How Did Everyone Get Into This Hobby... and Get it Past Your Wives? haha

[RoninEditor]

I'm just curious how we all got to this point, wanting to relive our childhoods enough to invest hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours on building our own arcade cabinet.

My father's memories were tuned into the sounds of his Dean Martin style music while working on cars in his garage as a kid.  To me?  I can hear a sound from a certain game and instant memories flashback to me, like the days at the batting cages with the bass echoing from a Galaga ship exploding in the arcade, awaiting our chance to get on, lining up our quarters, the pile I would hold in my batting helmet afterwards.    I used to be a video game nut, had all the mini arcade games like Galaxian, Q-Bert, the yellow circular Pac-Man game (which I still have!), and Tron... I made 'arcades' in front of my house and charged the neighbor kids to play my games, lol.  I even remember at my father's grocery store the first game we got to have in-house from the local game leasing guy - the Pacman ripoff "Piranha."  (I just played the ROM and my god, the memories came flooding back."  And then we got Galaxian... eventually I convinced my parents to turn a wing of the store into an arcade, which they did and I grew up playing Tron.

Tron is how I got here.  I always wanted to go back to those days of playing Tron but didn't know how to find it for my computer.  I'm a television editor and for a stint, I freelanced at G4 where video game experts were running around.  I told someone there about my search for Tron and in turn, he turned me onto the whole Mame 'thing' (they have it to record arcade games for segments). 

While at G4, ironically, we also did a paid commercial by the publisher of Saint's legendary book, "Project Arcade," which I edited (the spot, not the book, haha).  They had the book floating around and I was hooked!  Of course, someone else took the free copy!!  But buying it was money well-spent. 

That was, geez, three years ago... is that right?  What's been the hold-up?  As most of you all are probably experiencing - THE WIFE.  Every guy I know is gung ho about the idea of building a cab, women roll their eyes and laugh about it, and stop laughing when you tell them how much it costs.  But finally, I got off the sidelines and ordered my parts... shockingly, she didn't protest too much because, after three years, she realizes it's not just a fad or something I'm half-a$$ing. 

Anyway... that's my story, I was just really curious how we all got to this point!  (My wife doesn't believe there's a whole community of us helping each other out, lol.)

[paigeoliver]

The best way to slip it past the wife is NOT to scratchbuild. Convert an existing cabinet. Converting an existing cabinet can be done in a matter of hours. 

[waveryder]

When I was a younger lad...In the dark ages. I got hooked on Bubble Booble and I swore i'd have it at home one day...thank god for mame right. First came a control panel, that was built the day CPS2 encryption was "Xored" by razoola. Not being a true enough experience the first cab quickly followed and now I've just finished the second. The wife was pretty understanding about the first one as we used to play SFA together all the time. Now years later were stuck with jobs, kids a mortgage and all that stuff that interferes with gaming. She played less and became more frustrated at my hobby. Luckily there is a secret weapon on the board to get the wives interested........"The Touchscreen Jukebox" offer to build here one of these or add it to your cab and she'll never complain again. I can usually get a couple of games in on my cab before she wants to listen to the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack. Small price to pay to keep the better half sweet 

[ex_directory]

LOL! I completed Bubble Bobble after probably about 400 hours of playing it in the arcades (were talking 1990 here), it was one of only two arcade machines we had at sixth form college, me and another guy (who I never spoke to once) used to go on together and reguarly hit 70/80 levels on 10p each. After a while we once got to 100th level and then one day we completed it. Shortly after that they changed the game because it was not making any money!!

Wife one was not too bad for me, I involved her at every stage of the planning process, got her opinion on everything. Small tip though, don't be finishing the final wiring on Christmas eve trying to get it ready for Christmas day, she ended up doing all the wrapping and then for some reason completely flipped out at me for not helping - go figure!

Oh, and if you have it in the kitchen, it's a party killer, all the lads just stand around playing it, caused used a couple of arguments, mine almost had to go... but then I installed some jukebox software (VMJ), suddenly you find all the girls taking it in turns to add tracks to play and then of course it is very accessible when you do want to play the odd game!

Ex

[TheShanMan]

My old neighbor had 2 cabs about 9 years ago, and wanted to get rid of one (a centipede that wasn't working). He gave it to me for free and introduced me to mame, and there you go! My wife does balk a bit about spending on this and that for it, but for the most part she is happy about it because my kids (6 and 4) love playing it and sometimes we play as a family.

