I'm going to tell you what I'm doing, something that might make every stupid game related thing you've ever done seem totally rational. My buddy was over, and he's a big fan of Defender. I was never good at Defender in the arcades, mainly because I didn't have the money to invest required to get good at such a difficult game. Even though I was willing to admit that I stink, he seems to think he's great even though I don't think he's ever broken 50,000. When I told him I'd get better and beat his scores, he told me it'd never happen, because its "in his genes". This statement was so ridiculous, I'm totally embarrassed to admit it actually pissed me off.
How bad? On my current machine, which has a passable, but nowhere near exact approximation of the Defender layout kludged together by the addition of a Reverse button and using player 1 and 2 controls, I have played Defender hundreds of times. He had the highest score on my machine for months. My irritation/mental illness about his comment is so bad that I now have the high score list at a point where his old high score that sat unbeaten for months won't be enough to make the bottom of the Top 10 list... even if he quadruples his old score.
Sounds fairly rational so far, right? Well, so that he doesn't have the option of using the non-exact control panel for an excuse, I'm also building a complete cabinet around the original Defender/Stargate layout, right down to using an original Stargate CPO.
If it all still sounds pretty reasonable, I also haven't told him ANY OF THIS. I've just told him I've been practicing at Defender, prepare for a re-match, which still elicits the "Its in the genes" reply. I'm fairly certain that if I don't humiliate him so badly that he'll never mention Defender again, the result will make what I've done up until now seem competley normal.