What do you have to do to get a cab inside the house?

[diverdown]

Ok for those that are single get stuffed.......


For those that have a "significant other"  i.e wife, g/f , mom (lol) what have you had to promise (or do) to be allowed to bring a cab into the house and out of the shed?


For me the first one just migrated into the tv room because i was "spending too much time away from the kids in the shed".

Now it seems if i landscape the front yard i can have a whole room to set up as a games room.  This is great, the only issue we are in a drought here in OZ and cant water the garden EVER so it's a little hard to "landscape". (hmm I wonder if she thought of that and is just messin with my mind)

The other issue will arise if She ever looks at how much pinball machines sell for on ebay here.


But it got me to wondering,

What have you lot have had to do?

[deadkenndys1105]

Well I know I had to go threw hell and back to get my mame project started.  My mom had no idea what I was talking about until and I had to explain it for about 2 months.  The millipede cabinet was a lot easier.  Still a trip to hell and back though.  This is not a hobby for a junior in high school now is it.

[bfauska]

I don't know what you are talking about.  I wear the pants in this family.



well... I wear them when she says I can.

Oddly, my wife recently pointed to an empty Golden Tee cab on Craigslist and said that I could get it if I put a joystick with with a pink glowing handle on it.  I didn't get the cab because it was already snatched up by the time we saw it, but I would have lived with a pink joystick if it meant I could have a full size cab in our apartment.  When she asked what the charge on the card was for an LEDwiz and some LEDs I could have said she told me to also.  Seemed like a good deal to me.  The funny part is that her requirement for having the cab was a pink joystick and she probably won't play it more than twice anyhow.

Of course just because you manage to get it in the house without too much of a fight doesn't' mean that you won't have to do eleventy million new things because "you got that arcade contraption."

I suppose it's worth it for a good hobby right?

Later,
Brian

[diverdown]

At least when its your folks you have to convince you probably have your own bedroom. Things like snakes/lizards bizzare stuff from the dump used to just appear in my bedroom...   what mum didn't know couldnt bite her.


Now I have to share my bedroom and i garantee that there is nothing i could do to get a cab in there.... i asked already. The answer involved something to do with the bedroom useage and chioce of one or the other.

[ahofle]

Well I know I had to go threw hell and back to get my mame project started.  My mom had no idea what I was talking about until and I had to explain it for about 2 months.  The millipede cabinet was a lot easier.  Still a trip to hell and back though.  This is not a hobby for a junior in high school now is it.

High school junior with a dedicated Millipede cabinet?  That's pretty amazing.   

[Bobbler]

The missus and me dont tend to argue over little things like an arcade cabinet, there's plenty more worse things I could be doing with my time and I think she appreciates me out of her hair tinkering with the cab.

I just pointed at it on ebay, said I am getting it
She said ok - where you putting it and can you afford it?
I joked - the baby's room LOL
She just said ok 

Dont understand why people have such troubles with their partners?
I did the same with getting a motorbike - carry on no problem
My numerous games consoles - yep no problem
Japanese performance 2 door car - yep no probs as long as the baby seat fits in the back.

Half the time I dont even ask anymore, I just turn up home with it

Just lucky I guess

[SavannahLion]

I did have arrangements to have the extra bedroom turned into a computer room, game room, whatever the ---fudgesicle--- I felt like. In exchange, she could do whatever she wanted me to do to the rest of her house (yes, it's her house  ). Unfortunately... well, the situation changed and I have to give up the room before I've managed to unpack any of the boxes. Now it's a major headache just to take over at least half of the only remaining available room in the entire house, the craft room which will now henceforth be known as the "work" room.

Meanwhile, I'm going to try and clean the garage and reclaim what I can from there. It's going to have to double as my workshop and the arcade since I'm slated to gain possession (but not ownership) of a Golden Axe cab. It's not an understatement when I say I can't open the garage door and can't find the cats. I just hope they're still alive. 

The problem isn't actually owning the cab. The problem is finding a place to put it where the kids won't spill crap all over it, where the cats won't turn it into a scratching post, where the dogs won't pee on it and where the GF is happy that it fits into her "contemporary" decor. The Coca Cola memoriabilia in this place drives me insane, considering I'm a Pepsi drinker. 

[Luigi]

Luckily my mate Dirk (who I collect the cabs with) has rented a little hall for his little business for storage reasons. he just bought his own hall with a room a little bigger than now for the collection


As I first mentioned to make a Mame-cabinet and brought home the Zarracia-Cab my wife must have thought that I went totally crazy. Well, after some weeks it was ready for playing and she played some rounds of Puzzle Bobble (alone and against me).

