Dallas / Fort Worth area BYOAC/MAME/Digital Pinball/Emulation Usergroup.

[Dazz]

Hey Guys,

Over the past couple months I've received about 10-15 messages from people in my area that are interested in building a cabinet.  I've had several people come to my house and check out and play my machines and get tips on starting their own cabinets.  I've been looking for a Dallas / Fort Worth area BYOAC/MAME/Digital Pinball/Emulation Usergroup, but I haven't had much luck in finding an existing one...

I'm thinking about creating such a group.  This group would be a group that would meet face to face on a monthly or bi-monthly basis.  The object of this group is to get people with like hobbies together in the real world.  We could sit and BS about games and emulation. We could also offer help to new people that are looking to get started in this hobby.  Share resources and teach people how to compile and use MAME and various front end systems.  Meetings would be located at what few local arcades are still around.  I don't know of many arcades that are still around, but Tornado Terry's, in Keller, is about 2 miles from my house and would be a great place to meet.  They have a meeting/party room, Free Wi-fi, plenty of arcade games on free play all you can play all day for 12.50 per person.  Not to mention he has many commonly used arcade parts for sale in his shop.    

I was wondering if anyone here knows of such a group, or would be interested in joining such a club/usergroup.  If I can drum up some interest I'll pull the trigger and setup a meetup.com page where we can organize such events.

Anyone interested?

You can now Join this group on Facebook!

[EvilNuff]

Hey Dazz, good idea.  I'll be interested to see what comes of it for us DFW types.

[drventure]

I actually bought both my trackballs from Tornado Terry's, he's not too far from me.

I'd be interested. Heading to the facebook page now.

[snatex]

I'm definitely in.  Just let me know where and when.  I am anti-facebook though.  Is that going to be a problem? 

[saint]

You guys can have your own sub-forum here if you want also...

[EvilNuff]

I don't use facebook either, sorry don't agree with their TOS.  Yes I've bought several things from Terry locally as well.

[BurgerKingDiamond]

Man that would be sweet. I wish there was one of these around here in Virginia. I'm not the type to organize though. Good luck with this.

[Dazz]

You guys can have your own sub-forum here if you want also...

Well, I didn't really want to use Facebook, but it was readily available for me at the time.  I was going to start up a group on meetup.com which is great for this type of stuff.  I didn't know if I could get enough interest in such a group to justify the monthly fees/dues for meetup.com.

I should be able to get HyperSpin and Emumovies.com freebies to give away at our gatherings.  If this takes off I'm sure I can snag some other sponsors that might be willing to help with door prizes or giveaways.  I'd like to see groups have classes on building cabinets, control panel layout and basic wiring, compiling MAME, updating ROM sets, configuring front ends, using other emulators, etc.  I'm definitely open to suggestions.  If anything this can give us all an excuse to get out of the house, away from the wives, play some games and just BS and have fun.

Saint - A sub-forum would be cool, but I don't think we need our own sub-forum.  Perhaps a sub-forum for this type of thing in general might be nice to have here.  Who knows, it could help encourage others around the world to have usergroup meetings like this as well.

BTW - Now that I have a couple people interested... Don't plan on anything until after the first of the year.  I'd like to get the holidays out of the way before trying to organize anything.

I actually bought both my trackballs from Tornado Terry's, he's not too far from me.

I'd be interested. Heading to the facebook page now.

Yeah, Terry is a nice guy.  I never thought about looking up local places for parts, but now that I know Terry sells parts I'll be hitting him up from time to time.  I've only been to his place 2 times now with the kids.  The last was on Saturday night and was an excuse so I could go buy some new joysticks.  Picked up 2 Happ Competition Joysticks and played about $10 worth of Taxi and Terminator 3 pinball machines while the kids ran around playing games.  Great place!

[upprc04]

I am part of some groups that use both Meetup and facebook and a lot are moving away from meetup.  Facebook may not be people's favorite but gives you several options that meetup does for "free".  I moved to Austin almost two years ago and am starting to get in to this hobby.  Gmail groups is also another pretty good free option.  Facebook and Meetup would probably have more people stumble upon it.   I didn't hear about meetup.com until I moved to Austin and found a couple of groups I wouldn't have normally looked for in the past.  Not sure how much the fees are, but it may be worth creating a group there and see if it brings more people in.  How many people are in the DFW area on here?

I do think it is a great idea to have some sort of group to get together once a month to talk shop, show off current projects or just play some arcade games.  I'm looking forward to see how much this takes off and would consider coming up sometime in the future.  I think the classes would be hard to get enough people showing up to make it worth peoples time and money.   I could be wrong though. 

Another idea is to have one or two bigger events a year and try to bring people in from farther away.  Good luck and keep the forum up to date with any events you do in the future. 

[saint]

Saint - A sub-forum would be cool, but I don't think we need our own sub-forum.  Perhaps a sub-forum for this type of thing in general might be nice to have here.  Who knows, it could help encourage others around the world to have usergroup meetings like this as well.

Heh Dazz - we have one.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=25.0

[Dazz]

Saint - A sub-forum would be cool, but I don't think we need our own sub-forum.  Perhaps a sub-forum for this type of thing in general might be nice to have here.  Who knows, it could help encourage others around the world to have usergroup meetings like this as well.

Heh Dazz - we have one.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?board=25.0

Wow, that is actually really difficult to find...  I've been here since 2005 and never knew there was a Meet-up forum.  I guess I never saw it because I never use the forum index. I always use the menu above to navigate and never been into the  everything else forum.

