Arcade party results (if you build it, will they play?)

[paigeoliver]

I had my first real party saturday night. Here is the outcome as far as game related stuff went.

I THINK I counted 19 adults and two babies, but I have have missed someone. The age range seemed to be 19-26 (except the babies), averaging around 23.

The games in attendance were.

Outrun
Maze (Mame) (Began evening as Robotron, later became Mario Bros, later became Tetris).
Kangaroo
Space Firebird (Mame) Began evening as Bump n Jump, later became Return of the Invaders.
Galaga (Mame) - Started as Ms. Pac-Man, but later people figured out how to access the menu to switch games.
Solitaire (Mame) - Was "Off the Wall" until 1 am, when it became Star Wars.
Crystal Castles
Victory (Pinball)
Badlands

Ok, the first thing that suprised me was who was playing the games. I figured it would mostly be the guys, I was wrong, the most dedicated game players were the girls, by far. Everybody played at least something, but it was the girls who mostly kept the machines busy all night long.

Most popular game was Outrun. It was played over and over and over and over again, mostly by the same two girls, although a few guys got a play or two in as well.

The least popular game was the Space Firebird mini. I never saw anyone playing it at all.

The Victory pin saw some decent play, mostly from the boys.

The Crystal Castles was being bad and wouldn't stay up long enough for anyone to complete a game, so I turned it off.

Two or three people went like all the way through the game on Noice's Badlands.

My main Mame cabinet (Maze) didn't really get many plays until it became Tetris, at that point it had two girls on it at a time for the rest of the nigh.

Kangaroo proved popular with the girls, but not the guys.

The "Solitaire" that was running "Off the Wall" stayed busy all night long, one guy went about 50 stages on it. Further than I have even gotten.

The "Galaga" Mame saw a lot of play off and on. A few people there knew how to change the games on it, so it kept switching between Ms. Pac, Galaga, and Frogger. Luckily my high scores remained intact on all three titles!!!


No real incidents, I did have to chastise two separate girls for getting frustrated and hitting the monitor glass (WHY??), the first one apologized and looked embarrassed, the other one tried to justify it somehow!!! (Arrrrgh).


All in all it went very well. I am having another party Feb 1st. This one is just going to be kids though (the Junior high school sunday school class from my church is having a party at my place). I am gonna try to get the Battlezone up by then and get the Crystal Castles working right again.

[gprime]

I am having another party Feb 1st. This one is just going to be kids though (the Junior high school sunday school class from my church is having a party at my place).

Can I come?  

But really, that smashing on the glass thing would tick me off. I hate it when people even get their fingerprints on it  

[menace]

Its those guys that beat the joystick really hard one way or the other when they lose or hang off of it when they need to move their character one direction that irk me.

[allroy1975]

are you guys serious?

that's me.  I need to install a kickplate on my machine.  Haven't done it yet though.  People are always amazed..you spent how much time and money on this thing?  and now you're kicking the crap out of it???

yeah, so?  it's an arcade game.  That's why the glass is tempered.  That's why they have kickplates.  c'mon...toughen up!

Allroy

[mahuti]

I've had a few parties with arcade stuff as the theme.

The first time I had 2 laptops with emulators on them (atari on one and supernintendo on the other) a dedicated nintendo in the spare bedroom, and a playstation on the main tv. I had about 50 people and it went really well. Most of the machines were busy all night.

The last time I had a party, it wasn't about arcade stuff, but my Mame box was busy NON-STOP the whole night. People were waiting in line to play, putting quarters up on the screen (ahh, just like old times) It was GOOOD fun. The only complaints I had the next day were that people were hogging the machine

[Stingray]

Sounds like a really great time!

-S

[steve_pss]

Last November I hosted the "2003 Old School Video Game Championship" at my place using my scratch-built Barcade. Had about 10 friends there all night. We used a bracket system like this:

Lottery to determine game choice order
Everyone chooses one favorite game
Lottery to determine which conference the player will fall in
Lottery to determine bracket system, with seeding based on drunken boasting.
Bracket play, eveyone plays one game of chosen game, then a game of their oppenents chosen game. Highest combines score moves on.
You get the idea from there.

TONS OF FUN.

