Stuff holding you up from intiating/completing your cab

[Rando]

Hey all,
Bummed because my project has stalled so I just wanted to lament and post all the reasons why I haven't been able to move forward.  Cab is constructed, Computer is loaded and running, and that's where I stand.  I have a potential monitor to use, haven't yet ordered buttons/sticks/etc, and have stalled.  Because...

Work - 5 days a week, what's up with that!? 
Mothers Day
Tractor was broke but fixed effective Saturday so I was finally able to mow this weekend
Basement flooded and I had to pull up/replace flooring/repair sheetrock/paint
Baby coming so moved my son to different room and painted room for baby, still need to install chair/crown molding
Having Master bath worked on, contractor is crappy, so I've have to do much of the finishing work (paint, crown molding, etc.) myself
Everybody needs clothes, off to the mall
Everybody needs food, off to the store
House is a disaster, need to clean/organize


Just one thing after another getting in the way of my finishing my build.  Which is okay I guess because if I did finish it one thing after another would be getting in the way of playing it!  I'm sure there's things I'm leaving off this list or other things will be added.  This post was simply to allow me to whine.

Argh,
Hope to order my buttons/sticks this week so I can build a test CP to get things running for testing/tweaking.  Hope.   

Add your own!

[alfonzotan]

Besides general sloth and the usual full schedule, I'm a ten-thumbed carpenter, and have to rely on more-talented buds for the detailed woodwork.  That makes me dependent on their (a) good graces (which are helped along with beer and/or Maggiano's gift card donations) and (b) schedules--which are just as busy as anybody else's.

But I'm actually making progress at long last... might even be enough to start a project thread in the next few weeks...

[elkameleon]

The wife telling me I cant spend any more money on this damn project for a while...

[Nephasth]

#1 - My wedding (5/14/11), and the fact that we are paying for all of it ourselves.
#2 - My tenant got evicted for not paying rent March leading to eviction costs, set out costs, and repairs. Also going on the third month of footing the mortgage on that place myself. Ouch.

For me it just boils down to money.

[HaRuMaN]

For me it boils down to time...  never seem to have enough

[wp34]

I've got two cabinets started but between the kid's activities and my wife's schooling I just haven't been able to get any momentum on either project. 

My wife graduates Saturday which is very exciting on many levels!   

The kids activities are also winding down for the summer so I'm looking to hit the ground running in late May.

[javeryh]

For me it boils down to time...  never seem to have enough

+1.  There just isn't enough time.

[JcProAm]

The wife telling me I cant spend any more money on this damn project for a while...

+1

[Donkbaca]

to summarize everyone's response:

time

money

time/money

[Tumerboy]

Time/Money

[Well Fed Games]

Time, esp when I spend too much of my free time planning out future projects instead of working on this one.

[BadMouth]

Too many projects already!  Most of them involve tinkering with controls I might want in a dream cab someday.
I was going to list my unfinished projects, but the list is so long that nobody would bother reading it. 

This evening I planned to swap different pots into some happ pedals and install them in my driving cab, but my fake plastic guitars and dance pads were delivered and I'm sure that I'll be setting those up and at least an hour will be "wasted" playing.

The big time sucker this week will be making a set of fiberglass speaker pods for my motorcycle.  / 
I may have to miss a day of work to get it done.....cough..cough.

[Necro]

Hard drive crashed with my CPO's on it, then started playing WoW again.  Also, just general timidity at screwing something up resulting in me taking FOREVER to decide on how to do something on the cab.

Also...space.  It's limited and if my 'work room' isn't clean, it's HARD to work...  This also means bad weather = no woodworking since I can't go out on my deck to cut/paint things.

[drventure]

Time, money, Lightning strikes, a complete and utter lack of any planning whatsoever, measuring twice, cutting 15 times, that sort of thing

 

[Necro]

Oh - biggie - keeping the cabinet looking stock.  That was a f-ing mistake.  I still love that I'm doing it, but when I eventually build a pincab, that suckers being done however works easiest.

