anyone else have to keep their own kids out of the arcade?

vintagegamer

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anyone else have to keep their own kids out of the arcade?

I love my son dearly. I really, really do. But he's that one kid you never want near any of your arcade games :( He's starting to do a little bit better now (coming up on 3.5 years) but up until now, I couldn't leave him for one f'ing second alone out there. If I start playing a game that he's watching, and he wanders off, that's basically the end of my game. Otherwise, I will have a repair coming up that I honestly can't afford right now. I know these games were built to take quite a bit of abuse BITD, but if a stick gets broken or a CP gets trashed, I don't really have the cash to get another one right now.

It makes it really hard to enjoy the hobby sometimes when you have your own personal supply of C4 walking around in your game room. :(

My daughter has been playing the games since she was the same age, and she *never* made me worry around the games like this boy does. Ugh.
 
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My daughter respects the hell out of my games & the hobby (she's 12). In fact, during her last birthday party, she yelled at her girlfriends who she thought were being a little too rough with the machines... before I even had a chance! Gotta love that.
 
My daughter respects the hell out of my games & the hobby (she's 12). In fact, during her last birthday party, she yelled at her girlfriends who she thought were being a little too rough with the machines... before I even had a chance! Gotta love that.

That is awesome. My daughter is great with mine as well. My son, however, is like Godzilla finding a new town in Japan..
 
As a soon to be parent.. do I dare ask what the little tornadoes do to arcade games?

I'll just fire a few examples off:

1. Monaco GP cockpit- I MAME'd it, and the steering wheel is connected to a mouse for the controls. It's semi-fragile. If you play it like a normal adult, no worries. If you let my son near it................. He thinks it's a roulette wheel. He spins it as fast as he can.

2. Pinball machines- he will start a game, but won't just start a 1-player game.. he'll keep pushing the credit button like it's going to win him a prize.

3. UR arcade games- he scrambles over to them and grabs what ever he can to climb up to the CP- chairs, stools, whatever he can find. After he's hit the game with the chair stool etc, he climbs up and starts hitting the CP buttons like Sulu at the helm.

4. Lucky and Wild- the guns on this game are very delicate. The wiring inside is easily breakable if you are looking to rip them backwards and forwards, which seems to be what my son enjoys doing most with this game.


That should be enough to start some discussions.. :D
 
My son is only 4 months old, and totally respects the machines.. He did chew on the Gorf flight stick once, but he has no teeth yet. We discussed that, and now he uses a binky when he plays gorf..

Have a long talk with your son, discuss the rules of the arcade.. If he cant respect the rules, he may need therapy...

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I've had a couple of young kids near my machine...most notably my 4yr old niece who thinks because I like X-men and 4P games she should to. When I first got it fixed she kept jerking the joystick up and down hard!(bang[up] bang[down]..ugg! This can't be good for some 90s microswitch arcade sticks) This made me tell her to stop doing that and she listened and me an my brother have started to teach her how to play. She's not very good but I'm sure she'll get better.

A similar thing happened with some kids belonging to a family friend as their little girl did the same thing while I was teaching her older brother(about age 7[boy] and she's like three or four) how to play. After I quietly told her that jerking the stick like that probably wasn't a good idea she stopped.

The one kid I haven't gotten near this thing is my tornado of a nephew(my sister's kid) who seems to be pretty darn destructive with lots of other things...
 
This is why I sold my Big Blue and bought pinball machines. ;)

I did find that little turd doing pullups on the side of STTNG the other day though. Guess it's a good thing I just replaced the leg plate that was wonky in the cabinet.
 
My son is now 4 and he does quite well with the games. Howeverhe has been on a lot of game hauls with dad so I guess he picked up some respect along the way.

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I love my son dearly. I really, really do. But he's that one kid you never want near any of your arcade games :( He's starting to do a little bit better now (coming up on 3.5 years) but up until now, I couldn't leave him for one f'ing second alone out there. If I start playing a game that he's watching, and he wanders off, that's basically the end of my game.

Honestly, if you want to play and thoroughly enjoy "the game" then do it when he's asleep or when someone else is playing with him. When he's in the arcade play games with him knowing full well he'll play some rough and some not correctly at all. My son's 5 and he'll start pushing my buttons (the ones on my side) when we play street fighter 2. He thinks it's funny, so I start pushing his and moving his character around. That right there became "a new game" for us. IMO the purpose isn't the "game" so much as the interaction.

It makes it really hard to enjoy the hobby sometimes when you have your own personal supply of C4 walking around in your game room. :(

My daughter has been playing the games since she was the same age, and she *never* made me worry around the games like this boy does. Ugh.

Sit with him and show him how to play with things nicely. See if your daughter can help show him. Sure he might get a little rough with somethings, but patiently show him how it's supposed to be done. It took a little while before teaching our son that "The Kitty doesn't like tackles." but after some reinforcement and teaching him how to use "gentle touches" he's ok with the cat (more importantly the cat is no longer scared of him). Same with the arcade, If he's s little rough with the games he gets corrected, if he does something like kick one out of anger, then he's done for the day and he REALLY doesn't like when he's "done for the day, no games" because I always follow through.
 
As a soon to be parent.. do I dare ask what the little tornadoes do to arcade games?


I have never had trouble with my kids (almost 2 and 5) but I found my friend's kid standing on the CP of my Donkey Kong once (he was 3 ish) and I was fit to be tied. He doesn't usually get to play games for very long as he likes to pound on the monitor bezel.
 
My daughter is 6 now, and she does really well in my gameroom. My son is 2 1/2, and he needs close supervision, as he sometimes likes to take the keys out of the coindoors. My next party is going to be adult only, nuff said.
 
Our magic age with our kids has been about 5. That's when they seem to understand concepts other than "Hulk SMASH!" Other than an occasional reminder to go easy on the joysticks they do really well. Of course, my games are more for me and my 5-year-old twins. My 9-year-old would rather play Halo and COD and my 13-year-old daughter pretends they don't exist.

It's also why my machines are "gently used" condition rather than full-on 100% resto. That way I don't sweat every approaching bar stool.

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