[Sephroth57]

thats pretty sweet, i want to have a Bemani game party, pretty soon ill have enough stuff to do it. I got 2 metal pads Ill hook up to my PC with stepmania that will be the main game. then DDR max on PS2 with plastic pads, and beatmania on my MAME machine with beatmania ebay controllers, all i need are the beatmania controllers  

[Minwah]

Paige:  Which Badlands was it?  You said 'Noices' but I'm not sure what that is, the laser disc one?

Also, which 'Off The Wall'?  Atari's or the one with the double-jointed arm swingers?  I like that one

The people I get annoyed with are those who are constantly pummelling every direction and button at an astonishing rate & power, barely able to tell what is actually happening on screen.  I'm looking forward to my power to 'ban' people for such behaviour  

[etumor]

I've had a number of parties over the past year, and my MAME cab is always the star attraction.  The most recent one was a New Year's Eve party, where 40-50 people showed up (I didn't even know half of them, it seems word got around).  At any given time, there was a minimum of 2 people on the cab, and often it was 4 people, with a crowd watching.  Can't tell you what games got played, because I was busy with other things, but I saw three guys play all the way through "Knights of the Round" toward the end of the night, and I know Gauntlet I & II both got played.

Unrelated, but the other big hit at the New Year's party was the fact that I hooked up my Apple Powerbook to my 51" TV and stereo system, and had iTunes running.  This played visualizations which moved to the beat on the TV, with the name of the artist and song, and a thumbnail of the album, while the song played on the stereo.  That got almost as many comments as my MAME cab!

As for girls being the ones who play, that is completely true.  When I tell guys about my MAME cabinets, they always say, "that is so cool!" but the girls just look at me funny.  But when the girls come over to the house, you can't drag them off from playing Centipede and Puzzle Bobble.  The explanation I've been given repeatedly is that the older "classic games" are simpler and require very little learning, which makes them more appealing to women.  They can just jump on and play.  Try to sit them in front of an X-Box, and they think it's a complete waste of time to learn all of those buttons and combos (and they are almost certainly right about that).  Obviously there are exceptions, but that seems to be the general pattern.  Men have more patience for the complete waste of time that is video games, while women have more good sense!

-Jeff "etumor" Allen

P.S. In the picture, notice that there is in fact a girl on the machine!

[paigeoliver]

Paige:  Which Badlands was it?  You said 'Noices' but I'm not sure what that is, the laser disc one?

Also, which 'Off The Wall'?  Atari's or the one with the double-jointed arm swingers?  I like that one

Oh, I said "Noice's" because it belongs to "Noice87", who is another internet arcade guy (it was bought for him at a local auction by someone else, and then I am holding it until it he can make it up here to pick it up). It is the Atari one, the car driving one. If it was the laserdisc one, then I would probably be scared to leave it running!!!

And it was the Atari "Off the Wall". I might rotate the monitor in that one for the next party, so it can be Tempest or Centipede instead.

[BLACK KNIGHT]

That is too cool!!!  A couple of friends and I started collecting arcade games just within the past few months and decided to build game rooms.  I'm currently having a 17'x 16' game room added to my house...can't wait until it's done.  All of my games except for one are at a friend's house until I have the game room finished and can move them in.

Paige:  Where abouts do you live??  My friends and I live in Maryland and are looking at starting an arcade club where basically once a month or something we get together at someone's house and play on their arcades.  

I usually host LAN parties at my house...used to have them all the time but it's been to busy with all the construction recently.  Looking forward to having my first Arcade party!

Oh the funny thing about girls playing 'em.  My one arcade that is in my house is in my dining room for lack of other place to put it right now.  My wife plays it just about every day!

[Lilwolf]

If you cant kick and throw tantrums.... Why build it arcade quality???

!@#

I build an arcade machine so I didn't have to replace so many !@#!@ little pieces of !@# that can't handle one #!@# up tantrum!  My !@# !@#6$#^$6  Everyone knows that the !@# games cheat like a little 1@#!@ ho#@!  And you need a sturdy machine to make sure that you don't !@#! get pissed when you !@# break something and can't finish your game!

at least thats why I built one!

(I really am a LOT harder on my game systems then my kids.... but @!# it!)

 

[screaming]

!@#

  hahahaha Good one