Also...NEVER EVER DO A MIRROR CAB.  Unless you want pain.  Or for a specific reason you want one.  Damn you Omega Race.  Damn you.   

[mytymaus007]

MY Star Wars YOKE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I need One

[mytymaus007]

Oh yeh forgot to back up 1TB of roms and formatted the drive and it was all set up with hyperspin 45 different systems 6 months of work

[jimmy2x2x]

Making the cab fully playable before it was complete!

[mgb]

I'm lazy and a perfectionist. what a terrible combo.

[elkameleon]

I'm lazy and a perfectionist. what a terrible combo.

+1

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

5:30AM.. everyone's asleep.. "Hey, I should work on configuring more in Hyperspin!"
5:40AM.. *baby wakes up, crying*
5:55AM.. Baby back asleep, forget what you were doing, post on BYOAC.
6:00AM.. time to wake up wife and start the morning
 

[emphatic]

Can't work on them with kids around.  Also, laziness.

[sapro]

A little bit of poor planning on my part. I'm nearing the finish line now but every day finding an extra hour's work or so that needs to be done.

Oh yeah, and the time thing.

[Generic Eric]

• Saving money
• Choosing parts
• Saving money for tools
• Having 2 kids
• Moving...Twice
• Buying more parts
• Building a working control panel
• Setting up hyperspin
• Planning

Oh, and the refusal to use power tools after I started drinking. 

[jpS14]

Well my power supply crapped out on me take the mobo with it..... and then I have my wife complaining I'm not spending time with her but then when I'm with her she's complaining that the arcade isn't done and that she wants to play it so yeah..... 

[Rando]

Lol,
Great replies all, and what I figured:

• Time
• Money
• Kids/Family
• Combo of the above

I need to take baby steps:

• Finalize make/model/colors for buttons/sticks/trackball
• Order above items

Red P1/Blue P2/Yellow admin

There, progress.

[DataWest]

The game of Life

[Donkbaca]

the new Mortal Kombat

[VanillaGorilla]

Settling on control panel graphics before pulling the trigger @ the printers...

[Cynicaster]

I had more than adequate budget for my project and I'm single with no kids, but it STILL took me forever.  It just seemed like if I wasn't working late, then I'd have some other commitment/errand/chore to tend to.  Geeze, I don't know how some of you guys do it.

[Necro]

Biggest thing I learned is saving a few bucks - even a few hundred - isn't worth it if the solution is out there in pre-made form 75% of the time.  (Control/wiring/lighting wise).

[rcub3]

Necro.... amen.  That's why I bought a cab kit from North Coast, with plans to build my own CP from scratch.  Well, that hasn't happened yet because I need to coordinate with my uncle who's got the tools/shop to work on it.  So basically:

+1 Time

[Benevolance]

The biggest obstacle to finishing my cabinet is the fact that it can play arcade games.

[yotsuya]

Feature creep. You're just about finished, then you see someone's cool idea and want to add it as well. That's why my cab now supports swappable CPs using RJ-45 jacks!

[scofthe7seas]

The biggest obstacle to finishing my cabinet is the fact that it can play arcade games.

You foolishly made it functional before it was completed!!
I had the whole PC/software setup before the cab was built, and was having a hard time not playing games on the PC as it sat in the dining room waiting.

I have a hard time stopping on something until it is finished. (unless I get burnt out, 80 hours on a painting last year, and I'm just starting to feel like painting again) I usually work long past being hungry or exhausted, which very often leads to disaster (I've burnt/cut/electrified myself, broken important pieces
etc). You'd think I'd learn to take a break or just drop it when I need to eat or sleep, but I just have a hard time doing so. ..

[Rando]

I have a hard time stopping on something until it is finished. (unless I get burnt out, 80 hours on a painting last year, and I'm just starting to feel like painting again) I usually work long past being hungry or exhausted, which very often leads to disaster (I've burnt/cut/electrified myself, broken important pieces
etc). You'd think I'd learn to take a break or just drop it when I need to eat or sleep, but I just have a hard time doing so. ..