Now getting her to go for a second cab is going to be the interesting part!

[milhouse]

My wife is a Skeeball fanatic.  Once I got the 10 foot Skeeball Machine in, she couldn't say much about an arcade machine (which she plays more than I do anyway).  Just lucky I guess.

She is also the one pushing for a Pinball machine.

[Chunce DeLeone]

Asked her what her favorite games were as a child, and served up some frogger and Spaceinvaders,  she said something wasn't right and the space invaders seemed different,  I switched over to the Atari version and she looked at me like I was God,  gave me a little breathing room for a while but not much!!!!!!!

[torcer]

In 2000, I told my wife that I wanted to build a Cabinet.  She said, "fine, but first we need to buy a house."  Yes, I bought a house so that I could have an Arcade Cabinet.

[HaRuMaN]

I let my wife scrapbook and she lets me get arcade stuff...   

[ChadTower]

It only bothers my wife when it gets unreasonable - parts/games spilling into regular areas of the house, spending too much, taking time away from family. 

[RetroACTIVE]

It only bothers my wife when it gets unreasonable - parts/games spilling into regular areas of the house, spending too much, taking time away from family. 

I'm in the exact same boat here now!

It started with mame cab (easy sell)... and spilled over into dedicated cabs... (not so easy sell at this point... too many unfinished)

[javeryh]

It only bothers my wife when it gets unreasonable - parts/games spilling into regular areas of the house, spending too much, taking time away from family. 

Same.  It's tough though because technically any time I spend working on it could be "family time" - maybe when the kids get older it won't be so much of an issue.

[Ian]

The wife was really supportive of this hobby at first, I have a monster 4 player cab that takes up a good third of our second bedroom. It was completed, and we were both happy, then I realized that my rushed control panel, doesn't hold up to constant abuse. So in essence I am slowly building a new control panel for it, and the wife's patience as run bone dry, she claims it's a black hole, so right now I am biding my time, and getting pieces of the puzzle in small increments.... one day I will have my CP! bwahahahhaha.


I got into this hobby because no matter how good Sega and Nintendo tried, arcade games weren't the same, and I had an obsession with street fighter 2 and mortal kombat. Internet gaming is fine, but it's different when your opponent is right next to you. I needed an arcade.

[DeLuSioNal29]

I took a bold move, being that we had just bought a house that same year.  Although I had plenty of room for it, money was tight.  That said:

I did the smart thing by "hyping it up" about how I wanted to buy a MAME arcade that went for around $3,000 and showing her the pictures and websites.  She knew it was always a dream of mine to build an arcade game but she hated the idea that it cost so much.  So then I started raving how I could build my own for a lot cheaper.  See where I'm going with this?

A couple weeks later I found an empty cab for $25 and just brought it home.  She saw it in the garage and then she asked the famous question:  Where I would get the money to "fill it"?  But I was prepared!  I had a ton of stuff that I previously had in storage (they now saw daylight due to our house purchase) and I made a deal with her.  I would sell some of my junk on e-Bay to pay for the parts of the cabinet.  Win - Win situation.

Then, the arcade gods smiled upon me, because one of my items that I posted on e-Bay (a collectible doll) sold for over $1,000!  That's what paid for my control panel and arcade monitor.  (And the wife couldn't touch the "e-Bay funds" since we made that deal... heh heh heh)

So there it is.

~ DeLuSioNaL

[HaRuMaN]

DeLuSioNal29 collects thousand dollar dolls... he is teh ghey!

[(+_+)]

I let my wife scrapbook and she lets me get arcade stuff...   

LOL. My wife and I have a similar agreement. We go on vacation every year and she turns a blind eye to my Gadget fetish. It's win, win.

 

[QuarterJunkie]

I went the same route as DeLuSioNal29. I mentioned casually one day the idea of owning our own arcade cabinet. Start right off with worst case scenario...Look, I can buy one for $4,000... She rolls her eyes, says yeah right, and walks away. Put together a parts list and say "look honey, remeber that $4,000 cabinet?. If I built it myself, it will only cost $400" (you can always issue change orders later ) This strategy has got me well under way with my build and she is actually kinda excited about it. If you don't think this will work for you, remember...

It's always easier to get forgiveness than permission

[wp34]

She saw it in the garage and then she asked the famous question:  Where I would get the money to "fill it"?  

Hilarious!

