Do you consider yourself "succesfull" at this hobby?

orion3311

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Do you consider yourself "succesfull" at this hobby?

I guess successful leaves a lot to be determined, but basically, having most of the games you want, most of them in working and decent cosmetic shape, and not having 9 tons of parts cluttering up your garage?

For some reason this question popped in my head earlier as I'm working on my Video Pinball for the probably the 200th hour, in my extremely overcluttered garage amongst my not-quite-show-quality machines ;-)
 
I don't judge myself, My only interest is to acquire a collection of games that I want to play and really nothing more.
If I somehow fall short in that I wouldn't say it's a failure.
 
Absolutely. I made it through the first couple of years without losing my mind! There are times when you just get really stressed trying to find and buy a game. Then you get stressed about getting it working. At this point, if I find a new game, great; if not, oh well. I have a couple of games that have been sitting non working for about a year now. I want to get them working to play them, but it is not a need anymore. When I have the time to tinker, I will go out there and work on them.

The arcade games are a big part of my life, but they are now appropriately prioritized. The stress is gone, so the I am really enjoying it now. I wish I could figure out how to keep the garage organized for more than a day, but I don't know if that will ever happen. :)
 
Not yet, but I'm not that far off either. I don't think I've gotten to where I want to be arcade-wise, but I have gained much knowledge and many experiences. I have also not helped my finances with this hobby at all ;)
 
Better than a harley.

Success and failure. I have no talent for soldering... I don't have enough money to justify my fairly large collection. I can only really fix minor things. I drive thousands of miles each year hunting these down each year. I usually don't even break even when I part with them.

Success... The hunt for these is a ball. Drivng places I usually take my family and we make a day of it checking out local diners and attractions. I enjoy (most of the time) the people on this forum. Nearly everyone is very positive and helpful. The people I meet are mostly pretty cool people.. If you can find happiness its success. I also have the coolest basement in my subdivision...

Eat that Harley Man next door...occassionally my fingers take on the smell of burnt flesh...but I'll never appear in a drivers ed film as the star of Blood on the highway. Do you think this is cheaper than buying... owning... and maintaing a harley?

Sorry I have a few issues with my neighbor.
 
I think for myself I feel lucky and privileged to own the machines I do, to have developed what skills I do have for fixing up games and for all the experiences I have had. I guess I feel successful in some ways but it's taken over 15 years to get where I am at now.
 
I feel pretty blessed to have the games I have now. I spent a good amount of time restoring a couple of them. I have two of my favorites from my childhood (SFII:WW and X-Men) and the rest are Nintendos that I appreciate and enjoy very much as well. I think it's also a success to have a wife who supports and understands your hobby and, in my case, let's me use 3/4 of our bottom floor bonus room for my game room. Now all of my games are inside and running. I have less clutter in the garage. Its looking pretty good here. :D

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I guess there is a lot of ways to measure "success". If it means aquiring the games I've wanted and getting them running(with friend's help), then yes.

I see it more as this: I have a nice arcade that I worked really hard to build, and myself and others enjoy it a hell of a lot. That's success...
 
I absolutely consider myself successful. I may not be the best at repairing things, but I have every game that I ever wanted and loved playing BITD and that's all that matters to me.
 
Not successful yet, but I'm actually pushing forward at a decent pace now. Here the things I'm assessing myself on... Sorry if this is blabby.

Number one is gameroom completion. I'm probably at about 50% on it, maybe a little more. I usually one have one solid day a week to work on the major stuff, and there was a lot of major stuff! Its was a 12x25 Florida/storage room, so I'm ripping out all the windows, framing the walls, sheeting the outside, siding it, adding electric, etc. Not quite as convenient as painting the basement blue and wheeling the games down there. ;)

Your comment about the cluttered garage is exactly my issue, because all the stored stuff in that room is now in the garage, compounded by the construction materials and 5 of my 7 games. Its a disaster, but as I complete tasks the construction pile gets smaller and things start coming together.

Should be done this Summer. I've got some friends and family that are very excited about the sheer lunacy of the idea (consider them civilians that have no idea that there are hundreds of people here that have already done this). Their enthusiasm helps keeps me going.

Number two is game repair. I've brought a Golden Tee with multiple issues back from the dead. It was frustrating and rewarding, but I still consider it almost a cheat because GT has so much in common with a PC motherboard and I've been messing with computers since the Atari 400 days. I'm working on a Stern Moon War now (waiting for ROMs), and if I can bring that game back from the dead, I'll consider myself successful at fixing a "real" game.

There are a couple things I still want, a dedicated Defender and some kind of pinball, but they're peripheral things, more "enjoyment" status than success.

Orion, I'll drop you a PM when I finish up. I know you're local and we had talked about meeting up in the past. Maybe I should make hosting an arcade party the key item for success, since it pretty much links all the other definitions together!
 
Well, my machines in my game room are in very good shape. They all work great. There maybe 1 or 2 minor problems with them that only I'd notice, and I wish I was tech savvy enough to fix them.

