Bogalusa, LA
This discussion is for someone who has the ability to specify the electrical power specification for his gameroom because of a new home or home add-on construction, or converting his garage or basement, etc. The mains power system here is NEMA (i.e., 120 V), although certainly with a calculation adjustment, this could apply to other mains voltage systems.
First, of course, there is the question of design for the pins. AIUI, the rule is that 4 pins can fit on a 15A circuit while 6 pins can fit on a 20A circuit. This seems to be a "rule of thumb" for the era of arcades, and I wonder if it applies to the pins of the current era. With this in mind, I have a question as to the feasibility of having a such a set of pins as all being switched as on, and controlling this with a wall switch - i.e., the switch (a beefy one at that) would immediately power up the pins (I have converted all of my pre-switch era pins from the 60s into having a switch that powers up immediately). I wonder if having the games all powered up at the same time would somehow cause there to be a large (out-of-phase, inductive) current draw because of the transformers, even if the only thing being powered up would be the Hold relay (for the EMs). And if that it is a concern, I wonder if there is any commercial off-the-shelf device that could stagger the powering up (e.g., by delaying the power by a second for each line). Perhaps this would be doable if each 20A circuit fed 2 wall switches that they fed 3 pins?
There is also the question of neon signs being powered up at the same time, and with the same concern of the current draw. I seem to remember reading that this would be an issue as I have described.
