Building over playing?

[Ghoward]

Is it me of does anyone else like building cabinets more than playing on them? The sad thing is the first cab I made I gave to my brother and he plays the thing all day long. I really don't use mine other than as a Jukebox.

Gary

[TalkingOctopus]

I'll agree that building is fun, but I still play my arcade at least once a day even if it is only one 10 minute game of something like robotron.  Lately, I've been having high score competitions with some friends.  We play from different locations and post the score screenshots on the net.  It has been fun.  Currently, we are playing donpachi.  I have the high score of about 4,300,000 (yeah I know that is a pathetic score compared to you professional shmups players).  I don't know what kind of games you like but maybe adding a dreamcast would revive your arcade.  They are cheap and I think the games are a blast.

[Santoro]

Yup.  I enjoy building more than playing.  (Though I do love playing.)  

I think it is the satisfaction of producing such a unique thing that drives me.  Plus, what other pastimes combine my two hobbies - computers and carpentry?

[Lilwolf]

I spend 10x more time writing my frontend then I do playing.  And recently that isn't all that much time.  My cabinet can be off for days at a time recently.

but I have easier access to do it...

[hulkster]

oh man, im totally with you on this one.  i spend more time scowering these boards and configuring my arcade cab than anything else.  i just want to make it better and make improvements on it all the time.  i mean, i play it quite a bit, and its fun to just sit down and play a game that i havent before or play a side scroller just for the sake of beating it in 30 min. or so.  but arcade games dont have a whole lot of replay value.  some do if you are adicted to them, but games like xmen and tmnt, while they are some of the best games on the machine, i dont play them a whole lot because ive beaten it so many times.  thats why its good to put other emus like NES, N64, and SNES (i like nintendo) on your cab because those games have better longevity and replay value.  im playing paper mario right now for the n64 on my cab and its pretty cool...rpg stuff.  if had the money and space, id build them and sell them.  

[Ghoward]

It's true arcade games dont have a whole lot of replay value Hulkster, I get sick of most of them fast, I really just built my cab because I wanted to play classic games like Pacman, Space Invaders etc.....

I'm going to build a JukeBox which I know we will get a lot more use out of.

Gary

[MameMaster!]

...I once did a poll about this about a year ago.

I too enjoyed building and planning in many ways more than actually playing. So much so that I've built two cabs.

Om stand up cab (which I built in early '03)...I rewired everything about 6 months ago....now I totally stripped down the whole thing (to just a shell) and am totally redoing with complete full side and front art (I'll be posting pics soon!).

In addition, I'm again going to rewire/arrange stuff inside the cab.

For me it's the most satisifying part of this hobby.

Hell if I  had the space I would build a sit down!

MameMaster!  

[Matt, GoC]

Hell if I  had the space I would build a sit down!

Son, I'm moving into an efficiency (tiny one room) apartment tomorrow.  I'll MAKE ROOM for a cab!

[danny_galaga]

i love building things so building the cab was great. since i finished it in march i havent gone more than a day without playing it. one reason some of you guys give for not playing it is that you get to the end of the game too easily. well, im a phenomenomally bad player so i dont get tired of it!! i DO get tired of not doing too well though!! and of course i keep discovering games i hadnt played before- i was playing karnov just now for instance.
 i havent done much fiddling with it lately though (the cab, the cab). since i have a rotating monitor the next thing would be for me to make it rotate automatically upon selection of a game. will have to convince a programming friend of it's imperative neccessity...

[MrBond]

Very strange, for some reason I got an idea to ask this very question here.  I love fidling with my cab and adding improvements, as well as scouring these forums for other views and ideas.  I'm going to rewire everything shortly with some nice quick disconnects and molex connectors (if I can borrow the crimping tool from my uncle).  I still need to decide what artwork I want to put on the side of the thing.  I'm thinking of painting it, since I love art.  I recently finished a speaker installation.  It just never ends!  (I'm even thinking of building a bartop or cocktail cab at some point in the future...probably not until I get my own place though).

On the other side of things, I tend to get into a single game and play it for a few hours at a sitting.  Currently I am hooked on BombJack.  Excellent game in my opinion.  I also put many a hour into time pilot and marvel vs capcom.

[paigeoliver]

Hee, hee. I have 9 working machines and countless projects and I can go weeks without turning them on.