Also I have an EM in the back room, I'm getting nowhere with. It's unplayable, and I still don't have a clue. So, I wish I was more successful there.

On the other hand, I don't have a lot of clutter, and I'm halfway decent and getting them cosmetically in shape. So I'm at about 70% where I want to be.
 
I absolutely consider myself successful. I may not be the best at repairing things, but I have every game that I ever wanted and loved playing BITD and that's all that matters to me.

That would've been my response to this thread, basically.
 
Definitely. Sure there are a few games I want to add to the collection, but overall I've found most of the games I wanted and some that I didn't even know I wanted when I started. ;) I've also had some really great deals like $50 for a Tempest or $50 for a Cruis'n USA. I've come a long way with my tech ability but I still want to take that to the next level.
 
I got the arcade collecting bug back in october last year through a friend of mine.
Back then it was just a simple "JK" cabinet with a MAME computer in it, but it was enough to bring fuel to that old dream about owning a bunch of arcade games.

After messing with MAME for a while and adding a second "JK" cabinet so I could play vertical games in one and horizontal in the other, i desided to get into the REAL thing.

So last month I made a sweet deal with a friend of mine, who had run out of room in his garage, and traded a Playstation 3 for two dedicated cabs: Virtua Fighter and Operation Thunderbolt. Both cabs in VERY good condition, only problem is with the player two gun on the Thunderbolt and the recoil giving up about 5-10 minutes into the game, but should be no problem to fix. Then just a few days ago I made an even better deal when I went to an old arcade shop getting a Super Hang-On upright cabinet. When I got there I noticed the monitor was VERY dark, the handbrake was loose and the cab itself needs a lot of work to get back in shape. But the owner was kind enough to lower the price AND include a perfectly working Turbo Outrun mini cab which only needs a new monitor to get back in full working order.

So within 3 weeks I´ve gotten 4 cabs for almost nothing, even though they need some small work here and there, I´ll still consider my first steps to be a success so far :)

PLUS, the best of all, I might finally get a Defender cab this fall from the same guy I got the SEGA cabs. It needs a new romset, some cap work on the monitor, and a lot of work with the sidearts, new controls etc. but it´s gonna be worth it since I´ve been dreaming about getting a Defender since forever :)

Since I´m new at this I don´t know THAT much about how to fix these machines, but through the friend of mine who got me into this last october, I´m learning quite a lot every single day working on them. Sure, it´s a bit frustrating now and then, but when you resurrects something, it´s an amazing feeling :)

Only problem at the moment, I live in a small apartment, 2 roms and 1 kitchen, and my living room containing 6 cabs (soon 7 with Defender) is now looking more like a small arcade with a sofa and hometheater stuck in the middle. :D

Might be looking for a bigger place in the future, but....I think I can squeeze one or two more cabs somewhere in here before I run completely out of space ;)

To have a bit of that old magic in my home that I got in the arcades back in the 80:s is worth everything to me.
 
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I think so. I started off trying to get some knowledge and a beat up cabinet to build a MAME box to play Mystic Marathon on to go with my Battlezone. Current inventory (off the top of my head):
- Battlezone - Working
- Joust - Working
- Robotron - Working
- Bubbles - Working
- SmashTV - Working
- JROK Multi-Williams - Working
- Gauntlet Dark Legacy - Working
- Defender Cabinet JAMMA running Robocop - Working
- Defender Cabinet JAMMA running Karnov - Working
- Joust Cabinet JAMMA running Bubble Bobble - Working
- Defender restore - Work in Progress
- Joust Cabinet JAMMA running - Bubble Bobble - Work in progress (yes a second one)
- Joust cocktail restore - Work in Progress
- Centipede restore - Work in Progress
- 4 other Joust cabinets - Work in progress
and finally the whole reason for this,
- Mystic Marathon - Working

So, yeah, I'd say I've been moderately successful. And with the money I've made buying, repairing and selling parts and the occasional game, I am pretty close to break even financially. That smells like success to me.

ken
 
Eh, I'm doing okay in this hobby. Oddly enough, the first two games I bought look great and are working 100% (Frogger and Swimmer.)

I'm kind of chipped off though because my latest games (Time Soldiers and Assault) have all these issues going on with them - which translates into more money being spent on them.

But heck, I do have 2 nice, fully working arcade machines! A year ago I would still be dreaming of owning a single one.
 
Well, I've made back more money that I've spent. I've brought stuff back to life that was dead.

I've also brought joy to myself and others through my games. I'm also going to teach my kids the basis of earning your keep by collecting money from machines out in service.

I think I've been successful yes.
 
Put simply..YES! Not to toot my own horn but I know how far along I have come in this hobby...from knowing nothing to being in a movie arcade documentary about my collection. Ive made great friends...and have made great connections for locating games and parts. I cant wait to see what the future has in store....still dont have a StarWars UR, though.........
 
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