Cocktail Cabinets - Uncomfortable to play?

[LordKaosNY]

Is it comfortable playing at a cocktail cabinet for an extended period of time?  I'm interested in knowing if you experience any pain in your wrists such as carpel tunnel.  Most upright control panels have space for you to rest your wrists.  Not so for cocktails.  Similiarily, does the angle of the monitor tend to hurt your back? 

---LKNY

[Lilwolf]

The advantages that cocktail tables have is that inbetween ever level, you take your hands off the controls, and grab the beer on top of the cocktail table... Take a drink... then continue.

So by the time your wrists hurt... You don't care


Reallly though.. I don't think you will have an issue with a pacman type horizontal one.  I personally don't like the ones that stick out the side though.

[LordKaosNY]

I would also like to hear from a few that have a 3rd control panel for fighting games.  Do you find it uncomfortable on your wrists to play for an extended period of time?

Has anyone seen a 3rd control panel that is big enough to support your wrists or is this just a tradeoff of going with a cocktal cabinet?

[LordKaosNY]

Anyone spend significant time playing games on a cocktail cabinet care to comment?

[paigeoliver]

I have played at my Midway Gorf cocktail for hours at a time without issue, it is a vertical one, no 3rd control panel. No issues at all.

Also, I love arcade games, but I will very rarely put in an arcade playing session longer than a half hour or so. The main exception would be Robotron (and NEITHER ONE of your wrists is getting any support in Robotron).

If there is any "issue" with cocktail games it is how you usually end up bent just slightly forward while playing, at least I do, but it could be that I picked my chairs for it because they had real 1980 flavor, and not because they were good cocktail chairs.

[Kremmit]

My first machine ever was a DK Jr. cocktail- My buddies and I spent literally days playing, and nobody complained about poor ergonomics.  Of course, we were 13 at the time, so we'd probably have sat on a chair made of nails as long as we could play video games for free.  Still, I don't remember comfort ever being an issue.

[RayB]

The older you get, the more upper backpain will be an issue playing cocktails.

[solfood]

I have a Ms. Pac Man/Galaga sized cocktail with a third control panel on the horizontal and I play a lot of fighters and shoot em ups.  I have pretty uncomfortable wooden stools witch make your ass hurt after awhile but I don't experience any back pain after a couple hours of play.  Plus you can set you beer on the top and drink between screens or with one hand while playing pac-man.

[LordKaosNY]

Ok, so it seems like confortable stools are a must for long cocktail play.  I'm still not sure if playing Street Fighter II games for an extended period of time is going to work out with a cocktail.  If not, no real need for that third control panel.

[Kremmit]

Chuck E. Rat's used to have padded benches, not stools.  More Butt Space^tm on a bench. 

[80sChild]

If anything I think it'd be more comfortable to play sitting down than it would be standing up. Especially for longer periods of time...

[paigeoliver]

If anything I think it'd be more comfortable to play sitting down than it would be standing up. Especially for longer periods of time...

That is true. I have both an upright (Mame) Frankencab and a sit at (Jamma) Candy cab. I play the Candy about 5 times as much, even though the Mame cabinet has every game in the Universe, better joysticks and a better monitor.

[NJDevils2006]

I have a Capcom Bowling cocktail table, and have spent many hours playing it with no discomfort.  I found that a decent pair of roll-around office chairs was a great choice for seating.

[NY_in_TX]

I have a MsPac Cocktail as my vertical 4-way mame cab.

I had the same worries about comfort, so much that I even have an upright MsPac that was going to basically run the same games.  Well, I scrapped that idea as the cocktail is everything I want and more.  My main worry was that I would not like the screen angle and would hunched or stretched or something.  that's wasn't the case, frankly you can just sit and play all day.  as for your hands,  for me, since the control panel is low my hands kinda hang in the right spot.


and as noted by most other cocktail owners, the ability to sit a beverage on top is quite nice    (but I'm sure a cupholder would do the same thing)

ny
 

[Flinkly]

um...i know most people have real cocktails, but wouldn't a dyna or true flat screen arcade monitor make up for the viewing angle and the limitations of the size of the screen?  this is slightly off topic, but i figure it would go along with ergonomics.  if and when i get around to building a cocktail, i was thinking of sticking in a dyna flat kortek 27" monitor and thinking that it would make it easier to play by limiting the amount of lean you had to do to play the cabinet and see the screen.

[Stingray]

Never had any problems with my Space Invaders cocktail, but generally I only play for maybe a half hour at a time.

-S

[MameMaster!]

....you know if you haven't seen it yet....Kevin at Retroblast.com posted a pic of the new quasicade cocktail...I think it's an innovative idea (the angle of the LCD-- I'm not talking about their control panel).....and is probably where the industry would have gone had cocktails still been in production today---

Personally I have a repro. midway cocktail...and although I would prefer a better stool...I agree with  the other here that it's not uncomfortible. I do prefer my stand up cab....for some reason I never really like the cocktail layout (viewing the screen on an angle)...but I wanted a dedicated vertical cab that takes up less space then my upright.

MameMaster!

 

[RayB]

The reason cocktail tabes didn't have angled monitors was because 99% of them were meant for 2 players to sit across from each other, sip some drinks and socialize while playing.

[jimmyjet]

I've got several cocktails right now.

[MameMaster!]

The reason cocktail tabes didn't have angled monitors was because 99% of them were meant for 2 players to sit across from each other, sip some drinks and socialize while playing.

