How long did it take you to convince your wife?

[unclet]

I thought this would be a fun way to hear some cool stories.  

I was wondering how long it took you to convince your wife (or significant other) to "allow" you to build a Mame cabinet which would actually be stored inside the house --- LOL.

My wife just could not (and still can not) understand the amount of effort I wanted to go through making a Mame cabinet to play "old" games.    It was not that hard to convince her but since she only played Pong as an arcade game, I still needed to put forth some effort of explaining how fun other games could be to play.   The tough part was getting her to agree to place the machine in the living room.....but it turned out looking quite nice and she does not mind it being there now.   She still never plays though...  :>)

[Lilwolf]

I've had my cab for over a year...

and I still need to convince her constantly.

But my kids like to play on it... that helps.  

I think she was expecting me to finish the cab sometime thought...

The sitdown racing cab wasn't nearly as hard... she will play those...  I've still never had her touch my arcade machine... Not even a tetris or other stereotipical girl game.... sigh....

[atog]

I built mine before I got married, but while we were dating.  She thought I was crazy, but we were only dating, so what could she do.  Now she likes it, and we regularly play some of the "chick" games together.  Tetris, Klax, Puyo Puyo, U Poko, stuff like that.  

[JackTucky]

Whenever I have a new cool project/awesome party idea/cool toy purchase that I must have, I tell her, "Don't go up against me on this one, you'll lose"

She knows I'm serious, and crazy, and keeps quiet.

She likes the machine too.  Problem is she's the most critical, and often the most right, about usability issues that I need to tighten up.

Art

[bionicbadger]

Didn't take long at all.  She was happy that I would be doing something other than sitting in front of the damn computer.  

She thinks its too big, but doesn't have a major problem with it.  I'm trying to convince her that I need a pinball machine now.

[P-Funk]

She just looks at me and shakes her head........

[hulkster]

well i think i might be the worse off than most of you....im engaged right now.  when your dating...the girl just kinda rolls her eyes and doesnt really ask too many questions.  when you are married, she will say stuff, but not really put up too much of a fight.  however, when you are engaged, she asks all the time..."now do you REALLY need this?"  and "we have to eat you know, and what about paying for an apartment?  what about clothes....blah blah blah".  she thinks its cool now, but when i was talking about building it, she was going crazy talking to me about finances all kinds of crap.  but its alright now  however....i told her i wanted to make a new one, with 4 players, and she bout had a hernia.  

[Lumpy]

You mean we have to tell our wife?    

[hubster]

I have had mine for almost 2 years.  When I found out about MAME I told her about it and that I wanted to build a cab.  She just nodded and smiled.  Then 2 weeks later I brought home an empty cabinet and she was shocked.  I said "I told you all about it" but she didn't think that I was serious. It took me 3 months to finish it.  Now me and the kids play it (boy 4, girl 6) and they love it.  My son says "Can we play arcade?"  My wife does not play it but she does turn it on for the kids and it is good to keep them out of her hair for an hour.  

[traknfieldSUPAstar]

you guys are lucky... i've been trying (unsuccesfully) to ask my wife if I could build/buy a cab for the past 6 months... she's wasn't too happy when i was building my desktop cp... she says it's a bad influence on our son (i think it's cute the way he immitates all of the win poses for the SF2 characters when i'm playing... although i could do without him physically tryin' to immitate a fierce, fierce, dragon punch combo on dear ol' dad)... but dont worry, i'll find away to get a mame cab done even if i have to hide it at my brother's house  

[menace]

When I built the first one she was a little anxious that I would be spending alot of time on it but now she has her own Q-bert machine and trying to talk *me* into getting a pinball (ow! not the rubber arm honey)    Although, just last night one of her friends' husbands came over to play some games and now she jokes that she might start the "widows of mame" society    

[pathdoc2]

I built my first game for my wife.  She loves Galaga.  Built 3 games for her brothers.  No problems.

[SpamMe]

Well I thought it took about 2-3 weeks, but it turns out as soon as I mentioned it, she started working a few extra hours on the sly, all the time arguing about how she absolutely did not want an arcade in our house. She gave me most of the $ for the arcade as an anniversary present a few weeks back. She'll be playing a lot of Ms. Pac Man, Robotron, and Centipede.

