Ever had an arcade party go really badly?

enjoyvelvet

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So for the holidays we're having some family and friends over and of course most are intested in checking out the "arcade". My biggest fear for some reason is a game failing during a party...anyone had an arcade party before and just have things go horribly wrong? I'm eventually going to have a party for the local KLOVers to come by...I guess I shouldn't care if a game breaks down then because there will be lots of arcade experts that can fix it! Anyways, I was just curious...I can't stand it when one of my machines goes on the fritz and I def don't want it happening when company is over
 
Break down.

The worst thing to fail at an arcade party is a flyback. Catastrophic failure that is. It smokes, stinks and the smell lingers for a while.
 
It wasn't really a party, but when Shanman & family showed up, by the time brother Shan tried out the SW cockpit it was already FUBARed showing a few divider errors in the mathbox. >argh<
 
So for the holidays we're having some family and friends over and of course most are intested in checking out the "arcade". My biggest fear for some reason is a game failing during a party...anyone had an arcade party before and just have things go horribly wrong? I'm eventually going to have a party for the local KLOVers to come by...I guess I shouldn't care if a game breaks down then because there will be lots of arcade experts that can fix it! Anyways, I was just curious...I can't stand it when one of my machines goes on the fritz and I def don't want it happening when company is over

I wouldn't worry much about it at all. I've had many arcade parties over the years. I have 26 games in my game room and I think I've had maybe one or two parties where nothing failed. A game goes out and I loudly state "yes we handle this just like a real arcade back in the day" and then I just unplug it. And then continue on like nothing happened. I have my rock solid games that almost never have problems and I have my trouble makers that often are finicky. The finicky ones drive me crazy. I can have the problem fixed and have it on for 8 hours testing it and no problem. But then I turn all the games on and have people over and the game has problems. Obviously a heat issue.

I swear I average about 2-3 games going down for one reason or another every party. It's not the end of the world, people just go play another game. It doesn't make you or your collection look bad. Even my non-collector friends realize these games are 25+ years old. And kids could care less, as long as there is something else to play.
 
I usually have only 1 arcade party a year, which is on my daugther's birthday - July 4th.

One year about half the games died during the day.

Last year only one died out of about 13 games that I used that day. Not bad.
 
that's what these signs are for...

OUTofORDER-1.jpg


outoforder.jpg
 
Yep. I always have a stack of signs ready. So far <knock on wood> all it has usually taken is a power down and reboot to fix any issues. I had one game (Stargate) throw a RAM error about a half hour into a party and everybody stood around and watched as I fixed it. They all thought that it was cool to be able to watch a game get fixed.

ken
 
For the last few years I drag a few games out to our front porch and let the trick-or-treaters play them.

Last year I worked like crazy getting games ready: Donkey Kong, Centipede and a 48-in-1. Hey, it's a small porch! I worked hard to get the 'pede running, and it was running like a champ. As soon as I moved it though, it developed more board issues. :(
 
One solid piece of advice. DON'T MOVE THE MACHINES. You will read many repair threads that the person stated, "I just moved my ______ to the other side of the room and now it doesn't work."

I've personally gone through this and every time it's been a cold solder joint/s on the monitor. Ridiculous it is.
 
Never had an "arcade party" before, but we will have about 8-10 people over on Sat night (for a pre Thanksgiving dinner), so I will have all the games on and report back. I'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
I have a few get togethers every year, and I've had only a handfull of problems. I have about 25 games in the gameroom, and Burgertime has given me the most problems so far. I had the monitor die on it, and the logic PCB took a dump once too. Demolition Derby crapped out once too....monitor and logic PCB. Most of the times though, everything works fine. The most reliable has been Dig Dug.....I've had it for 15 years...never had a issue.
-Mark
 
I have had many arcade parties. The only time it went badly was when my National Guard buddy brought some of his division/ company/ troop fellows with him. One of them was on something and bit a large dent in the corner of my sheetrock by the bar. He claimed with drunken bravado that he was going to 'eat my house' or some such shit and then bit down on the mudded cornerbead. He had also tried starting fights with a few folks earlier in the night. After the bite heard round the gameroom, my friend (a sergeant) pulled rank and threw dude out of my house. He then apologized, said he was embarrassed and left. The games all stayed working though.
 
The only notable thing was my Super Mario Bros pin popping a flipper fuse from being played so many times, but thats basically it.
 
I have had many arcade parties. The only time it went badly was when my National Guard buddy brought some of his division/ company/ troop fellows with him. One of them was on something and bit a large dent in the corner of my sheetrock by the bar. He claimed with drunken bravado that he was going to 'eat my house' or some such shit and then bit down on the mudded cornerbead. He had also tried starting fights with a few folks earlier in the night. After the bite heard round the gameroom, my friend (a sergeant) pulled rank and threw dude out of my house. He then apologized, said he was embarrassed and left. The games all stayed working though.

Maybe he thought you lived in a ginger bread house. :) Some of those guys "ain't right". Most are great people. I have several friends in the military.

Weird people all over the place.That story takes the cake of weird for me.
 
Maybe he thought you lived in a ginger bread house. :) Some of those guys "ain't right". Most are great people. I have several friends in the military.

Weird people all over the place.That story takes the cake of weird for me.

There are *still* perfect teethmarks on either side of the corner. I painted over them, but didn't mud them in.
 
I have had many arcade parties. The only time it went badly was when my National Guard buddy brought some of his division/ company/ troop fellows with him. One of them was on something and bit a large dent in the corner of my sheetrock by the bar. He claimed with drunken bravado that he was going to 'eat my house' or some such shit and then bit down on the mudded cornerbead. He had also tried starting fights with a few folks earlier in the night. After the bite heard round the gameroom, my friend (a sergeant) pulled rank and threw dude out of my house. He then apologized, said he was embarrassed and left. The games all stayed working though.

Good thing he didn't announce that he was going to eat one of your arcade games... :)
 
I have had many arcade parties. The only time it went badly was when my National Guard buddy brought some of his division/ company/ troop fellows with him. One of them was on something and bit a large dent in the corner of my sheetrock by the bar. He claimed with drunken bravado that he was going to 'eat my house' or some such shit and then bit down on the mudded cornerbead. He had also tried starting fights with a few folks earlier in the night. After the bite heard round the gameroom, my friend (a sergeant) pulled rank and threw dude out of my house. He then apologized, said he was embarrassed and left. The games all stayed working though.

Ok I almosted pissed my pants at that one...what a jackass! Even my little 16 month old knows not to eat the house. Strange dude. Well hopefully I'll have as good of luck as you and my machines will keep rockin through the night!
 
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