...good point......I guess it's been a while since I've thought of a cocktail in it's "natural environment". Since I only play it by myself...I forget that part of the point was for it to be a social experience at bar.....(or other type of restaurant etc.).

But...I do think the angled LCD is a clever idea based on modern use of a cocktail in the home don't you?

[80sChild]

I really like retroblast's version of the cocktail but part of the appeal for me to having a cocktail syle cab aside from the social aspect is that I can stick a 2nd control panel on an end, rotate vertical games 90 degrees, and I don't lose any real estate on my screen.

[Wade]

I think cocktails are a bit uncomfortable to play, mostly because of the screen angle, and the way you have to sit in order to play.

But there is a bright side.  There is room to rest drinks and food.  And, typically you are playing a 2-player game, so you get to take rests.  I have never spent any marathon gaming sessions on a cocktail, if you do, then you might find yourself being really uncomfortable.

Wade

[Stingray]

I think cocktails are a bit uncomfortable to play, mostly because of ... the way you have to sit in order to play.

My 8 year old niece loves to play my Space Invaders cocktail because unlike my uprights, she can play it standing up without having to stand on something else. It's pretty funny to watch her play, she really gets into it.

-S

[80sChild]

I was thinking about this and the retro arcade cab would be perfect if someone could find a way to rotate the lcd....

I have to admit preplanning your 1st cab is tough because you get pulled in so many different directions...regard joysticks, style, monitors, etc.

[greven grevs]

for the retroblast cocktail you could set a mirror oppisite of the monitor. but then the screen would be backwards for the player2 as well asa the script unless the emulator could mirror the game so that when player2 is playing it would look backwards to player1 and reflected normally to player1.

does that make sense?

[CheffoJeffo]

I have to admit preplanning your 1st cab is tough because you get pulled in so many different directions...regard joysticks, style, monitors, etc.

As long as you realize that it is your first, and not last, cab .... then you're ahead of the game.

Cheers.

[paigeoliver]

I think cocktails are a bit uncomfortable to play, mostly because of ... the way you have to sit in order to play.

My 8 year old niece loves to play my Space Invaders cocktail because unlike my uprights, she can play it standing up without having to stand on something else. It's pretty funny to watch her play, she really gets into it.

-S

Yep, had some step-second-cousins visit a while back. The little girls played my Jack the Giantkiller and Time Pilot cocktails standing up, for like 6 hours straight, happily losing over and over and over again.

The boys on the other hand all crowded around the single player video-poker Mame (that I was running at the time), and I plugged in a couple extra gamepads for them and they went through one beat-em-up after another for 6 hours straight.

[Grasshopper]

for the retroblast cocktail you could set a mirror oppisite of the monitor. but then the screen would be backwards for the player2 as well asa the script unless the emulator could mirror the game so that when player2 is playing it would look backwards to player1 and reflected normally to player1.

does that make sense?

Yeah, I was thinking that as well. Might be a bit tricky getting the angles just right though.

I don't think the mirrored player two image would necessarily matter for most games as long as the player two joystick directions were swapped to match. It would be a way to play simultaneous two player games (such as beat-em-ups) on a cocktail whilst still facing your opponent.

The only problem is that player two's screen would appear to be further away that player one's, so he/she would be at a slight disadvantage.

[teetu]

that retrocade design is very nice and innovative.  (i'd change it up a little though).

the position one is in while playing a cocktail doesn't seem much different from when you're studying.

[danny_galaga]

If anything I think it'd be more comfortable to play sitting down than it would be standing up. Especially for longer periods of time...

That is true. I have both an upright (Mame) Frankencab and a sit at (Jamma) Candy cab. I play the Candy about 5 times as much, even though the Mame cabinet has every game in the Universe, better joysticks and a better monitor.

only the candy cab has a reletively upright monitor. i do find i get a bit of neck pain after playing my cocktail cab awhile. but then i get sore joints more easily than friends. the biggest pain in the butt weve all found was THE pain in the butt!! i made 4 upholstered stool tops but only finished two stools. what a friend of mine found was when we get sore from sitting, we can put the two leftover stool tops on the floor and kneel...

[MonitorGuru]

For me, I have no problems with the Midway cocktails and have a MsPac with the 96inone, and I play MsPac, PacPlus and Pengo on it without problems.

However I have a Nintendo (metal shell, tiny wood top) cocktail (temporarily made into a Mame) and I absolutely HATE the angle of the joysticks pointing almost straight out at you. It's very very VERY uncomfortable! I believe I will be selling the cabinet as it just doesn't work for me at all.  Perhaps these work best for only left/right movement such as space invaders or arkanoid.

[Kremmit]

I had one of those Nintendo coctails (DK Jr.)when I was a kid.  I found that chair height was everything.  Too low, and you had to hold your hand in the air to play.  Too high, and you were hunched over forward.  But if you get a seat that's just right, your hand sort of rests on your leg, and it suddenly gets much more comfortable.

If you do decide to ditch it, where are you?  I've always wanted another one.

[gregor7777]

The older you get, the more upper backpain will be an issue playing cocktails.

The older you get, the more upper back pain will be an issue sitting, standing, lying down, driving, sleeping, eating and living.

[RayB]

The older you get, the more upper back pain will be an issue sitting, standing, lying down, driving, sleeping, eating and living.

Very funny. Some positions will cause more strain than others.