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thefader

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I have never made 25 cents off of any of my games. I will purchase my own beer. I hope you can all find a way to love me.
 
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Does it make me an asshole to not have my games on free-play when people come over? I pay the electricity bill, and had to pay lots of money to buy the machines. But it seems people think you're an asshole for doing that. Thoughts?

What? You're gonna charge your friends to play your games? Do you have a busniness license for this venture? :)
 
I guess this answers my question. I'm not trying to get rich off my friends. Maybe use the money to buy another game? Or the next Keg?
 
i'd say......yes.

hopefully you're just kidding with this question though.

i pay the water bill in my house.......maybe i should put a collection cup by the shitter too!
 
jerk-pic.jpg
 
I just thought of using them to get quarters to pay for all the beer they drink. I see now that my plan was perhaps to diablolical.
 
Hmm. Maybe this is a common occurrence for some, but I know if I invited some friends over for a few games and they found free play off and the coin doors locked, I would be losing some friends. :) Same goes for anyone I visit with them. The point of having friends with the games is free entertainment, if you charge them for it they may as well drive out to some place with twice the machines and save money in the end. Plus it's kind of illegal and everything unless it's a business, though I doubt anyone would catch you. If someone tried to charge me to play their games, I'd call them an asshole, and if I charged them, I'd feel like one, but each person has a different philosophy about the hobby and different friends... different setups... if you're comfortable running a literal sort of home arcade for an extra buck, then there's no real harm done if that's how you think it should be. Half the people I invite over start pulling quarters out of the pockets as soon as they get through the door and have to be told that I'm not after keeping their money, so I guess it really just depends on the crowd whether or not there will be an outrage. I personally couldn't live with myself if I charged friends family for playing my games, but hey, that's just my .25. I see it as "I wouldn't charge them to play my GameCube, so I shouldn't charge them to play the rest" but I'm sure there's some dude out there making a fortune off of letting his homies play with his Wii so what do I know.
 
Well, everyone's done the chip in 5 bucks for beer type thing, I thought this would be a possible way.

Not out to make profit. All the money I've sunk in, it would be impossible anyway.
 
They're your games, and it's your house. You can do whatever the hell you want (pretty much). The only problem that I foresee is that your friends won't want to come over as often as you'd like. Or, they won't come to your place with a pocket full of quarters. So, you may be forced to keep a jar of quarters nearby for when you don't want people to have to pay.
 
Yah, Ive done that to, with a few of my games that I cant get set up for free play and theres no free coin button. I just like the idea of waiting a year, and cashing in a shitload of quarters and using that to fund a bitchin' party.
 
Well, everyone's done the chip in 5 bucks for beer type thing, I thought this would be a possible way.

Not out to make profit. All the money I've sunk in, it would be impossible anyway.

Charging on your games makes you look like a dick. Telling your friends they can come over and play games if they bring the beer is 100% Ok in my book. You are hosting the party, providing the entertainment, they can bring some beer over for their end of the deal. If it were me, I wouldn't let them bring crap beer either. ;)
 
Well, everyone's done the chip in 5 bucks for beer type thing, I thought this would be a possible way.

Not out to make profit. All the money I've sunk in, it would be impossible anyway.

dont your friends ever bring over some beers? do you give them the money they spent for them?

geez....im suprised you have friends
 
Charging on your games makes you look like a dick. Telling your friends they can come over and play games if they bring the beer is 100% Ok in my book. You are hosting the party, providing the entertainment, they can bring some beer over for their end of the deal. If it were me, I wouldn't let them bring crap beer either. ;)

I see your point, and I agree now. I dont want George callin' me a jerk.
 
Just out of curiosity, do all tokens work in all machines? I've been wondering about this. My kids are very young so its free play for now. Later, I'd like to have all the coin mechs work as intended.

Can you just buy a box of old tokens and leave them in the corner in a bucket or something?
 
They're your games, and it's your house. You can do whatever the hell you want (pretty much). The only problem that I foresee is that your friends won't want to come over as often as you'd like. Or, they won't come to your place with a pocket full of quarters. So, you may be forced to keep a jar of quarters nearby for when you don't want people to have to pay.

That's how I feel, but I already keep a coffee cup of quarters around at all times. I tell friends part of the experience is plunking quarters straight from your pocket in the machine. But I'm not going to deny them a game (or a bunch of them) if they don't want to pay or they have a pocket full of nickels. They are my friends, after all :)
 
Does it make me an asshole to not have my games on free-play when people come over? I pay the electricity bill, and had to pay lots of money to buy the machines. But it seems people think you're an asshole for doing that. Thoughts?

I would not think you were an A-hole, just a tight wad.
 
Just out of curiosity, do all tokens work in all machines? I've been wondering about this. My kids are very young so its free play for now. Later, I'd like to have all the coin mechs work as intended.

Can you just buy a box of old tokens and leave them in the corner in a bucket or something?

You will want to get a single size of token (There are many) and then you will need to adjust your coin mechs to the size required for the tokens. Best thing is to figure out what size tokens will work in most if not all of your mechs and then get that size of token. You can buy used ones in bulk or even buy some custom ones with your own arcade name, but they are not cheap.
 
Usually my mind set is that I do not charge people to play my games. Actually these days I would never charge people to play my games. Years ago when I first started collecting I only owned three games. Pengo, Tron and DK. I lived with a roommate that owned a ms pac and a ghosts and goblins. We used to have large parties at the house. Like 100-200 people. At the parties we provided a Dj and usually a couple of kegs free of charge. I think I just had a policy for myself since the day I got my Dk that I would even charge myself to play. Kind of like a piggy bank of sorts. Anyhow I would leave it locked during parties too and people had to pay to play DK. All the rest were free to play. I made some good cash that way and no one ever complained. Although I think I had the game set up to the max credits and lives so it was a pretty fair deal. Something like 3 credits per quarter and 6 lives per credit.

I should also mention that a lot of the people at the parties were friends of friends so I wasn't really taking money from people I was tight with. So if the circumstances are not too bad then I guess charging isn't a horrible thing but I really wouldn't charge my friends that I hang out with on a regular basis.
 
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