The only arcade I want is Rolling Thunder, which I just found after looking off and on for a very long time. Purely a sentimental purchase and probably will just sit there, reminding me of my youth.

I have been toying with this idea for a while. Would love to see what you came up with for button and control layout. Also can't believe that we are so close and have not met at least once over the years.

An arcade machine or 2 among your pins is fine,
But switching to buying arcades completely??

You are in your midlife crisses, this can happen you will act weird and emotional snd irrational
This is a fase it will pass
Now close your wallet and ride it out.

STOP WASTING YOUR PINBALL MONEY!!!
And space

Get well soon
Hang in there!

The thing about arcade machines is that you buy a cabinet and you just have one game, a game that I could play on my PC. What I'd like to do is build some mame cabinets, get a 2 player, a 3 player, 4 player, lightgun and racing. That way you can have multiple games on a unit, and be able to switch them up if you get bored. Buying arcade machines just seems so... restrictive, especially for the price.

Arcades get boring FAST.

Even the best ones I had (Star Wars vector and spy hunter) were good for one game a day at most.

Zero interest over here.

I've had a handful but I only have one now, MvC2. I don't care for a Mame cabinet or anything like that. I do want to pick up a few more arcades in the future. The prices seem way more reasonable then some of the pins that's for sure.

I have no use for arcade games

Nope. Even back in the day, a lot of arcade games got old fast with repetitive gameplay. Once on free play, you loose a lot of the challenge as well - just keep hitting the start button to continue. Video games evolved so much in the last 40 years. I got my kids the Playstation VR last Christmas. That thing is pretty cool but still rather play pinball.

I have a beautiful restored Tempest and would consider a pin in trade.

I added a sit down Crazy Taxi for the kids this year. I really liked the soundtrack. They enjoyed it for a bit but then back to their pc’s and playstation.

If i run out of pins i want i’ll consider getting arcades. Of course me running of of pins i want is beyond ridiculum....

I’d flush $300 down the toilet before spending $600 on an arcade.

I can see arcade machines as being a lot like 30 year old pins. Find one in good shape, keep it for 6 months until you get tired of it, then sell it for what you paid for it.

I am looking into getting a Mame machine sometime in the next 6 months or so. I'd really like to play some late 90s games in a cabinet like Gauntlet Legends, NFL Blitz, and NBA Hangtime. I like the idea of being able to switch out games, play them on original hardware, and playing them with my kids. I guess I'm really trying to recreate my youth in my home arcade. I could see keeping this long term. I could see trading my Star Trek for a lesser pin and one of these down the line.

In addition to a Mame cabinet, I could see slowly rotating through a few different machines.
1. A sit down driving game. San Francisco Rush is this game for me... Like $400 on Craigslist. Keep for 6 months and sell for $400.
2. Light Gun Games: I'm thinking an Area 51/Maximum Force combo would be fun... for a while and then get dumped for what I paid for it.
3. Golden Tee games. These seem to have more staying power but would once again get old.

For me, it's a matter of skill sets - and time to devote. I can fix a pinball machine. Arcade stuff, not so much, and not enough time/interest in that department. Add to that the part where each cabinet is just a single, fairly simple game.. meh. Modern consoles pick up a lot of slack. And my nostalgia for the 80's arcade.. no longer holds enough interest to burn the floor space on those games. Arcade games may be cheaper than pinball in terms of dollars, but not square feet.

Going to CAX one weekend a year gets my fill in. And I'm thankful for all the folks who bring games to that venue.

I did have a mame cabinet. After 18 months of the PC being dead, and my never getting around to replacing it, that was my hint: the arcade stuff could leave, and I'd not miss any of it

Once I started realizing I went from wanting to playing my arcade games all the time to wanting to have them turned on and look cool while I played my pins all the time, I went from 8 vids to 2 keepers (Centipede and Ms. Pac, my and the wife's favorite games) and currently 6 pins with hopefully 2 more coming very shortly. I like the idea of arcade games, but I just don't get the play out of them I used to, especially when I'm alone. You like what you like though - I'd love a Missile Command still but can't justify it over another pin .

I've been strictly pinball but recently purchased a couple of arcades and video game consoles to give the game room some variety.

I have been unloading a lot of pins and arcades recently. At this point I would let me restored Tron arcade go. Message me if you are interested. Was serviced and rebuilt not too long ago. Really nice cosmetic shape also. Put this next to your Tron pinball machine and you can have the mini arcade mod and actual machine both display the same attract screens.

