Do you consider yourself "succesfull" at this hobby?

[tron guy]

I had a broken pole position, I went outside and worked on it, now I have a working pole position.

You tell me


but seriously, we all know it will be broken again soon,
and to answer the question the way I normally would have:

It is a hobby I LOVE, and I have learned a lot (tons more to learn)
I consider myself successful at it.

Tough to gauge though, or define success.

 

[TOK]

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.

Was it karma? Nah, probably stupid luck. Moon War lives!

 

[TheBasement]

When I was a kid, I thought to be Ricky Schroeder on Silver Spoons was "it". A gameroom in the house thanks to a millionaire dad, and I think he only had something like 3 or 4 games in his house. Still, as I kid I aspired to have that status. With my collection now, well, Silver Spoons you have a little catching up to do.

 

[khabbi]

I really don't consider my hobby "a success or failure", all I know is that I am VERY happy that I got involved with Arcade collecting and preservation. I love the feeling of getting another grail, restoring a classic, the hunt for my next machine, and just spending time in my lit up arcade for fun. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, and enjoyable, and to some an escape.. and that's exactly what this hobby does for me.

 

[LeeB99]

Well, the ONLY grail that I don't have is physically too large to put in my arcade. Since it is not a physical possibility, I suppose that I have succeeded in collecting all of the games that I have REALISTICALLY wanted...

 

[Spunkmeyer]

There is nothing finer than knowing how to make something that is not working be able to work again. Arcade games, cars, you name it... most people in life don't understand how things work and most really don't care to worry about it until it's broken.

The ability to know how things work and fix things is a skill, it is learned, and it is valuable.

I'm still learning... but feel like I'm doing OK so far considering I built a MAME cabinet less than a year ago, and have been working my way up from there.

 

[mort]

As long as my family life and job are not sacrificed, then yes I'm successful in the hobby.
Always things to be learned such as better soldering techniques & restoring cabinets but someone usually has the answer posted here. Like probably most of you, I'm still looking for the elusive game from my childhood, in my case Red Baron, that has not been successful.
Also, made some great friends via the newsgroup and shared some laughs with you, that also makes us all successful. Thanks guys.

 

[PacMarv]

Success at Collecting

I'd say, yes....I am successful at arcade collecting...well maybe more lucky. I've been collecting since 1981 and sold or gave away almost everything everytime I moved. Right now, it's the best it's ever been. That is largely due to wonderfull people like those in this forum. Other collectors have been genrous and helpfull. I just wish I was more successful at fixing them, since most of the ones I get are basket cases.
Marv

 

[keithsarcade]

If you mean successfully addicted and broke, then hell yes.

As far as "do I have everything I want", pretty much also a yes. Theres a few more I wouldnt mind having, but its not breaking my heart that I dont have them. Ive basically finished phase one of this three phase plan:

1. Get all the games I want
2. Catch up on finances (yes, I charged some of these bad boys, including Sue's HOTD)
3. Finish gameroom, add neons and so on

I'm doing good for the most part on maintenance, only have one game down at the moment, but it seems like something is always breaking down and requiring some kind of maintenance (which is another reason to say I cant buy any more, I'm having a hard time keeping up). This also makes it harder to work on phase 2 of my plan.

 

[joeycuda]

When I was a kid, I thought to be Ricky Schroeder on Silver Spoons was "it". A gameroom in the house thanks to a millionaire dad, and I think he only had something like 3 or 4 games in his house. Still, as I kid I aspired to have that status. With my collection now, well, Silver Spoons you have a little catching up to do.

I was in an apartment about 8 yrs ago. A Silver Spoons marathon was on Nick at Nite. It was funny/disturbing when we realized that I pretty much had the same line up of games that the Strattons had in their house, plus my roommate's Mortal Kombat.

 

[demogo]

Successful? In a manner of speaking.

My garage isn't cluttered with arcade stuff, I have almost all of the games I'd like to own, but of the 5 cabinets in my gameroom, not a single one is 100%. Within a space of a few weeks my Spy Hunter, BattleZone, and Star Trek all crapped out on me and an intermittent issue I was having with my Gaunt Legends/NBA Jam cab got much worse.