[unclet]

This is "the wife" of unclet.  Actually, the 1st mame cab is in the dining room and the living room has a full size 1980's air hockey table.  The 2nd cab is taking up my parking spot in the garage for the past 4 months.  I'm as understanding as I can for the typical female who has no interest in actually playing the games.  I actually encourage "guys night" for buddies coming over for video games and picked up the chips and beer last friday.  My husband will likely be totally shocked I was able to figure out how to post to this group.  He's a very efficient guy so deserves all the time I give him on "his projects".  I just want to hear that I'm the coolest, most understanding wife out there ---- on a regular basis from as many people as possible!  Good luck at basketball tonight, honey.  

[allroy1975]

heh, I was just thinking of posting a topic like this one.

I built mine while we were dating but living together.
Last night (on her birthday) I proposed (yikes).  I have Restrictor plates for when we play Donkey Kong.  I keep them in the Control Panel.  We usually play a little Time Pilot then play some Donkey Kong then hit the sack.  So last night I put the ring in the CP right under her controller and when we went to get the Restrictor plates POW!  there it was.

Well, even if I'm engaged now, at least my favorite toy was involved.  
gotta love her for letting me build it and playing NOT stereotipical girl games.  

So, anyway...you guys are the first people I've told.  lol

Matt

[Zapper]

You have to ask to build one? I'll never understand the minds of feminized males.

[Reg]

Hi,

Before I was doing a job that was stressing me a lot...
(Help customer with computer problems... had to speak to arrogant users :-(  )

SO, I told to my girl that I need to "Relief my stress",
then I tell her that an Arcade cabinet was perfect to relief it.

Since then I have my Cabinet...

She also knew that I was allmost about to quit my old job because
I was too stressed...

Reg

[unclet]

Yes dear, you are a goddess.........

[said7]

My girl is awesome. She first was a little hesitant, but she saw how dedicated I was and let me go for it.

She refuses to play it untill she buys me some arcade stools  

I think she's a keeper.

[Apollo]

I discovered MAME and told my wife all about it and how I was going to build my own cab and she did the "smile and nod".
Then I actually came home with a gutted 19" cab and I guess she was a little surprised but it was only NZ$60.
Then I came home with a fully working cab with a 26" arcade monitor and BombermanWorld PCB which was $NZ550. That got her attention lol.
She's totally into it now and says she is just glad I have a hobby that doesn't involve TV or drinking. I'm not allowed to drink and work on the cab at the same time after I decided I could drill holes in my CP without measuring and then spent a week complaining about how 2 of the buttons were out of alignment by 2mm he he LMAO.
She says when I finish the big cab the little cab is hers, she wants a vertical 19" so she can play Pacman, Frogga, Galaga etc ( she's soooo old school lol ).

[Luxury]

i kinda bought a cabinet without telling my live-in girlfriend, and had it delivered to a friends garage cause we didnt have the space for it.  Then i told her about it, and convinced her that we should move into a bigger apartment (she wanted to also).  We did one month later, and now the cabinet is the only thing sitting in our dining area.  i have a foosh-ball table that another friend is "safekeeping" in his house, so im going to have to move again.  

[creatine28]

My wife has been ok with me having my cabs, but she still wont let me bring them in the house! ARgh hahaha

Although, she does love to play Busta Move and Street Figher EX!  Maybe someday?  

[jerryjanis]

I saw a free gutted cab posted in the for sale/trade forum in my neighborhood one day while I was living in a cramped apartment in NYC (Queens).  In my head the answer was "no" - there just wasn't room for it.  But when I mentioned it to my live-in girfriend she said, "well aren't you going to go get it?" so I decided not to mention my misgivings.

Ended up cruising around Queens at about 10 mph with a big 25" arcade cab very poorly strapped to the  top  of my Honda Civic.  I've been living in nice big aparments upstate ever since.

[JoyMonkey]

I had my first cab in a shared 'Guy' house for about a year before I
moved to the U.S. Then I came over here, hooked up with my girlfriend
(soon to be fiance) and moved in together.

It took about a year and a half of mentioning how I missed my old
cab and how much her friends seem to be into the idea before she
agreed to even consider having a cab in our one bedroom apartment.

Eventually, she came to terms that a cab was on the way no matter
what. I was allowed build it on her terms; it had to look like 'real'
furniture that matched the rest of the wood in our living room and be
a little longer/lower than a regular cocktail cab (it's perfect coffee-table
size now).

I ended up with so much 'spare-parts' lying around that she's let me
put together a couple more cabs for friends since then, though they
usually  spend a lot of 'beta-test' time in our apartment before I hand
them over.