At weekends, when we meet at the hall for tinkering I can take the two kids with me. There's plenty of space, we have a beamer for the "cinema" and they can play outside. So this is OK for her if I don't spend too much time with the cabs (i.e. more than with the family).

I always say better than getting drunk twice the week and spending the money that way 

[mountain]

"Honey, wouldn't this be great for the kids? We can put it in the family room. I will install a headphone jack so they can play it quietly”

[nexus6]

and luckily luigis mate dirk gave me a cab, that matchs perfectly in the living room, so that my wife cant say anything against it

[Luigi]

and luckily luigis mate dirk gave me a cab, that matchs perfectly in the living room, so that my wife cant say anything against it

Hi Nexus


What do you say guys? This cab matches perfectly into the room....... WAF = enormous!! 

[javeryh]

My one finished cab (well, 90%) is sitting in the basement collecting dust.  The space I was going to put it in the TV room has turned into my daughter's toy storage area.  It's hard to argue against that.  Plus, she hates it even though whenever we have a party all anyone wants to do is play it and then all of a sudden it becomes cool.  As soon as everyone leaves though it's back to hating it.

The second one I'm building is for my daughter and I hope to put it in her room when I'm finished.  It's a mini and it is going to match the color scheme so there shouldn't be too much of an issue (I hope).  My wife does hate when I work on the cabs because she thinks I should be spending that time with my daughter... it's tough because she has no hobbies to speak of so I can't win that arguement either.

[Jeff AMN]

I don't like to think that I tricked my wife into this, but this is what worked for me:

-I showed a lot of enthusiasm for the hobby (read Project Arcade in bed, talked about MAME, etc.)
-I introduced her to some cool 2-player games (Bubble Bobble, beat-em-ups, etc.)
-Got her involved in the art design process
-Told her how to navigate the front end in case she'd ever want to play
-Pointed to a location where it would look nice

Basically I just was very careful to make sure that she was involved in the project, even if she was pretty much hands-off the whole time. Right now I'm working on it in the garage, but she keeps commenting on how neat it will be once it's in the house.

[(+_+)]

It's tit for tat, in that case tat. 

We go to Cuba almost every year, so it is kind of an unwritten agreement that when I get an upgrade or start a new cab project etc, we go on a trip. I kind of like it that way.

[ChadTower]

Just move it inside and tell her if she doesn't like it to move it back herself.  Unless your wife is East German, it will stay there.  If she is East German, she's just going to beat your ass anyway, so don't try it.

[Chris]

Mine relented when I put jukebox software on it.  Before that she was going to make me keep it in a storage shed.

[ChadTower]

For every item she makes you put in a storage shed, put one of hers into the shed.  Keep going until the house is empty.  See who caves first or if she moves into the shed herself.  Either way, you win, and you'll get some quiet.

[Crowquill]

I think it all depends on your wife/GF. I tried to involve her in the process like Jeff did, but she didn't care anything about my MAME cab. She mostly just got tired of hearing about it. I was going to paint the cab navy blue to be more neutral but she told me I should make it more "fun-looking" so I went back to primary red. That shocked me but I wasn't going to complain.

Once it was complete I started trying to convince her that a JAMMA cabinet would be good so that we could play real arcade PCBs that are too new to run well in MAME. Surprisingly that one didn't get immediately vetoed, but it took a while to coordinate. I bought Mr Driller 2 as the first PCB since I knew she would probably like it since she likes puzzle games. She got hooked on it pretty quickly.

I have these two in my office/studio. It's the one place that's pretty much mine. It also helps that we don't have kids. When I started talking about looking for a Neo-Geo cab, it WAS vetoed quickly. Two cabs is realistically all that I can easily fit in the room.

Now I've started building a cocktail and haven't had any opposition so far. (It's functional as well--really). So far I guess my best method is to mention things in passing and see what the reaction is. I've also made some compromises along the way. 

[nostrebor]

You give up building stock cars and restoring cars. She will be willing to put up with just about any hobby after living through the financial hell of stock car building.

We are renovating the game room right now, and she's more enthusiastic about it than I am. Of course the 2 pins and 5 games temporarily resting in her dining room might be a motivator.

[johnperkins21]

I told my wife this is what I wanted to do, and we found a house that has a dedicated game room. As long as the bills are paid and I don't spend more time with the cab than I do her, it's fine. I guess the biggest hurdle was finding a woman who accepted me for who I am, along with all of my hobbies.

[CheffoJeffo]

You can do whatever you want with the basement, just get those cabs out of my dining room and make sure that Bust-A-Move is always in the red one.

Three cabs moved downstairs same day and Bust-A-Move permanently residing in slot 1 of my MVS-2. 13 cabs later and no complaints, other than perhaps one suggestion:

You should finish building your office so we can move the computers out of the game room and have more room for games.