[TelcoLou]

My wife is very supportive of my MAME obsession ... in fact, she was the one that found a dealer near us (well, within an hour's drive) that had gutted cabinets for sale.

She's also designing the marquee and CP layout. So, it's kinda hard to "get it past" her 

[Lutus]

Get all the cabinets you want before you get married.

I have 6 currently, am single, and own my own home.  I am 24. 

Getting close to marriage though I would say.   

[solderguy1]

I told my wife how houses in our area (Santa Clara, Ca) are selling for $500 a square foot and that by rain- and sun-proofing our screened-in room, laying down area rugs, and turning it into a 200 sq-ft gameroom, I got the bargain of the century. 
"Couldn't afford not to do it, honey"

[ChadTower]

Same.  It's tough though because technically any time I spend working on it could be "family time" - maybe when the kids get older it won't be so much of an issue.

I spend most of my hobby time after the kids go to bed.  Just works out better that way in my house.

[Games001]

I ran across the MAME programs back in 1997-98 and never even thought of building my own cabinet.

Only after, by a chance of random links, coming across the BYOAC site in Oct of 2007 did I consider the idea of my own arcade at home.  It had always been the 'costs' that kept me away from the home arcade concept.

In mid Jan 2008 I purchased a number of parts and tools for the purpose of building my first, and not last, cabinet.  So far I have a MAME cab with a full set of v123.

My wife said as long as the cab had driving games she would throw whatever money and 'yes dearest' comments as needed.

[mccoy178]

I found this hobby after searching for a Golden Tee cabinet on Ebay for my brother.  I have been addicted ever since.  I am currently shifting toward cnc routers, so I'm kind of scared where that is going to take me...........

[knave]

I've kinda covered my entry in a few other threads since I'm fairly new...(about a year)

Here's the quick version.

I found MAME about 8 years ago when looking for free games for my pocket PC.  I didn't bite then...but last year my daughter got a gameboy with the Namco museum.  I loved playing that so I figured it was time to DL Mame so I didn't hogg the Gameboy.  That lead me to this site and I saw all the cool projects.  I started looking in my local CL and poof I had a cab.  Wife at first didn't like it but My mom got my first one for me for my birthday. (Yay Mom) Wife couldn't argue much about that.  Later after I picked up a few more cabs I stumbled on a game she fell in love with, Puzzle Bobble (Bust-a-move) and now she is hooked.  For a while we played every night after the kids go to bed. 

Now I have six cabs, some projects some dedicated and working.  I would get more but I'm just out of room.  It just kills me when I see crazy good deals and can't jump on them. But alas, There's always new deals tomorrow. 

[Daviea]

Great topic, RoninEditor!!

I got into the hobby in 1981.  A local arcade that I had been working for since the age of 8 went belly up because of the complaints of the laundromat next door.  I guess the type of people who hung around the arcade were too much for the type of people who hung out at the laundromat.  Go figure!  The owner was in a mad rush to offload everything, FAST.  So, the short of it is that I ended up with eight full size machines for a whopping $100.  My parents were very supportive of the whole deal, too.  My dad practically jumped out of his seat when I told him about the deal.  LOL

I still own those same machines to this day!  Since that time, I've collected many more machines.  I lugged those first few machines with me everywhere I moved which made moving just that much more difficult.  By the time I got married, my new wife was already well aware of my affliction (after dating me for so many years) and she seemed quite content to leave it be.  A few years into marriage, my collection had grown to about 40 machines.  By this time, they were starting to overrun the living areas which was more of a problem for me than my wife.  I cut back on the collecting for awhile. 

A few years later in the middle of the housing boom, I built my own house and was sure to include a nice BIG attached gameroom which is physically as far away from the main living areas as possible.  Since that time, my collection has increased by nearly 5X.  There are very few games I'm after now.  The few that I am still on the lookout for are very difficult to find, especially in good condition, let alone perfect condition.  This small problem was the reason I considered the idea of reproducing my own cabinets and artwork....to offset the controls I was already working on.  I'm not entirely sold on recreating cabinets for every game I cannot find, but there are a few I'm well intent on doing.

Since I started manufacturing reproduction parts a couple of years ago, I've enjoyed this hobby so much more.  It's put me in touch with a lot of very cool people out there whom I probably never would have met otherwise.

Looking back, as an enthusiast who got into this hobby in the early days, I'm very happy to see such a thriving community these days.  It really makes me feel good inside.