[slug54]

when you are engaged, she asks all the time..."now do you REALLY need this?"  and "we have to eat you know, and what about paying for an apartment?  what about clothes....blah blah blah".  

Have any of you guys been able to de-cipher what the
"blah blah blah" really means? I've been married 11 years and all I hear out of her anymore is "blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Especially during football games.
I think it might be something about ny mother-in-law but im not really sure.
anyway, trying to stay on topic. I put karaoke on mine to please SWMBO , I also tried to keep the size of the cab scaled down a little and opted for a black finnish instead of full sideart. I spent a lot of time in the design phase so that gave her time to warm up to it .

                                  Good luck
                                      Slug

[Sasquatch!]

Never had to "convince" her of anything.  I'm sure I'd have to make more of a case for it if the cabinet were gonig to be in the living room or something, but being in the basement is the obvious best place for it.

She does playfully chide me for the amount of time that I spend on it thogh, often referring to it as "the other woman".  

[vitaflo]

I'm not married, but my girlfriend was excited about the idea from the moment I told her I wanted to build one.  There have been many times when she's asked "So, when are you gonna get that arcade done?"  Sometimes I think she's more excited about it than I am!

[AndyWarne]

I have had table-top cabs at home since the 80's but never an upright until recently, when I imported a few 28in Japanese style sit-at cabinets (www.ultimarc.com/cabinet.html). I brought one back from our storeroom with a view to putting it in the garage to build up. As soon as 'er indoors saw it she said "that's not going in the garage..That's going in the living room!" So there it went. Can't argue with that!
I then had to confiscate the TV to strip down and put into the cabinet (great pic via SCART RGB!) which she was slightly less happy about so had to buy a new widescreen to appease...

Andy

[abrannan]

It didn't take much to convince her at all.  She knows that I have my hobbies, and as long as I can pursue those hobbies, I'm a happy boy (she thinks it's a cool idea too).  Problem is, she's a little less than understanding when it comes time for me to work on my cabinet if she's around.  Plus she's got competing projects for me to do.  So right now I'm trying to build a storage shed in the backyard, and refinish the outside of my cab before winter sets in.  Too bad I gave up on the house with the garage to get the house with the pool.  

[BarontheFirst]

You mean we have to tell our wife?    

I haven't told mine yet! It is 50% complete over my parents house! HEHE! I go over there and work on it. I got an ear full when I brought home the control panel. I would rather finish it then get yelled at once and not over the course of building it. I am actually getting married in 24 days and after we get back from our honeymoon I will be bringing it home....  As I get kicked out of the house. Still I have one advantage. She loves Puzzle Bobble and Tetris.

[1UP]

I couldn't convince my wife.  She went off to Japan for 2 weeks to see her folks, and when she got back, there was a half-built cab in the living room!  Hmm, I dunno, how'd that get there honey?  

Actually, once she discovered Mappy and Flicky, she came over to my side!

[shumph]

cab was wifes idea

[Hammerbot]

When I first told my wife what I was up to she was "hesitant" to say the least....

One night I set mame up on the PC in the living room and turned on Tetris and left a note on what keys did what. Then I went and played hockey.

Since then she had gone back to tolerating my obsessions, I mean hobby.

It really never ends...

[jakejake28]

the trick is to take your kids to real arcades before you build it, and before you even tell your wife you gotta lobby for the kids support. a mom may turn a husband down, but a husband and kids?

[PkingRoch]

I had arcade machines and pinball machines in the past.  I would buy them on the cheap fix them up and play them for awhile, then sell them.  At one time we had 5 machines in the house.  They have since all been sold.

When I mentioned about building a cab, I really wanted this to be something I did with my son.  When I told her that, she was fine with it.

Keeping it in the dining room where the Christmas tree went is going to be hard in a few months....

[Chris]

When I first started my cab, I was explicitly told it was going to have to be kept in our garage.  However, once I wrote DOSCab Jukebox for it, she decided to let me put it in our den (as our stereo was proken at the time).  Since then, it has gotten far more use as a jukebox than as a game machine!  Whenever we had visitors, she would immediately fire up the cabinet in jukebox mode.  Later, she saw how much my daughter and her friends loved the machine, so when we moved to our new house, she actually let me set up a small game room and has given me the go-ahead to get a pinball machine as a companion to the MAME cabinet...

