How did your Wife/SO react when you started collecting?

Malice95

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How did your Wife/SO react when you started collecting?

In the past 3 months (between here and BYOAC) I have jumped in with both feet into this hobby/addiction. I've spent a huge amount of time reading/learning here and on other websites, running all over the place
buying machines - $$$, spending time fixing them up, and meeting many great people with amazing collections.

The wife is concerned the basement is going to look like a chucky cheese
and much of my free time is spent on the hobby. Including traveling signifigant distances to get games... and I've never been much of a traveller.

Obviously I need to dial it back a notch to get some more balance. Which will happen after this weekend (until the Dec 11th PA auction:).

I know some of you have very supportative wives who play games as well. While my wife is supportive of my hobby she has concerns... which I understand and will address.

How did your Wife/SO react when you started collecting arcade machines?

Malice95
 
My first machine that came home was Asteroids. I bought it from a neighbor. As I was wheeling it into the garage, I couldn't get it in fast enough I was so happy. I started heading for the stairs that go up into our Dining Room and my wife stopped me. She said "uhhhhhhhhhhh, where do you think you're going with THAT THING??!!!" I told her I was bringing it inside. She said "no way, that thing's filthy, and besides, nobody's going to want to play that old game anyway". Shortly after, my garcade was officially launched.

Would you like to guess which game she now plays the most out of all of the games? Women.
 
My wife calls it my "girlfriend"... and the "other woman", but she is cool with it. And yes she is too concerned about the look of the basement. BTW I've been done collecting for about 2 years now ;) ... yet somehow more games find their way in :)
 
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Wifey HATED it after I had more than one game. She was fine when I had one, but as soon as 2, 3, 4, etc. came in- we argued a bunch over my new hobby. Fast forward to present, and I have to say she is pretty tolerant of it. Of course, there are still boundaries (that I'm always pushing :))
 
Currently at 28 games, and she still hasn't said stop buying them.

Very supportive. I don't smoke, gamble, or drink(much), so she is ok with it.

Moon Patrol is her favorite game with Star Wars right behind..

She already has said the basement/soon to be rec area is all mine for games..
 
The wife is concerned the basement is going to look like a chucky cheese
Unless you are planning on serving crappy pizza, inviting thousands of kids over and having some guy show up in a rat suit and wander around the basement, I fail to see why she should be concerned? :D
How did your Wife/SO react when you started collecting arcade machines?
Her first exposure to the hobby is the day she was at my apartment and I got a box of buttons and joysticks from Happ... She thought I was nuts, that I got so excited by a box of random buttons and sticks... It's amazing how quick the hobby can blow up from building a single Mame cab to having a full scale game room.
 
I told her DK would be my only one. Then, I joined KLOV and it was game over. Now she's supportive since it's somewhat of a productive hobby that has a great, unique result.

Also, arcade games tend to keep their value (for the most part) over time whereas something like current console games lose value over time unless it's a rare game. I was always buying new games for $35-50 bucks a pop and she wasn't digging it. I haven't played console games much since getting into the hobby.

The only qualm she has about it is that it takes up so much space. Hence, the red tent will probably move to the garage soon.
 
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I remember a conversation a little over a year ago when I bought my new house, I was moving my one and only game I had just bought into the new house, heading for the living room with it.
Wife said: "Where do you think your going with that?"
Me: "The living room"
Her: "I thought the game is going in the garage?"
Me: "The garage? Not a chance....I bought this house so I could put all of the games I intend to buy in it."
Her: ".......(Mouth open...jaw drops......)
Me: (Walked right by and placed DK right in the living room).

Been good now for over a year and added 6 more in that time...helps to have been married for 23 yrs. so far, we "get each other" ;).
 
Everything changed when I put them out and started making some money on ones that are out there.

When I had a MAME and Candy Machine for JAMMA stuff, she harped on it every once in a while since I never played them.

Now I work on them a few nights every single week and she hasn't harped on them at all. I go from 5-9 machines in the garage at any given time and haven't parked in the garage for 9 months.

Productivity on them and making some side money changed her perspective entirely. I am working on a location close to home that will have 2 or 3 machines. When my boys are old enough, they will get these and learn to earn on their own. We think that it's a great teaching opportunity to earn money and be responsible for something at the same time. A mini business of sorts.
 