I usually stop after I make a second dumb mistake.  When laying floor after midnight I knew I was done when I would a cut on the wrong side of the board or mirrored a cut I should have made the other way.  Or when doing anything that mistakenly causes sparks.   

[Vigo]

My 6 reasons why my cabinet sits unfinished. It was playable, but the PC fried. I am also lacking CP artwork (It's just bare MDF), my joysticks are not flush mounted, and there are a ton of other issues on the minor end that I don't see getting resolved anytime soon.

• Money - I'm pretty broke these days, and need a new car/house/appliances etc....my money doesn't go to my projects 
   
• Wife and Kid - Wife because she would kill me if I spend more time and money on my project, Kid because I can't work on my project and take care of a kid at the same time. I guess babies and power tools don't mix.
   
• Work - My job makes me work well over the standard 40 hours/ week, and objectively, I am very underpaid for what I do. The company has been bankrupt since 2008, and nobody except the execs and corporate asskissers seem to be getting raises. These things I know because I work in HR/payroll. Any available time at home is spend looking for a job, which seems to be a fool's errand right now. My current plan of attack is to slack at work in hopes they will fire me so I can spend more time job hunting. 
   
• Lack of a social life - Sadly, because of work and the kid, I have no social time...Nobody wants to visit casa de la crying bebé these days, why work on an arcade machine that nobody will play? I am at that weird point in my life where half of my friends have kids, the other half are not there yet. So my friends either want to go out drinking, or have.......baby outings.....yeesh...
   
• I am always looking for something new to do - Simply put, I like to dabble. I have now successfully built a few machines....but I had a habit of giving them away as presents. My half-baked machine probably will not get it's needed work for a long time, since I am far more interested in doing something new. My Mame machine was never about playing games, it was about building the machine. Now it is a "Been there. Done that" experience.
   
• My house is not cabinet friendly - My cabinet sits lonely and forgotten in the foyer of my house. I had full intentions of building a recreation room in my house, but it is way down there on my project list. Also, I don't have a good workshop or garage with my house. I have a damp basement that I could not get a cabinet in/out of.

[Donkbaca]

I am always looking for something new to do - Simply put, I like to dabble. I have now successfully built a few machines....but I had a habit of giving them away as presents.

Well, you know, if you ever decide to give away that SNES machine, keep me in mind.

Sounds like you need some balance Vigo.  A guys poker night or something. 

[yotsuya]

I am always looking for something new to do - Simply put, I like to dabble. I have now successfully built a few machines....but I had a habit of giving them away as presents. My half-baked machine probably will not get it's needed work for a long time, since I am far more interested in doing something new. My Mame machine was never about playing games, it was about building the machine. Now it is a "Been there. Done that" experience.

Amen, brother. I'm currently planning two new machines, both of which are nothing like the other. This hobby sure is addictive!

[Vigo]

I am always looking for something new to do - Simply put, I like to dabble. I have now successfully built a few machines....but I had a habit of giving them away as presents.

Well, you know, if you ever decide to give away that SNES machine, keep me in mind.

Sounds like you need some balance Vigo.  A guys poker night or something. 

Will do, Donk....I'm not quite ready to give it up though...

And, yes...I really need something to balance out my life right now. My angle of attack is looking for a better job first and foremost. Poker nights would do me some good though.

I am always looking for something new to do - Simply put, I like to dabble. I have now successfully built a few machines....but I had a habit of giving them away as presents. My half-baked machine probably will not get it's needed work for a long time, since I am far more interested in doing something new. My Mame machine was never about playing games, it was about building the machine. Now it is a "Been there. Done that" experience.

Amen, brother. I'm currently planning two new machines, both of which are nothing like the other. This hobby sure is addictive!

Yes, thankfully there are enough avenues within in this hobby to really get into something new every time. I am just so impressed because the minute I think I have seen it all, I see something like crazy cool like a DK the size of a beer bottle.