Happy gaming, everyone!!

David Adams
RAM Controls

[DeLuSioNal29]

DeLuSioNal29 collects thousand dollar dolls... he is teh ghey!

I lucked out and received many items from my grandmother's attic.  Turns out some were worth money!   

I guess I get the last laugh then, huh?

~DeLuSioNaL

[javeryh]

Same.  It's tough though because technically any time I spend working on it could be "family time" - maybe when the kids get older it won't be so much of an issue.

I spend most of my hobby time after the kids go to bed.  Just works out better that way in my house.

I work on weekends when she's at her parents with the kids (like once every 4 months).  Other than that I work at night and on the weekends during nap time.   

[psychotech]

I never got in to this "hobby" ..it's really that the hobby took me. I'll be damned to explain how it actually happened, but...

[WaRpEd]

Got divorced problem solved. 

[RandyT]

I've had my cabinet since the mid 80's.  Had an Amiga in it at the time, and that same cabinet has stayed with me ever since.  Fortunately for me, my now ex-wife was really into Superfrog and it played great on the cabinet with the WICO stick I had installed on it.  So she was all for it.

I think that's the key.  Find a game your wife / girlfriend really likes and get some "buy-in" from her.  If that doesn't work, at least make her part of the process of designing the look of it, etc.  Without some sort of real involvement on her end, it's going to be "your ugly thing in her house" that she begrudgingly accepts until she gets enough leverage on you to make you get rid of it.  And you really don't want that to happen

RandyT

[Singapura]

I'm smuggling in parts one bit at a time  . The cabinet itself isn't built yet but by that time she'll be used to it  I already reserved my old pc and got into a fight because I bought a new one.....

[genesim]

My wife helped me build mine...and swears she will never do it again.  But I must say, I couldn't have done it without her.  BLESS HER!

[Bluedeath]

My wife loves arcade too the only condition that she put for having a cab in our living room is that bubble bobble has to be in it, and i gladly agreed.

[Samstag]

My wife was out of the country for 9 straight weeks and returned to find an arcade cabinet.

Surprise!

[CrazyKongFan]

I got interested back in the late 90's (97, 98, can't remember) was doing some internet searching on Crazy Kong (go figure!  ) and found a Crazy Kong emulator with no sound. The I found MAME. It was still pretty early, so it didn't do alot of games yet, but did alot of my favorite ones. Just recently made my first MAME cabinet, and if I had the space, I definitely would have a collection of games. I'd like to do at least one more MAME cabinet though. The one I have is an old Robotron (horizontal) cabinet that had been converted to Final Fight (with the sides painted black), and was gutted when I got it. I'd like to do a vertical cabinet, games like Pac-man (and Crazy Kong ) would look so much better that way.

[ChadTower]

It only bothers my wife when it gets unreasonable - parts/games spilling into regular areas of the house, spending too much, taking time away from family. 

So this morning I'm moving some game parts out of the basement and into my car.  I make the mistake of leaving a vector monitor sitting on the kitchen floor for a few minutes.  Took the wife about 180 seconds to notice it and "accidentally" kick it.

[Jeff AMN]

Getting into the hobby was basically just me finally fulfilling a childhood fantasy of owning my own arcade machine. I started with a Street Fighter II cabinet and then go the itch to build a MAME. I got myself an empty Blitz cabinet and go to building. After the MAME, I decided I'd get out and look for some dedicated cabs. A Donkey Kong, Bubble Bobble, Ms. Pac-Man, Asteroids, Jurassic Park pinball machine, and NeoGeo in a candy cab later, I'm a full blown arcade addict.

My wife is very encouraging of my participation in the hobby. She loves going with me to pick up the machines, watching me work on them, and playing the games with me in the arcade room. I think as long as I don't start putting machines in areas outside of the game room (I still have space in there), and I don't spend more than we can afford, she's always going to support my love for the hobby.

With any of my hobbies and interests, I've never had to slip anything by. Here's hoping that trend keeps up...

[javeryh]

At least we aren't spending money restoring cars or something REALLY expensive or blowing it all on beer or at the strip club.  There are worse things than building arcade machines at home.

[ChadTower]

I know plenty of women for whom anything other than sitting in the same room with them while they watch American Idol is cause for a fight.  I have no idea how men can stay married to them.  She'll have no hobby, no life, no friends - and if he has any of them, it is a problem for her, since it is taking away from "her time".