Crazy Hobby

Zud

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Do you ever get the feeling of just wanting to give up and quit?

I am just about at that point and right in the middle of construction of my gameroom too. :004_scry:

What was it Alanis Morsette said: "Isn't it ironic."
 
I have...
Don't rush into anything... building the man-cave might be a bit overwhelming and could be part of it.

cheers
/Tim
 
i'll take your games off your hands!
Nah, seriously, i got to a point a couple of months ago when it was seriously effecting me in a negative way. I was doing poorly at work, i was running up debt, and endangering my family life. Once i realized it, i felt i had to stop the whole thing. I shut the doors on my games for a few days, and thought things over. I made some strategies to use the games as a reward system for myself.

So though your situation sounds different, it might be good to get away from it for a few days. Get some fresh air. Make some plans, and come at it from a different angle. I wish you success in your future with your game room, it that is what is in it.
 
Yep, I've come close... Hell... I've even taken a ~5 year or so break. But I don't think you can totally break away from it. Things do get overwhelming at times with games breaking, the arcade getting *wayyyy* too cluttered, it getting too damn hot, it getting too damn cold, nothing working out right, smashing your knuckles and bleeding all over your newly applied overlay, getting the piss shocked out of you and only noticing the pee after you go to tell your wife and kids, etc.

Take a break and you'll be back. :beerchug:
 
getting the piss shocked out of you and only noticing the pee after you go to tell your wife and kids

Man I have been shocked pretty good from a monitor and marquee and I'm pretty sure I didnt piss myself. Did you just get out of the shower and decided to play with your games before you dry off?
 
I can relate...I still come on here to check things out but I've not turned my games on in over a month which is rare for me.

I've put them on the back burner for awhile now that spring is supposedly here with summer right around the corner. Focusing more on outside hobbies....like drag racing!! However - my family and I will be at CAX this year so games are not completely out of the picture over the summer.

I'll get back to it though. I have a Space Invaders pinball in need of restoring that I want to get working again before year end.

It's ok to back off for awhile and get a fresh perspective on it all again.

Just my .02.
Tom
 
Do you ever get the feeling of just wanting to give up and quit?
Sounds like the classic case of burn out.
I bet when you take a vacation you stay around the house. The next vaction you take go someplace away from the arcades. I sure when you get back you will have energy and desire to play with them once again..
 
I never really mentioned it to anyone, but I had this twinge of regret about 3/4 of the way through my game room. I'm not sure if it was burnout from doing everything myself or just a WTF moment of reflection on dedicating a substantial portion of my house to huge, obsolete games.

Those thoughts were forgotten when I saw my friends and families reaction to it. It's the first place anyone who visits wants to go and nothing is cooler than every machine on and being played.

Keep going! :)
 
I never really mentioned it to anyone, but I had this twinge of regret about 3/4 of the way through my game room. I'm not sure if it was burnout from doing everything myself or just a WTF moment of reflection on dedicating a substantial portion of my house to huge, obsolete games.

Those thoughts were forgotten when I saw my friends and families reaction to it. It's the first place anyone who visits wants to go and nothing is cooler than every machine on and being played.

Keep going! :)

Like some of my customers.

They get a machine and they want it to look minty fresh. So out comes the bondo and the paint. Machine sockets, New cap kits for the mother boards. Fresh monitor. Now what was investest in time and money wise will rarely be recouped.

But the looks on the faces of thier freinds and families and the fun they have playing games is priceless.

Your building something fun and Creating great memmories. So all that time and effort you put into this is well worth it.
 
i dont have alot of games or alot of space but can kinda relate. I have this pinball that i paid a substantial amount of money for that broke shortly after purchasing it. since i dont have alot of space it takes up some prime space in my tiny game room, i was ready to throw in the towel on pins as this one left a horrible taste in mouth, but the guys over in the pin section suggested i take a break from it and dont give up. So there it sits i figure now ill get to it when i feel like it, i was ready to almost give it away! It was just so frustrating, and i want to play it so bad but now that i have a diffrent perspective on it since i quit messing with it i feel much better. just hang in there, thats what everyone's here for.
 
They are out in the garage whenever I want to mess with them, and I just don't go out there when I don't want to mess with them. Nothing has to get done, so I don't stress over it much anymore. right now, I feel like working on them, so I am planning to spend the weekend in the garage. fun fun.
 
When I was doing my basement arcade, I had a huge challenge because it was impossible to get the games into my basement because of the layout of the existing house.