[albrigsr]

I am in Dallas as well (Coppell) and head over to Tornado Terry's with my two boys every once in a while.  Great place for games and parts.  My youngest son actually had his birthday party there.  Anyway, I am definitely interested.  I have built several cabinets that are now in various states of disarray as I wanted to change pieces of them.  I also have several pinball machines (Street Fighter which I think I am going to get rid of and Earthshaker), Golden Tee Complete, Blasteroids, 3 Player Super Off-Road  and two touchscreens (MegaTouch Aurora and a JVL iTouch 8+).  It's no Tornado Terry's but it holds me over until I can get over to Keller!

Maybe this would get me some help and motivation to getting Hyperspin setup!

[AlienInferno]

I'm in the DFW area.  (Cleburne)  I work weekends so not sure how often I could make it to a face-to-face meeting as (we all know) the good stuff happens on the weekends.  I did check out the FB page.

[Spock]

Great idea!  I'm just getting into the hobby, but loved video games and arcades as a kid (while I like the newer arcades, too expensive, too many shooter/driving games, etc (and using a card to get more cash out of you, really?)).  I'm about halfway done with my cab as of right now.  Alas, I live in San Antonio, which is just a bit far for a casual meetup in Dallas.  Hopefully somebody out there lives in San Antonio (I see one from Austin).

[sherbert]

I live in Irving and would like to attend. I also don't bother with Facebook.

[chiLLbiLLy]

I think I would probably be interested in this, as well.  I live in Grapevine and I've been to Tornado Terry's, but it's been years and years.  What's he got out there these days?

[SniperAceX]

.

[Dazz]

Hey Guys,

The new year is here... It seems that things are finally starting to slow down.  I've had several requests from people recently to stop by and check out my machines and pick my brain/files.  I have a couple people coming over on Saturday, Jan 29th and might as well open the door to anyone else that would be interested in stopping by.  I was hoping to have something more formal setup, but a simple afternoon/evening gathering, gaming and chatting.  If you are interested in coming by shoot me a private message and I can give you the location.

[MKChamp]

I'd like to be a member. I live in sachse, so I am conveniently located in just the right area for this group.

[drventure]

Doh. I didn't set notify on this thread and missed it.

Hope you had fun. Hopefully I can make the next one!

[wongojack]

I am in a little city called Dallas. You may have heard of it as its near Keller and Sachse and other such Texas cities.

I'm a relative noob and have no tools or real experience with this stuff.  The cab I bought off another guy is kinda amaturish and needs some expert help

mostly, i just like playing games

[DataWest]

Hey all, Im from North Texas as well.

Did you all know Gameworks closed in Grapevine Mills mall? I always thought it was too expensive, but it is still sad news. Tornado Terry's is the one of the few left.

[EvilNuff]

I had not heard that, that's pretty sad.  Thankfully we do have Terrys which is a really fantastic place.

[DataWest]

I had not heard that, that's pretty sad.  Thankfully we do have Terrys which is a really fantastic place.

Its going to be a LegoLand park/store. The one thing I liked about Gameworks is that they had the $ to put in the really high end machines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameWorks

It closed last year! wow I never knew.

[DataWest]

Any plans for a meet up any time soon?

[videolast]

I live in Dallas and would be interested in participating too.

[Dazz]

Now that the holidays have run their course and we are all settling down into our 2012 it's time to get this group started.

I know it's been over a year since my original post.  Since this post I have lost both my MAMEcab PC and my main PC.  I have been out of the loop for a little while and haven't been very active online.  I'm actually looking to sell my cabinet shell, no hardware or controls. All proceeds are going to help fund my new PC and cabinet build.

I met up with a couple users over the weekend and it reminded me that we really need to get this group going!  I enjoy meeting new people and hanging out talking about games and emulation.

Its really hard trying to pick a date and time since everyone's schedule is different. 

I'd like to suggest that we meet the first Saturday of every other month starting in Feb. Im assuming that most people have Saturday off and hopefully free... that and we really need a starting date.  I suggest we start at a place like Tornado Terry's for the first meeting. This will give us the opportunity to meet on neutral ground and get to know one another. We will also be surrounded by many games to act as ice breakers.  After that we might consider meeting in someone's garage or game room. Perhaps someone might have an ongoing project they could use some help/expertise with. 

I am 100% open to suggestions. Let's get this thing going!


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=32.888909,-96.768650

[Dazz]

I'd love to also setup a meet in March for the Texas Pinball Featival.

[drventure]

Sounds fun. And I'm definitely looking forward to the pinball fest.

[drventure]

Well, I know I'm necroing this thread, but any interest in starting something up? Or is it already started and I've just been missing out 

[pbj]

Head south, we can hang.

 

[drventure]

I don't get to Houston much (as I recall, you're in houston right?)

But I'll buzz you when I head that way!

[pbj]

I don't get to Houston much (as I recall, you're in houston right?)

I am now.   

[cool_factor]

Rise dead post rise.....

[drventure]

I'd be down with getting together somewhere. Haven't had any time to devote to Mame recently (which sucks but there it is). Still, I'd definitely make a meetup.

[pbj]

Head south, i need someone to drink all the swill leftover from new years

[AlienInferno]

Just gonna give this a friendly bump.  Haven't been on the site in a long while and am catching up on posts.  Any DFW area peeps interested in getting together somewhere one weekend?

[WoodChucksCNC]

Wow, I see some old posts about a DFW group. Did a group ever get going? I am interested.
I have purchased from Tornado Terrys as well.