Turning your arcade machines ON and OFF

Just do it like me:

Keep all of your games in various states of repair. If they don't work, then you never have to turn them on or off!

...wait ;)
 
I would have been sick if that happened to me! Was everything fine when you got back Paul?

Yeah, nothing broke. I don't even remember what games I had at the time, but I was surprised they were all still working.

I have left Metallica on once since then for a week, and it was fine. I went inside to grab my phone, got sidetracked, and didn't go back out to the garage for a week.

I have only ever had one game smoke, and I happened to be right next to it, so I shut it off quick. It was an older pin, but I can't remember which one. I turned it off, and found some burned resistors or diodes (can't remember now) on the motherboard. It may have been a stuck coil that caused the issue.
 
My Crazy Climber stays on all the time.
It has been up except for power outages for several years.

The monitor probably needs a cap kit. If I turn it off, it takes several minutes to reach full brightness again. It has some screen burn, but it doesn't bother me during play.

I figure it costs about $10/month to run it.
That's the primary reason I don't have three or four of them on out there.

What's the logic in this? I don't see how this is a good idea, for a number of reasons, most already mentioned.
 
I would only turn on Tempest when you intend to play it.

The other 2, ehh.
 
Man well I will say this.. this thread has made me feel better for leaving a few one overnight once! Looks like it is indeed, not the end of the world to do so.

Not great.. but not the end of the world
 
I have several games in my garage in South Carolina. Most of them, I turn on when I want to play.

My Crazy Climber stays on all the time.
It has been up except for power outages for several years.

The monitor probably needs a cap kit. If I turn it off, it takes several minutes to reach full brightness again. It has some screen burn, but it doesn't bother me during play.

I figure it costs about $10/month to run it.
That's the primary reason I don't have three or four of them on out there.

Really? I don't know if I could easily sleep with one on all of the time like that due to risk, not to mention it being pretty wasteful of energy and components. :O

What's the point of having it on while everybody is asleep? I could very remotely understand the "on all day so if I walk by it's on and looking cool" argument but don't understand the night thing. Glass of milk walk-by? Lol.
 
I try and power cycle my games at least once a month. Keeps the capacitors fresh.

Tempest? I'd only turn it on if you want to break it. Same goes for Pole Position.
 
On that last point, you need to be careful. I used to leave them on if I thought I was going to be back in the gameroom that day. I left everything on for 2 weeks one time that way, so now I turn them off on my way out of the gameroom every time.

I've told this story before, but when my Dad first bought his Centipede machine (before I was even in the hobby) he didn't realize scores saved, so he left his machine on for almost 3 straight years. No, that's not a typo. It stayed on for 3 years straight with zero issues. Insane to think about it now, ha.
 
Iggy always has his PP on ;)

(fucker... beat me to it)..... You know, I think that after all the work I've done on my Pole Position, I don't think they are as bad as most people think. I'm being serious here.... A few common sense things to "bullet proof" it, and it'll run fine for years. Tempest, I don't know about.... I do know that at one of the parties I went to, I was glad I'd played it not long after I got there, as it went up about an hour later.

I've told this story before, but when my Dad first bought his Centipede machine (before I was even in the hobby) he didn't realize scores saved, so he left his machine on for almost 3 straight years. No, that's not a typo. It stayed on for 3 years straight with zero issues. Insane to think about it now, ha.

Doesn't surprise me at all. I've known locations that literally left machines on 24/7(for years).... and it could be that they did that because they didn't know where the switch was to turn the damned thing on/off.
 
I picked up a Zaxxon that had been on for a decade in the garage and it has been working fine. My guess is all the hate fuel it acquired from its players kept it from breaking down.

I power everything off when I'm not using it, mostly from fear of electrical components going up to flame - power strips with breaks for the win.
 
My machines on location are on 24/7. My machines in my shop are on only when I'm there.
 
Really? I don't know if I could easily sleep with one on all of the time like that due to risk, not to mention it being pretty wasteful of energy and components. :O

What's the point of having it on while everybody is asleep? I could very remotely understand the "on all day so if I walk by it's on and looking cool" argument but don't understand the night thing. Glass of milk walk-by? Lol.

I used to work from home and would like to play a game when I took a break. If it takes several minutes to get the screen brightness up, I would have moved on to something else already.

I'm telling you guys- the monitors will suffer a little, but these games can be left on for YEARS at a time.
 
I only turn mine on when I want to play them unless I'm having company over or they are running at the PNW arcade show in June.

I figure why waste the electricity and burn up my nice tubes I've swapped ?

I'm not concerned with the stress of powering on, if something pops then it needed to be fixed anyway.
 
I've told this story before, but when my Dad first bought his Centipede machine (before I was even in the hobby) he didn't realize scores saved, so he left his machine on for almost 3 straight years. No, that's not a typo. It stayed on for 3 years straight with zero issues. Insane to think about it now, ha.

That made me laugh out loud!

That's funny. He must have really cared about his high score. Sounds like the Seinfeld Frogger episode...

He paid more in electricity than he did for the game I bet!
 
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