War stories: Surviving shitty equipment.

[motoh]

It's been forever (1997?) since I was in an arcade setting, so I haven't run into many troubles lately, but I was recalling horrible times of yore when buttons were left broken for ages, coin slots ate quarters from the unsuspecting, and sticks were as responsive as a coma patient.  Most memorably, I remember playing KOF out in Ohio somewhere (damned if I can recall) and all the buttons were screwed around out of order on the system.

What's some of the worst stuff you've ever seen a cab/stick put through?  Or even, what's the worst a cab/stick has put you through?

~M

[Alfonse]

Unresponsive buttons.

[Draku]

Unresponsive buttons.

This is the only thing I've been through, mostly because my area has next to no arcades.

[pherai]

No one from IF/FFA can say anything cause Arly handles all the repairs 

[Devereaux]

They turned the only arcade my city had into a Frederick's of Hollywood back when I was in elementary school and the only other arcades I've really been to (if you want to call them that) were at bowling alleys or mini golf parks.

What's some of the worst stuff you've ever seen a cab/stick put through?

I do remember back in elementary school in Fremont my neighbor used to have an original Donky Kong cab in his garage and me and his son used to play it all the time. Well, his son had anger control issues so that cab took quite a beating as I recall.

Now that I think of it, there was that problem with the second player stick on the melty cab at AX. I believe it would random shield whenever you attempted to dash.

[motoh]

They turned the only arcade my city had into a Frederick's of Hollywood back when I was in elementary school and the only other arcades I've really been to (if you want to call them that) were at bowling alleys or mini golf parks.

I'm so torn... is that an upgrade or defilement?  Head... can't take the pressure...

~M

[furix]

A Whole year.. yes.. a whole year+.. the KoFXI machine at our arcades wasn't working. Or rather... they never bothered to fix it.

The two screens were fucked up, lines, blurryness... It was impossible to see. It first started with the buttons not functioning, lasted a month, then the buttons got fixed.. next week... the screens were fucked up. The manager at the time couldn't fix it, later he got fired, we went through more managers, it never got fixed.

Until recently, new management, she's cool and all, new staff... I told them about it, so here goes one of the new guys, opens the machine from the back, messes a bit with the screens.. and TADAH! Fixed!

Took One Year and a few months of incompetent staff to get that fixed! Now people rarely touch the machine cuz they think it might still be broken. :/

Poor KoFXI

[DarthTrey]

When I was going to school at full sail they pulled the SFIII: 3S machine out of the teachers lounge and it lasted for 3 days before someone had stripped the screw that was holding the P1 joystick in the cabinet.  Not even lieing.  This one time I was in line to get in some games and a guy that must have weighed ~250ish was full out leaning back yanking on the stick trying to do a Super.  I wanted to stab him...

[furix]

You should of stabbed him.

3s cabinets are precious and should not be wasted ... Specially version A

[Soniti]

The entire arcade at my local community college is screwed up horribly. I don't think there is a single machine in there that functions fully. At least 40% of them are completely out of order. Most of the others have broken controls/buttons, or their screens are messed up. For example, the 3s cabinet's player 1 joystick doesn't allow you to jump. Also, at my local Golf'n'Stuff (mini-golf place) arcade, many of the machines have issues, but at least they care a bit more about their basic functionality than Ventura College does.
I wish those responsible for the VC arcade wouldn't just ignore the players who ask for cheap fixes like replacing a joystick or a button here and there.
After going to Japan and playing in arcades there, nothing in America even comes close to comparing to the quality of their arcades. All of the buttons there wroked fine for me, and I never saw a single "out of order" machine   .