Like most have already said, pins are more interesting as they seem to have more staying power but I did have a pin before any arcade machines. I picked up a few arcades quickly after getting my first pin but several like Gauntlet (Original) had limited staying power. I have a Ms Pac that runs a 60 - 1 for guests, a Marble Madness dedicated (With IJ and Roadblasters I sub in from time to time) that I would have a hard time parting with despite never playing, and a Gauntlet Legends that was a PITA to get in my basement that don't ever use much except for guests. Would have been gone a long time ago but don't feel like dealing with moving it out.

I love pins and video games . I only have very limited space 3 to 4 pins Max + if I get one MAME arcade with 30,000 + games , problem solved .

is that griptape on the console?

Started with arcades and have little interest in going back. I do feel that emulation has something to do with that. Say what you want about arcade emulation, but it certainly is better then pinball emulation. I'm perfectly happy having a lineup of pinball machines with one MAME cabinet.

I agree that most MAME setups have way to many games. I have about 400 on mine, and I've committed to staying under 500. I'd would have a hard time dropping down to 100, but it's still a far cry from the 10,000+ of games I've seen on most setups.

I've thought about doing that, though I don't have a huge issue with Mortal Kombat vs Street Fighter. I use the Capcom layout and feel like it works fine for Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat 3 gets to be a little bit tricky with "run", but it doesn't take too long to get a feel for it. I also think you can get used to the buttons being stacked for Neo Geo. I do agree it's a compromise though. If I had a ton of extra space and cash to burn I'd build several machines based on game genres.

I think original arcades/cabs are really cool, but I'd get bored of playing those extremely fast.

Not sure what you’re looking at, but no tape.

I've recently switched over to buying arcade games, but I've found that all of the ones I'm interested are difficult to find. They may be cheaper in price, but as soon as any of them pop up, it seems they're gone that quickly. Whereas, I can find just about every pinball machine I'm interested in.

Btw, if you're looking to get rid of Star Wars, Spy Hunter or Paperboy, send me a PM.

Started out as a vid guy until I bought my first pin - Funhouse. It was all downhill after that. I still have a little bit of both by keeping Tempest (mini), Robotron (mini), Discs of Tron (upright) and a multicade. Robotron is my desert island vid. To each his own though.

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I just have a MAME Bartop, a Dungeon & Dragons pinball machine

I collect color vector games. So yeah, I never really stopped and I have a bunch of vector games and Arkanoid Tournament, SFIITHF, Ms. Pac, Virtua Racing, Mr. Do, and a few other essentials. Most recent purchase was Tac-Scan.

Robotron 2084, Eugene Jarvis and Larry Demar. Nice.

I was always more into arcade games when I was younger. I didn't play pins at all until High Speed and Pinbot came out. The newer pins are more fun to me, but 3 is enough for my gameroom. I have 10 vids in there as well. I have a ridiculous MAME cabinet in my office at home, but I rarely use it. It is weird, I am back to not having any vids newer than the late 80s, and I only have one pin older than 2013. New pinball is way better than new vids.

I have had all of my games working for a year and a half, then in the last couple of weeks, my luck ran out. I blew a fuse on Pole Position, then something started smoking on Mr Do. Not fun.

I have sold off all mine at this point. At one point I had 2 F355 Challenge Deluxe's linked, linked pair of american style ID4's, and a sega rally championship super deluxe. At this point I just have super chexx, but may or may not sell it off.

If you have frequent parties with non-pinheads, I'd advise getting at least one arcade machine in the lineup. If you have room, a shooter or dual driver is great...especially Segas from the the 90's or later. Loves me some Out Run 2.

At the arcade I help with, it gets played far more than any pins.

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I went from arcades to pinball, by random chance actually, me and a friend got a chance to buy out a whole fun fair arcade for dirt cheap around 2009 (200 dollar per machine) so we bought alot of them, several pretty big ones, i bought Sega Hang-On Deluxe, Virtua Cop 1-2, Sega Shooting Master, Outrun Deluxe, my friend bought Killer Instict 2, Daytona USA deluxe and a couple of others i cant even remember now, big ones. 4 years later i began selling the arcades out sicne ive gotten bored with them, and i was offered a Grand Lizard pin in trade for the Sega Hang-on, so i grabbed the deal, and the rest is history.

Sadly i skipped buying this peculiar EM arcade cowboy gun game (yellow cab, brown decals featuring indians and cowboy, and revovler gun, dunno what it could have been...) which i kinda regret still.

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my bro trying it out first time it got home

the black topping on the control stand, looks like the stuff they put on top of skateboards, Grip tape.

I must have a devilish side... I was hoping to come into this thread and find two pages of Pinside users all liquidating their collection of pins so they could buy arcade machines. We could use an infusion of pins in the marketplace!!

