let's see how badly nostalgia pulls me in.

Okay, I bought it for $300. (Canadian)

This makes two cabinets I've bought in three days. Pictures coming soon - but for now, I think I will stop ;)

[Three-P]

Last year, in Plantation, FL, on the last day of my week's vacation, I saw one that played Ms. Pac-Man, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Galaga, and a few others that escape me at the moment. It was in some kinda Mexican restaurant, but I forget the name of the restaurant.

(God, I would've killed for one of those at my town's Pizza Hut.)

[Flack]

I also worked at Pizza Inn, where we had one of those red Nintendo Vs. Sit Down "tent-style" cocktail cabinets. It had Super Mario Bros. on one side and Excitebike on the other. I spent a lot of quarters out of the register on that game.

I worked at three different Pizza Inn locations. At another one we had a Simpsons Pinball machine. I used to play for an hour every night. The owner's apartment was right across the street from the store, and occasionally the phone would ring around 2 in the morning with him yelling at me, "turn off the fuckin' lights and go home, would ya!"

[Technosis]

My oddest find with cocktails in recent memory was this donut shop in Northern Ontario that had three cocktail tables all Super Galaxian! And this would have been circa 1993! I remember the owner telling me that he had heard how popular Mortal Kombat was and decided to get some video games.
I think it was his misguided attempt to turn the biz around as I believe it closed or changed ownership shortly after.......

[Buyatari]

You forgot the biggest one in the Pros. section.

You can move them up stairs, around tight corners, on or off of a truck, carry them through the snow or the mud sooo much easier.


Cons:
- Take as much, or more, floor space than uprights
- No sideart
- More difficult to "get at" stuff inside when you need to make repairs

Pros:

[skaar]

Plus I just got a Gyruss board for my Frogger cocktail!

w00t!

[NE146]

I love them because that's what I mainly grew up with. I mean we had uprights (usually taito's) but the bulk of the arcades I went to were full of cocktails :)

Put it this way, for years I really only saw Puckman in cocktail form. The only place I saw an upright Pacman cab when I was a kid was in books and magazines.

[Family Computer]

Any links to a list of games that were offered in cocktail cabinet format?

[madman77]

I don't have a cocktail table, but hopefully will when I move into a bigger place. But--I think a lot of it is the fact they are unique as well as the nostalgia. As an adult, I think it'd be a lot of fun to have one in my place.

[freckledpeas]

They have a big, flat, level surface to rest your "cocktail" without fear of it sliding off... or in my case, it'd be a can of Pepsi. :)

[Cryomancer]

I find them romantic. Luckily so does she.

[Steve W]

I stopped at a Schlotzsky's Deli a few months ago, and when I looked for a table I realized the one in the corner was a Ms. Pac-Man coctail table! I ate my sandwich with my left hand and played the game with my right. It was pretty dang awesome. I went back a month later, and it was gone. :(

[Pete Rittwage]

I just rebuilt a Pac-Man cocktail, and every time an adult sees it they ask me what old Pizza place I got it from. They all remember cocktail machines from a restaurant, where upright games were always in an arcade or a convenience store.

[Videogamerdaryll]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/Chris1/Pocket%20Bikes/mrspacmanvid.jpg

[InsaneDavid]

I suppose they've always been my favorite type of cabinet. I grew up in Silicon Valley and pretty much every restaurant had one in their waiting room, from the common to the upscale establishments. The best was at the Marie Calendars on Winchester, where they had a Ms. Pac-Man as well as a Centipede cocktail in the waiting area - both were always in top notch shape and there was always someone else there to play with.

On my girlfriend and I's first date I worked a cheesy line into the "PERFECT" after a challenging stage on a Ms. Pac-Man / Galaga Class of 1981 cocktail. LOL