Gah!

The good news is that financial and space constraints have forced me to keep it small, take my time, and keep it sane so there's no real pressure for me to add more or grab up a good deal.

Now I just have to find people to fix all these damned games. I can do basic troubleshooting but board level repairs are probably not gonna happen and at least 2 of the games that are down are due to board issues that just popped up.

 

[caincan]

sometimes the problem is get the goods (in europe/ france...) ! took times to get what i wanted (about 5 tons). but still lacking the rarer i seek (afterburner dlx, EM williams gun game, 3 other pinballs).

and the cozy green place i want to build for this shrine, in some years in south-east france... (i cant consider successfull till i'm blocked in a nightmare town (Paris suburbs ! certainly not the dream of tourists...) for work, to get my funds)

 

[orion3311]

All good answers here - very interesting to see the variety on what everybody considers "successful". I just took a few criteria off the top of my head to set the bar but this is all great info and perspectives.

I guess the long and short of the story is, if you're enjoying yourself, you're successful. Your games don't have to be showroom quality (unless you want them to be), and keep in mind they're 30+ year old wooden boxes with electronics in them...each half of that on its own is not easy to keep up.

For me - the two key things holding me back is the rented garage with minimal electrical capacity, and drowning in the abundance of parts since I kinda dove back into the hobby in November 08. I've been taking care of it and finding a couple niches which is cool, and hopefully I plan to blitz the garage back to full operation soon, and after that - finding a house thats "arcade worthy"

 

[andykmv]

..... if you're enjoying yourself, you're successful. .....

thats what i was going to say. if you are enjoying the research for stuff, buying, repairing, preserving and restoring these games, whether you get someone else to do the work or part thereof or not, and if your family and friends enjoy them with you, then you are definately succesfful in my book!

 

[Ghostlyguy]

thats what i was going to say. if you are enjoying the research for stuff, buying, repairing, preserving and restoring these games, whether you get someone else to do the work or part thereof or not, and if your family and friends enjoy them with you, then you are definately succesfful in my book!

Agreed.

 

[gutsman004]

After getting out of the hobby several years ago due to space,money,etc...I came back.And while I don't have the quality of games that I had the first go around,I do have more knowledge of how they work this time around.

I don't have the skins on the wall like many here,but I do feel successful for the most part.

 

[DogP]

I consider myself successful because I'm having fun, and myself and others are able to enjoy all the hard work I put into it. But, going from your loose definition:

>having most of the games you want
Yes... I'm still looking for a few, but I think the better criteria is "liking most of the games you have", since having all the games I want would basically require owning all the games at CAX .

>most of them in working and decent cosmetic shape
Yeah, though playability is more important to me... I'd rather have a cabinet that's beat up with a perfect monitor than a pristine cab with a poorly converged monitor in major need of a cap kit and adjustments.

>not having 9 tons of parts cluttering up your garage?
FAIL. I got a 10'x12' shed for storing most of the parts, but there's still a ton of parts and games in the garage :/ .

DogP

 

[Dervacumen]

Yeah, sure!

Hell no. I want to buy every machine on the planet and create the biggest arcade that could ever possibly exist. Really. Just so I can walk around and remember those careless years and pop in to a game when it strikes my fancy...
The unrelenting sounds and activity, and the draw to any given game when someone was getting the new high score...
But considering I've got a couple of machines going and have managed to keep the clutter to a minimum...yeah, I'm on the path.

 

[MasterFygar]

I own a bunch of machines that I love, none of them are in terrible shape, they all work and I have no grails left to chase.

So yes, I consider myself successful.

 

[R3LL1K]

Successful? In a manner of speaking.

My garage isn't cluttered with arcade stuff,

That hurt Demogo.

I consider myself to be successful . I've more than broke even and I've gotten some phenomenal deals that are too unbelievable to even list. I have more games that I ever dreamed of having (part of the problem) and have learned a lot of things I never expected to. I've also met some great people and am still having a great time buying, fixing, selling and trading games. With all of the enjoyment I've gotten from this hobby had I not made a slight profit, it would have still been worth every penny.

Even with the cluttered garage.