desperate times: can one play games off of a generator?

vintagegamer

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desperate times: can one play games off of a generator?

I know this has been discussed before but I can't remember the outcome..

In our home, the garcade is opened and used pretty much every day. If Hurricane Irene stays on its current path, it's gonna hit us in MD pretty good. I love the garcade on rainy days bc it still makes for something fun to do with the kids.

Should this Hurricane hit as they are predicting, chances are pretty darn good that power will be lost for some time. Is it worth considering powering up games using a generator? Or go back to the 5th century and read a book (uugggghhhhhhhh)?
 
There is no reason why you couldn't power up a few games with a generator (Depending on the size of the gen...bigger = more of course).
 
I have run games off my APC UPS power supply...

You can buy an inverter that runs off a 12v battery.. MAybe loot some cars and you can keep gaming for hours..
 
As of this morning I'm directly in the path of it and will probably lose a whole day of sales at both of my restaurants. Fuck! We've been really lucky for the last four years. We were getting direct hits a few times a year before that. Before I kinda enjoyed the storm but now that I own two businesses I don't want to see them. Bill collectors don't care if you had a storm...
 
As of this morning I'm directly in the path of it and will probably lose a whole day of sales at both of my restaurants. Fuck! We've been really lucky for the last four years. We were getting direct hits a few times a year before that. Before I kinda enjoyed the storm but now that I own two businesses I don't want to see them. Bill collectors don't care if you had a storm...

Sorry to hear. You'll have to keep us posted on weather, since it looks like you're next on deck after the Bahamas :(
 
I wouldn't run the more sensitive equipment... Especially older games and especially vectors.

But I'm just guessing.
 
Just as long as you don't plug a 2 with a 6...oh wait, sorry, that was the generator on Green Acres :D When I bought my Gaplus, the guy had it in a trailer and wheeled a portable generator up to it to show me it worked. Seemed to play just fine :)
 
There are different types of gens too. The standard ole Briggs and Stratton workshop gen is just that... a generator... nothing special. Newer RV and ultra portable gens and the higher end gens are pure sine gens...they're nice.

If you REALLY want to step up to the plate with a kickass rig what you do is get a bank of 4 batteries... hook the gen up to the batteries to keep them charged while you run your games off the batteries ala a kickass inverter.

;)
 
Shouldn't be any problem running games off a generator, provided it puts out a good sine wave output. I know that cheap car inverters had problems powering some computer monitors (several years ago, CRT monitors, etc).

But, I don't seen any reason why it wouldn't work. I've run a game off a newer style car inverter before.

I remember when we lost power in the winter a few years ago - no electricity for two or three days. I had a battery powered black and white TV, and I rigged an Atari 2600 to run off D cells. Kind of hard to do without the luxury of a soldering iron, but it worked, and gave us something to do.

-Ian
 
Playing in a garage, bah. Here's how it's done in Colorado. ;)

IMG_3122_3.jpg
 
I'd want to save gas, by having the generator hooked up to a battery, that only runs when the battery is below a certain level, kind of like an air compressor. I don't know if there's generators out there with this ability built in, or if you'd have to make some kind of relay circuit (or, science forbid, do it manually), but it's something to look into.
 
Don't you remember the famous Seinfeld / Frogger episode where they ran the game off of a battery to preserve the high score when moving it?

 
Heh, I posted that same one over in blkdog7's OMGWTFBBQ Frogger thread the other day...even though the cab gets destroyed in the end, that clip never gets old :D
 
You should be ok with the generator.

However, if you are plugging them in directly to the generator (extension cord) keep in mind that the ground will be floating and on some of the older games it is possible to get some shock.

There should be a ground connection off the generator head that you can run a ground wire over to your houses ground rod.
 
As of this morning I'm directly in the path of it and will probably lose a whole day of sales at both of my restaurants. Fuck! We've been really lucky for the last four years. We were getting direct hits a few times a year before that. Before I kinda enjoyed the storm but now that I own two businesses I don't want to see them. Bill collectors don't care if you had a storm...

I`m praying for you man , that you can find your generator after this hurricane !!!!

and that your house and family stays where it is !!!

Let that pass before you worry about the games !! IF YOU SURvive all intact , just run a very long lead to the next house with power ,, and tell them it is for your fridge to feed the kids !!
 
I`m praying for you man , that you can find your generator after this hurricane !!!!

and that your house and family stays where it is !!!

Let that pass before you worry about the games !! IF YOU SURvive all intact , just run a very long lead to the next house with power ,, and tell them it is for your fridge to feed the kids !!

I appreciate the prayers. I don't own a generator so if there is one in my yard after the storm then its a bonus.

The only thing that really worries me is these 7 or 8 eighty to a hundred foot pine trees that split my yard with the neighbors...

I live by myself so the kid excuse wont cut it. it would be a possibility though since my house and the neighbors across the street or on different transformers so we usually take turns losing power.
 
When the tornadoes came through here back in May, the entire Northern Half of our state went without power for five full days. EVERYTHING was shut down! I used our generator to play me some Donkey Kong at the end of a 100 foot extension cord run from our generator. It works fine...

Lee
 
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