Variety is the spice of life...but pinballs have become my main interest in collecting and playing

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I can't deny the "cool" factor of having a genuine retro arcade at home, but couldn't possibly justify taking up pin space (was supposed to be a max of 6 pins as it is). I used to collect NES/Famicom games fairly heavily, but never liked knowing I could get the same gaming experiences for "free" if I so chose. Those my age that want to play games would likely prefer Smash Bros., etc., which further complicates justifying arcade games. At the end of the day, I can't possibly download a real pinball experience, and thus, they get the space over any single arcade consideration (I do debate a multi-cade for guests).

Pinball > videa games, but a few full size cabinet arcade games, round out the game room nicely imho.

It ranks high.....I was big into bubble hockey when Bud Light ran the Gretzky bubble boys promotions in late 90s/early 00s. I had a couple of arcades then, too. Never really gave pinballs much attention. Then I moved away from my Chexx playing buddies...missed the hand/eye coordination, reflexes, and kinetic game action.

I was looking for something to round out my game room. Electronic dart board, sit down racing game type stuff. Then I ran across an ad for a $500 Road Kings, so I picked it up and put in the garage. Once I started playing it, it was like playing bubble hockey, but I didn’t need someone else to play. I’ve been hooked on pinball ever since. That was 5 years ago.

The key to really fun bubble hockey is getting three guys together and playing races to 7. Winner stays on and loser sits. And everyone playing balls out, see how fast the puck can get moving. Then the game becomes a game of speed and reflexes. That’s when super chexx really starts to shine. I highly recommend.

I started with vids, but once I got into pins and realized I could keep them running and even "make them better than when I bought them" I never looked back.

I will likely sell my 2 slot neo geo mvs (buyer coming this weekend). That is my last arcade; I have owned it since ~2002. Sad to see it go, but I play my least played pin a million times more than it... so it is just taking up space and is something the kids play with their friends to rarely to justify keeping....

Arcade games were my gateway drug into pinball.
I collect and enjoy both as well as EM games.

My first buy was a pinball machine. But since then I have been jumping at deals on arcades. I agree they don't hold up as entertaining as a pinball machine would, but the prices are so much lower.
I also do not have the disposal income at this time to buy many pins so that doesn't help. Prices are much more reasonable for arcades.
I am contemplating selling a few arcades to purchase another pin or Golden Tee 2019. I love pinball but with a group of friends GT is hard to beat. New Years Eve my friends pinball machine was often not being played but his Golden Tee Complete was always in use. It pains me to say that but it's true.

Frankly for me neither make much sense right now. Pinball machines are $5k+, arcade games are $1k, an Xbox One or PS4 is $200...and you can get 100's of more hours entertainment out of the console. I've just been taking money off the table period.

$300 Switch, and a $600 guitar have been used more in two months than all of my pins and vids from the last decade. I basically take up one of the best spaces in the house, and about $30k in games, to play when guests come over. Probably not worth it, but they are fun at parties.

I still consider myself an arcade game guy first, and a pinhead second, even if I do spend the vast majority of my game time working on and playing the pins. My arcade currently has 5 pins and about 15 vids.

Luckily for me, my collecting interests are pretty specific: vector games and classics from about 1979 to 1983. My earliest game is an Asteroids Cabaret, and my latest is Major Havoc. I can't stand MAME cabs. I use MAME on my PC to figure out how much I like a game before I go looking for one, but the necessary compromise in control panel layout is unacceptable to me. I see it exactly the same as saying that you don't need to own all those pins, only a virtual pin cab, and you can play 400 games. To me it's about the experience, and that means the cab and the feel of the controls have to be right. The stick on Donkey Kong is supposed to SLAM into the 4-way gate, and Robotron is supposed to glide smoothly through all 8 of its sticks' positions. Anything else isn't the right experience.

That's just me, of course. So no, I'm not switching, I think I've found the right balance.

Totally agree with you on the Mame Front; in theory, it's awesome to think "Wow, I have 2000 arcade games" But in practice, none of them play exact as they do on a dedicated. And then you have the fact that if you are going to emulate, just stick with the PS4, PC, Switch, Xbox games, and all the classics are emulated in various forms there. The feel of the control panel on say Golden Tee Fore Complete, which is an absolute party pleaser, just cannot be emulated, you need a long control panel with room, so your hand doesn't hit the monitor and that smooth composite they use on the CPO; it's just butter. Or a universal midway cab and MK2 with the proper happ sticks and buttons in normal config; it just feels right.

The problem with me is space, if I had more space, I would own 20 dedicated arcade machines; but space is limited and over the years, I have gone to straight pins; and consoles for my vid gaming fix.

That's about where I've gotten to, they're used at parties but I rarely play them currently. I played a ton of Rocksmith (real guitar + xbox = super fun) a couple years ago before I had some physical issues with playing too much, lol (I was playing every night for an hour or two).