--Chris

[menace]

  we all sound so whipped  

[tmasman]

When I first told my wife what I was doing, she just kinda gave me the usual knod & said yeah, uh huh, ok... (She didn't believe me)...

Now that I have 3 cabinets in the garage (the first 1 is under heavy renovation at the moment), and I'm picking up another one this weekend she's kinda wishing she had said something...  

I love my wife... She is big on the Metal Slug games and Ms. PacMan, so she will probably not have too much of a problem when I put the monster cab I'm getting in the living room.

If I don't like it in there I'll probably put it in the spare room & turn it in to a game room.

She told me the other day that she was just waiting for me to go off on some crazy idea... She just didn't think it would take up so much time & space...  

Whipped? nah...
We just know how to play the game. (Well, some of us do...)

[ArcadeMaze]

No exciting story here...  

When we bought our "new" house seven years ago, it was with the expectation that the original one car garage would be my office/workroom.  And that's where I keep my one dedicated Tempest and the three MAME machines that I am working on.

She does enjoy playing Ms. Pacman, but other than that she couldn't care less.  

[gnateye]

i think we should take a minute out to all thank our significant others for tolerating our obsessive hobby.

when i first discovered the ipac and this site and decided i wanted to build a cp, my wife thought it was another one of my passing fancys, and she blatantly said 'do whatever you want as long as you dont spend any money', thinking that would be the end of it, well i scrounged, begged, borrowed , stole, garbage picked, odd jobbed, and ebayed my way to enought $$ to build my 1st CP, when all the parts came she thought i lost it, when 24 hours later we were playing tetris, she said 'cool'. well from there i couldnt sit still i needed a cab, again 'do whatever just dont spend any money', well i lucked upon a free millipede cab, i brought it home and my wife and my nieghbors (i live in a 2 flat and we share the basement) thought i was crazy, but when 24 hours later it was playable, they all went "oh, that IS cool" after a few weeks of tweaking when the 1st cab was all but perfect they all play it all the time, my family and friends go crazy etc, they all understand.

then...

a few months back i found another cab for free, this time i didnt tell my wife or my nieghbors, i just lugged it home and put it in the basement, needless to say they all were a little concerned about the major use of our "common" space, but after that one was done (and its perfect now) they all said " you are really getting good at this" and they all play that one too now.

well last week i started cabinet #3, this one is for a freind so i told them all so they would understand that another cab didnt move in permanently, and it is comin out better than cab 1 & 2. my wife now fully understands that i am obsessively addicted to this hobby, and that as soon as we get our own house (within the next year) i will have a gameroom and im gonna add to it, and a workshop so i can rehab more games for people. but until we get a new place of our own i have been givin the 'spoucal cease and desist order' on bringing home any more cabs for myself

we'll see how long i can last

my favorite thing is when peopel find out i have an arcade cab and the yask what game it is, i pause for a minute and say

" all of them"

[gyruss]

My wife hates arcades, computers and video games of any kind. When I discovered MAME and this site about 4 1/2 years ago, I knew it would be hard to get the first cab. So when I saw someone about 30 miles from my house giving a gutted Q*bert upright away, I just when and got it and put it in my basement office and MAMEd it. When we moved to a bigger house, my wife agreed to let me have a least 2 cabinets in the basement. She thinks she agreed to 2 cabinets, but I remember "at least" two. . So right now the second project is in the garage, hopefully to be completed by early next year. Then comes the battle for the cocktail cabinet. Luckily our kids and their friends are on my side so she's slowly accepting all this craziness. She now even wants a pinball for the basement.

[DaveMMR]

I'm not married yet so I haven't a problem there yet.  Though I was seeing this one girl who I told about my intentions to which she responded, "Er... that sounds nice".   Whatever...

But the cab (when actually finished) will be a deciding factor should I contemplate getting married.  If a girl loves the cab and actually wants to play with it, then she's a keeper.  I could afford that frivilous bit of nonsense regarding a life long commitment since getting married is not high on my priority list right now.  

[Darkade]

My fiancee hates my cab.  We just moved into a townhouse so I could have my own gameroom upstairs but it turned out, the cab is wider than the stairs.    It took some serious convincing to get her to let me keep it in the Living Room.  She still gripes about it too.  I told her I wanted to build a Cocktail cab and I thought she was going to swing me around by my tongue.  She just doesn't get it.  Good thing I built it before we moved in together.

[Apollo]

I'm sorry dude she just ain't marriage material. You are going to have to ditch her