Joysticks and Kids

[javeryh]

Am I the only one worried about this seemingly lethal combination?  My daughter loves arcade games (she's playing DK right now) but one of these days I'm afraid she is going to snap the joystick in half.  She can't help pressing hard in the direction she wants to go because she is not really thinking ahead and just making quick reactions to everything...  it's making me crazy!

[Hoopz]

This bothered me when my daughters started playing on the cabinet but I quickly realized that they wouldn't hurt it.  It may be painful to watch her/them seemingly attempt to destroy the thing in one move, but they really don't have the strength to do anything harmful to it.

[Lilwolf]

Kids... thats what the joysticks where made from...

but I remember in college, hitting a joystick so hard (because it wouldn't go diagonal... bad arcade)... that the joystick jumped across the room... I stood up, got my friends, and we walked out in 10 seconds... 

So it can be done... but not by a kid...

[XtraSmiley]

Kids... thats what the joysticks where made from...

WOW, is that Happs' new joystick?  Made from 100% fresh children!

[SavannahLion]

Am I the only one worried about this seemingly lethal combination?  My daughter loves arcade games (she's playing DK right now) but one of these days I'm afraid she is going to snap the joystick in half.  She can't help pressing hard in the direction she wants to go because she is not really thinking ahead and just making quick reactions to everything...  it's making me crazy!

I have serious doubts that a small child has anywhere near the strength of a 20-40 year old, especially after a half dozen beers. Or the strength of a couple of bored teenagers after the cab steals their money.

[javeryh]

 

[javeryh]

This is too funny.  The last post was made by my daughter when I wasn't looking!

[Ginsu Victim]

Because she's strong enough to break your arm?

[DJ_Izumi]

No, I hold the same fear about any video game controller and a person that doesn't own it. :3

In running smaller gaming events with consoles setup arcade style, I've seen people of all ages get pretty frantic with the controllers.  Friend of mine at an event once found the drumstick holders snapped off a pair of Guitar Hero drums at the end of the day.  I've seen triggers on light guns overused.  God, racing wheels, I worry the MOST about racing wheels.  You can stomp on them and whip that wheel around.

When you paid for it, it's your baby or you at least understand it's YOURS to destroy.  Other people seem to often show less respect for other peoples toys.

[J.Max]

It's usually not the joystick that gets destroyed on an arcade machine when one is damaged.

I have a funny story...there was an arcade near me that had a Super Sonic Blast Man machine, and I was there one night when Tommy Morrison (the pro boxer who was in Rocky V) and he blasted the stupid thing so hard that it knocked over the machine.  I think that's the only time I've seen an arcade machine broken.

[XtraSmiley]

This is too funny.  The last post was made by my daughter when I wasn't looking!

Tell her to watch out or you'll sell her to Happs for one of their new joysticks.

[isucamper]

what worries me is when they hang from the joysticks like monkeys

[SavannahLion]

No, I hold the same fear about any video game controller and a person that doesn't own it. :3

In running smaller gaming events with consoles setup arcade style, I've seen people of all ages get pretty frantic with the controllers.  Friend of mine at an event once found the drumstick holders snapped off a pair of Guitar Hero drums at the end of the day.  I've seen triggers on light guns overused.  God, racing wheels, I worry the MOST about racing wheels.  You can stomp on them and whip that wheel around.

When you paid for it, it's your baby or you at least understand it's YOURS to destroy.  Other people seem to often show less respect for other peoples toys.

Too true. Consoles are different beasts entirely though. I hold the same reservations with my own consoles and I really dislike anyone using my consoles. There's all but three other people I trust to use my consoles and two of them are no longer around.

The Wii controllers get the most abuse from her friends, so much so that my fiance actually went out and bought a set to replace them already. The wire between nunchuck and controller gets stressed. People (kids and adults) spin the wii controller by the strap (that really pisses me off) or let it hang by the strap. The controller has been used as a baseball bat (literally). Or they'll pick at the silicon jacket (something arcade owners are intimately familiar with, I'm sure). When I got another current gen console, I reconfigured my entertainment center to hide all the current gen consoles from prying eyes.

"Hey, where's your PS3?"
"What PS3? You mean my PS2?"
"Didn't you have a PS3 right here?"
"You must be thinking of someone else. You wanna play the PS2?"
"Nah...."
 

I agree with you 100% about that last statement. But note the OP is talking about his daughter, you can smack your kid around if they break your equipment. You can't really do that with your so-called friends. If any of my friends show up that I feel are too rough with my cabs, I just tell them my cabs are out of commission and need repairs. A couple of cabs have "kill" switches or I just pull the fuses so even if they try to plug them in, they remain dead.

Irregardless, cabs are a bit tougher than your average console.

[DJ_Izumi]

Irregardless, cabs are a bit tougher than your average console.

The scary part is the damage cabs do take.  Many, especially the bigger 'attraction' type cabs like racing cockpits or such are built like TANKS but you can still find examples in the wild that have had the crap kicked out of them by users.

[severdhed]

what worries me is when they hang from the joysticks like monkeys

yeah, i nearly had a heart attack when i walked in the room to find my 3-year-old son, feet off the ground, completely hanging by my two brand new, 3 day old U360s

but so far, they are fine.