 

[ChadTower]

As long as the bills are paid and I don't spend more time with the cab than I do her, it's fine.

Man I hope you mean "than I do with her", otherwise you have a lot of work to do.     You might want to hire a Latin pool boy to pick up the load.

[Panzer]

I had to buy a new house! Wife told me our current place was too small. Well it just happened that we needed a new house anyway because my three kids had outgrown the other.

So when we finally bought the new place a few months later I reminded her that she said as long as I bought a bigger house I could buy it.

The only problem I get now is that the project keeps costling more and more money. Had to get her a mini makeover just to buy a stinking video card.

Not sure how I am going to get the Marquee and side art printed yet... Probably have to take her on vacation...

[ChadTower]

It's always odd to hear people say things like "so we bought a bigger house".  Can't do that in MA, people are usually just so grateful they managed to get the first house that buying a new one is out of the question.

[johnperkins21]

It's always odd to hear people say things like "so we bought a bigger house".  Can't do that in MA, people are usually just so grateful they managed to get the first house that buying a new one is out of the question.

Well, we had to move from California to Arizona to afford the first house. We were very grateful to have that place, but our financial situation improved so we could afford a bigger place (though still in AZ). We could not, in any fashion, afford a place big enough in California to even put a bartop.

It all comes down to priorities. I would love to move back to California, but we wouldn't have a house and I definitely couldn't have a room to put a pool table and some arcade cabs. So we're living here for now. If it's that important to you, you'll make the move.

[am_monkee]

It's always odd to hear people say things like "so we bought a bigger house".  Can't do that in MA, people are usually just so grateful they managed to get the first house that buying a new one is out of the question.

it's even weirder to hear people say that when you're in nyc...we're just grateful we scored an apartment that is roach-free and not our entire yearly salary...

[jelwell]

Ok, so I don't *live* with my significant other. But I can tell you what happened to get her to love the cabinet. Two things:

1. Focus the attention on her favorite retro game.
     For her this was Super Mario Brothers 3. Turns out she used to have a nintendo so having that game on there - and EASILY accessible was crucial. One of these days I'll pony up and get a retrozone Nintendo controller with USB so it even feels right.
2. Get her stuck in front of a "real" cabinet sometime.
     I don't know how you can plan this, because just forcing her in front of one is only going to make her bitter. But my girlfriend got stuck at a Fire department one day, for work. They had a multicade cabinet. Ms Pacman, etc. I didn't get to see it but I assume it's legitimate, and it's definitely of high quality. She got home, and she wanted me to build her a cocktail cabinet.

It's not as important, so i didn't number it, but I'd also shoot for as much quality as possible. Short changing your design (with dumpy wood, or poorly integrated artwork) is likely to cause your cabinet to get thrown back into the garage. If you have rough edges that require her to wear gloves while playing you're not doing yourself any favors.
Joseph Elwell.

[WaRpEd]

Man I LOVE being single!!!

[Xam]

I am one of the lucky ones. I didn't have to fight, plead, deceive, etc.

When I first started researching MAME, I mentioned that I would like to try to build a cab like some that I saw while researching. She simply said "Well, why not try it then?"

Needless to say, I was flabbergasted! I was trying to figure a way to get this behemoth in the home, and she just invited it in...LOL!

Xam

[AMDman13]

My wife was cool with building the Cab from the get go. She did get frustrated at times during the 8 month build process, but even that was very little.. I still can't believe it!

We have a small house and she didn't want it in the living room so I comprimised and here it is(see Pic)...


That's right it's in our Master Bedroom. 

[TOK]

You give up building stock cars and restoring cars. She will be willing to put up with just about any hobby after living through the financial hell of stock car building.

We are renovating the game room right now, and she's more enthusiastic about it than I am. Of course the 2 pins and 5 games temporarily resting in her dining room might be a motivator.

Same here, but with motorcycles. I had 6 dirt bikes when we got married. My wife knows I get a little crazy and usually go a bit too far with anything I do, so strange but harmless behavior is overlooked. I'm working on my 3rd machine now, then plan to get two dedicated machines (Robotron and Defender) and a pinball machine. Also in the process of converting a room into a gameroom/bar. My MAME cabs are currently in my computer room, which is actually a pretty cool setup, but I'm out of space.

She's not into it at all, but I think she knows its cool because anyone who comes over, from kid to mid-50's runs right back here to play them.

[Chris G]

As long as she doesn't have to hear about it, my wife is pretty low-key about the whole thing.  And since she's into cars, which is obviously way more expensive, I have a long line of credit.