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Why it's a good thing to require quarters/tokens
NightGod:
Ditto on Lifeforce. And, um, Rastan and Shinobi.
DaveMMR:
I think if you're going through the expense and effort of recreating the arcade experience, a coin door is almost a must. It really adds *so much* to the overall package, especially when you consider how many games are "ruined" by being able to slap a button without blinking to continue until the very end.
I've gotten so many "wows" just over the addition of a coin door than anything else in my (still under construction) cab. I don't know why, maybe because it removes that last telltale clue that a regular computer with Windows is lurking in the wood and makes it seem more "authentic" to the casual eye.
Plus it makes a great, interactive "coin jar" at the end of the day. :cheers:
RandyT:
Let me just say that a real coin door is one of the nicest touches one can have on a full blown stand-up machine.
But....the whole "gotta win on the last quarter" thing is a little weak in practice. You do, after all, own the key to the door and could easily give yourself extra credits whenever you like, quarters or not. So if you have that ability, and choose not to use it, why not just crank up the number of credits you want to "spend" right at the beginning of the game and tell yourself that's all you'll allow?
Seems about the same to me.
RandyT
MovingTarget:
--- Quote from: arcadepcnut on July 17, 2006, 01:18:41 am ---sorry guys...at least you tried. I guess I cant be convinced. I like pushing a button to insert quarters much better than inserting quarters. that was my favorite thing when I built my first mame machine...a arcade machine that dont need quarters or tokens...just push the coin return and start playing.
*no kids to save money for
*I played enough arcade games when I was younger and put real quarters in. No need for that feeling. I dont miss it.
* I never play games that are continued on a quarter as the last quarter would make a difference. who am I fooling? myself? Is an extra button press any different that an extra quarter insert?
So I guess to sum it up...its all a mental factor. Thanks for taking the time to explain it.
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I've got to agree with you. For me, I remember only having a dollar or two to play with back in the 80's and I got enough of dropping the quarters in back then. I remember seeing a Centipede machine in the late 80's that was on free play and I was so excited that I didn't have to drop quarters in to play my fav. game!
So when I built my own machine I truly didn't want a coin door. I totally agree that having one makes it look more authentic, is a very nice touch, and is a total throw back to require someone to put in a coin, but for me I hated that part.
Maybe it's because I grew up back in the 80s and went through those motions so many times but everytime I press that credit button I feel like I dropped in a quarter except I get a flash of joy that I really didn't. Kind of feels like I just got something for free...a "mental thing" I guess.
Plus, if you've got a cup of quarters or tokens sitting next to your machine...well, that just seems a little weak to me if you're going after that feeling of digging in your pocket or getting that investing/make my money stretch feeling, but that's just my opinion. I would rather play the games because that's the part I liked.
Also, for me, I built my machine with my own theme so although I play classic games and the basic look is classic, it's NOT an authentic machine (which I think is also cool) I built it for me and I didn't want a coin door.
1UP:
--- Quote from: javeryh on July 17, 2006, 10:21:24 am ---
--- Quote from: 1UP on July 17, 2006, 04:40:23 am ---That's why I have a switching system to allow either button and coin use, or coins only! :applaud:
--- End quote ---
I'd like to do this I think... right now I have a button on my CP for "insert coin" and sometime this week I'm going to be putting the finishing touches on my cab which includes wiring the coin door.
So how did you set this up? Did you wire the coin button on your CP and the coin door into a switch and then run the one wire from the switch to the ipac or whatever? Where did you mount the switch? Out of sight?
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Any button can be disabled by cutting the ground wire right? So you just extend the ground wire that runs to your coin button to some point in your cabinet, cut it, and wire a switch in between. (I have mine mounted inside the coin door.) When you want to allow coins only, you flip the switch to "off" and when you want free play, you flip it "on". You'll need a dedicated ground wire for the coin buttons only, i.e. it shouldn't "daisy chain" to any other buttons from that point.
Here's another true story: A couple years back, I brought my machine in to work for a few months. I was working at an effects studio, so the boss wasn't too thrilled, because we were running out of time on the movie we were working on, and a lot of the guys were spending too much time (hours sometimes) playing because they could just keep hitting the coin buttons, and had no self control to just decide it was time to get back to work. :-\
So we came up with a compromise--the machine could stay if it was either time limited or if it took only quarters. I didn't want to bother with figuring how to time it out, so I flipped the above mentioned switch and it was now quarters only. However, I felt guilty taking money for a Mame machine, so I started handing out tokens to the guys who wanted them. It was a nice handful too, but it turned out they actually made them last, knowing they would have to come beg for more if they ran out right away. It worked!
When the job was done, and I moved on to my next gig, I emptied out the coin box--and found about $50 worth of quarters inside! Some of the guys had been donating, knowing that it had cost me a lot to rent the truck when I brought it in. I'm sure some of it was just that their weekly token ration was not enough... Either way, it gave me enough laundry money for a whole year. :)