There was a point about have way thru the construction where I just stopped and said, "what the eff and I doing?! Is it all worth it?!?!?".... but this was after I had gutted the entire staircase from my basement to the first floor... and first floor to the second floor... for the purpose of reconfiguring the stairs so I could get games into the basement... which unfortunately reconfigured my floor plan on both first and second floors, thereby causing me to gut and renovate 1 of the bedrooms, one of the bathrooms, and my entire kitchen!

It was a crap load of work, but it went from this:

01.jpg



TO THIS:

78.jpg




So when I go into my basement now and look around and say "was it worth it?" I always say IT WAS DEFINITELY WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"



.
 
I'm at same point too...been trying to get this gameroom building up for many years..its finally at the point where we are starting and I often wonder if I'm wasting money doing this..then I think about the looks of envy I'll get from my buddies. That rejuvenates me to want something that is truly dedicated to the hobby I've invested so much money and time into...I think its natural to get burned out or bored...but the enjoyement and fun a dedicated gameroom will bring is truly priceless..that keeps me going. It helps to have a wife who is on board with this...of course..part of it is that she knows all my games and related crap will be out of the house completely and that makes here even more motivated than me to get this done...:D
 
Keep your eye on the goal....

My small project took about 8 months to complete... mainly because I paid cash for everything, and chose to use my buddy who's a contractor and work was done when he had time.

The room was a cheap sun room that was grandfathered into the property. The slab was cracked and parts of it were sinking. It also had termites, ants, and leaked every rain. Had a tin roof, old moldy insulation, carpeting that had been wet several times. It originally was used for our family room and the dryer portion kept some of my games.

I decided to move about half of my games at the time into the room since we chose to make a family room elsewhere. Wasn't about to put more games into a room that leaked so that began the project.

The games were moved into the living room and dining room for about 6 months... my wife was pissed, and she knew they had to go somewhere during construction but didn't want them to sit outside. I guess in hindsight I have to give her some credit.

Construction felt like it took forever but the final result is so much nicer. Of course, about two years later my wife and I split. I sold off more than half of the 60 games I had, and now the game room is 1/2 games, the other half my office. It's much cleaner now than the pic but I still don't regret it....the blacklight carpeting and the stair leds...they always get the most attention.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/82339247@N00/sets/72157626689700161/

Just enjoy the process...knowing that it will get done and you will find something else to focus on...hopefully that will be playing the games.
 
I have been there a few times. Generally after dealing with people that tick you off. I have stood there looked at all the games and wondered what the heck I am doing. It always happens when somebody pees in my cereal.

I have had as many as 40 games, and got down to 25 this year after selling them off to fund a couple of other hobbies. I thought I was going to sell down to just a few games. It is absolutely no use. I always have to eat crow with all my buddies. Because I just can't get out.

For me it is really the thrill I get from finding them. I just found a local warehouse that was untapped. Something about discovering, aquiring, fixing having a minty burgertime is going to make me happy.

It is, what it is. As with all things there are ups and downs.
 
Well I have stopped construction until the builder gets back into the States. That gives me a week or so to think about this.
 
I started feeling this way last year when I finally confronted the reality I had a bunch of games that needed work..either cosmetic or functional and when multiplied times 30 games was really a bummer to think about. I was just collecting games, parts and artwork and shoving them in the garage....Just storing them and not playing stuff. And its largely been like this for the 6+ years I've been in this hobby. After thinking about it, I committed to getting all my games fixed and restored beginning January 1st with a target completion date of my oldest son's 7th Birthday July 18th. I told myself if I just completed 1 project a day, eventually everything would get done. Well, it looks as though I'm going to hit my goal and have actually begun playing and enjoying the games as there isn't very much left to fix. It hasn't come without enormous expense, time and the help of some good friends. Finding a nice SmashTV marquee was just one of the items on my todo list, so thanks man.

Hang in there Zud, take a break from it abit, then come back and keep plugging away at it, even if its a little bit at a time. You'll hit your goals eventually and it will all be worth it.

Tom
 
Cool to read about how many people bottomed out at some time during their builds! I felt like it was just me.
 
I think everybody hits that point sooner or later. Just look at the "goodbye forever" posts over the last few years. Probably 80% of those people are back.

One thing that I found that has helped a lot is remote sockets. Last christmas I found these inexpensive ($10 or so) remote controlled sockets. They have little keyrings on them so I have one hanging on most of the video games. If I want to play one game without firing up the whole room, click it's on. When I'm done, click it's off. I used to have to turn the whole bank of them on. Now I play what I feel like playing and that has helped a lot.

ken
 
yeah thats why i was asking for warehouse raid pics the other day... trying to relight the fire..

its ok, youll burn out for awhile, but youll come back.
 
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