My wife made me buy a DK so I would stop saying things like "this movie theater is pretty cool, but it would be waaaay fucking cooler if they had a Donkey Kong machine" or "this multicade is okay but it's just not the same as a REAL Donkey Kong."
 
My wife is a SAINT, no matter which way you put it. Admittedly, I have a 10x20 wood shop in my basement that is 'my space' and I can put whatever I want in there, so that helps. That's the boundary, though. The line is clearly drawn -- there will be NO arcade cabinets in the livable area of the house.

She's made a few exceptions, however. I put out the MAME cab during Thanksgiving last year (50 people at our house) and the aimtrak was a hit. Turkey Hunter and Deer Hunting USA were on steady for 10 hours -- the PC actually overheated and rebooted a few times. :D

I've also noticed on a few occasions that waking up the MAME cab, I'll find the front end sitting on a game that I haven't played recently -- usually Bubble Bobble. She admits nothing......

My garage is currently full of arcade parts and cabs on one side while I finish up a huge project for a pizzeria in town. But that will come to an end very soon, and I'll be left with my Dedicated Double Dragon, my Mame Cab, and my newest project: a Ms Pac Man that I will do a ground up restoration on. That'll be my winter project in the shop.
 
Like most my wife was OK with first one. After the 3rd one she started getting a tad pissy about it. The whole trick to getting the wife on board is to find a game that she enjoys playing and it's something you can do together as a couple (playing them that is). I had a fight on my hands when I wanted to buy a pin because of the cost factor. I decided to build a virtual pin instead. I built a system and hooked it up to my 50" lcd and showed her. She said, "I hate virtual pinball. If you want a pinball machine I'd rather see you buy a real one." 4 pins later I have a wife that is completely addicted to pinball which we do together every night. She no longer questions me which is awesome.

Getting them to understand and partake in the addiction is the hard part.
 
Wanted to build a MAME. Kept feeling funny about it cuz it wasn't real "legit." Saw an Arcade Legends machine at a home arcade store and fell in love w/ it. My wife thought it would be an all-in-one solution to appease and put an end to the "I want arcade games" talk. It did...for a while. A couple of years later I see a nice Pengo in a resale shop. Tell my wife how decent it is, etc. Reluctantly she and a couple of friends help get it in our house and down the stairs. Then more situations come up and I find more games. She's a little ticked off by this point because she's worried about them taking up so much room (I have a dedicated rec-room/basement, so it wasn't too much of an issue). I did 1 game a year for a few years, then last year it was 3 cocktails (2 are now sold) and this year it was 3 standups. We had to rearrange the basement but it worked out so I have a dedicated section for arcades now. She's good with it now because they're all in one section instead of spread all over the place. She's also better with the hobby b/c I ended up getting more for the cocktails I sold than what I paid for them. Even a pachislo helped pay for some contractor work we had done. Helps when you're willing to give up on a few machines for the greater good.
 
She's totally cool with it, but like others have said, she kind of knew what she was getting. At one point I had 6 motorcycles. Now I'm back down to 1, and arcade games seem like a bargain in comparison. ;)
 
I really don't know what she thought. We had two games from the mid 80's (Venture and Warlords cocktail) that we bought as video room decorations. Had those for years. Played them occasionally.

Then in '95 I read an article about an Atari anniversary and in the story they showed various games - including Lunar Lander. I remembered LL, loved it, and decided I would try to find one. In that process I came across RGVAC which was huge at the time. Through contacts there I found my LL and brought it home and realized - hey, I could find other games and collect them.

I've always been a collector of some sort...so she kind of knew where I was headed with this.

Had 3 or 4 games in the house, then branched off into the garage. Wife was not too interested in them - really still isn't - until I got a pinball and a juke box. That brought her out into the, at that time - garagcade. She still comes out to the game room and plays the juke boxes, pin, and once in awhile an EM game or two. Never really says anything except maybe, 'Where are you going to put it?'.

I am really out of room...

Tom
 
We bought a house together in December...the rules are simple.

I get the 2100 SQ basement.. the rest is hers.

After 9 or so months I must say she doesn't have a damn thing in the basement. With this I agree not to have anything upstairs or on the second floor.

I did however sneak a DK JR into my office
 
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