Generics are completely fine. There are time specific tickets, but those aren't really necessary. It's unlikely the room would be at capacity but theoretically if that were to happen, people with actual timed tickets would be allowed in first. Again, I really don't anticipate that happening.
Marian McBrine Event Coordinator Gen Con LLC
$4 isn't a bad deal. Wasn't it like $15 per hour in years past?
Well, the room with games on LAN and the Internet, and consoles, is $8 an hour; the old school arcade is $4.
The X-Men Arcade game and TMNT were my two fav's
Had a friend who was just stupid good at Robotron which was in our local grocery store. He would gather so many lives, he'd let us play for a bit, lose horribly, and then he'd take over and just build up the lives again.
As a somewhat related q.. How many own arcade games and have them at home? How much do they normally run?
And to be honest, 4 bucks an hour is ok I guess, but hell I can go an hour on Galaga on 1-3 quarters :)
They give you I believe a wristband with the time on it, and they go and check the room periodically. They don't clear the room, and if you're one minute over, they aren't going to make you stop in the middle of your game, but they will walk around checking wristbands.
Or, if you (or anyone else here) like projects, you can start at pretty much any level and build up. You can build a cabinet or buy one off Craigslist. You can hunt down a CRT or put in an LCD. You can easily buy a 60-in-1 board or go the PC+MAME route. You can get whatever controls you want from places like Focus Attack or Paradise Arcade Shop, including programmable LED lighting. Plus you can have custom artwork. The hobby is in a big upswing with the advent of 3D printing, short run PCBs, etc. There's even a new "Dexter" board that will allow owners of Dragon's Lair or Space Ace to replace their failing laserdiscs with sd cards.
The folks running the arcade events at Gen Con would be happy to give you recommendations. You can also hit up either forums.arcade-museum.com or look for a local Facebook group. There are also arcade expos all over the country. The largest one near Indy is Louisville Arcade Expo in early March.
And I'm a "small" collector. One of the guys running the hallway arcade has a whole warehouse full!
Prices vary wildly. For working cabinets, you can get less popular titles starting around $200, all the way up to what most consider the holy grail: the Atari Star Wars in the full cockpit is $2500 - $4000. Brand new arcades are rare and start $5000+, with the relatively new Star Wars Battle Pod costing a jaw-dropping $35000.
Pins start around $500 for something working and go up depending on rarity and condition. There are several companies making new pins. The latest big game, Ghostbusters, is $9000-15000 depending on options.
The biggest challenge if you want to get into retro arcade is the CRTs. Nobody makes tubes anymore due to environmental regulations, not even in China. We do everything we can to keep tubes alive or harvest them from compatible TVs before they reach the landfill. Most other circuit components are common enough that boards can usually be repaired if you're handy with a soldering iron and a logic probe.