For those who are married..

[sandmountainslim]

..does you wife/husband wholeheartedly accept your fascination with Atari/NES etc.? My wife thinks the whole idea of classic gaming is boring and dull and I like to waste money Am I alone on this front?

[Room 34]

I would say my wife tolerates it. She certainly has little to no interest in it herself, but she at least she doesn't berate me for my own interest. (She gets mild amusement from playing Ms. Pac-Man or Galaga, but that's about it.)

[NE146]

My wife has zero interest in any videogame whatsoever (she doesn't even know Tetris). That being said, she is fully accepting of my childhood fascination with everything about them and makes an effort to learn a little about it since after all, it makes for good birthday and christmas gifts to me. And hey, if I was interested in these things for years before I met her, it's part of the package she married right?

 

I guess she figures there are a lot of other more objectionable things I could be interested in. i.e. Least I'm not off fucking around or dealing weed

[joeybastard]

My wife is supportive but somewhat indifferent to it. She plays some of the classics but she's always preferred PC puzzle games and the Mega-Touch coin-op I got her. She doesn't mind my collection at all and happily let me have a room in the house devoted to it. On a number of occaisons, she's stopped at thrift stores and picked up videogames for me without me asking her to.

 

I'm a very lucky man

[candiru]

I think in my case it's grudgingly accepted. It doesn't hurt that she actually likes a few of the Atari and NES games. She had a Super Nintendo when she was younger so she likes some of those games too. She rarely plays though.

 

She does think I'm silly, and I have heard "Don't you think you have enough now?" and "What, another system?" In spite of all that, it's generally tolerated. It doesn't hurt to remind her of how as far as hobbies go it's pretty cheap, and of how thrifty I am in other ways. I've also shown her some of the gameroom and collection pictures to show her that my obsession is mild in comparison. My apologies to those I've used to make myself appear sane.

 

She bought me some 2600 games once for Christmas while my collection was still relatively small. Of course as soon as I heard that she got them at a local antique mall and there were more left, I dragged the poor woman back there at the first opportunity.

 

When the rest of the house is finished, I have the green light to turn the basement into a gameroom -- which was actually her idea. So I can't really complain.

[+uosipa llamxew]

I get to have a room for all of my game junk (best room in the place, I think), but he rolls his eyes at the thought of more video games. He seemed awefully impressed with my Vectrex though. :-)

 

Before we were together the only game he played was handheld Yahtzee. Now he's addicted to the handheld Solitaire I bought him and he likes games like "You Don't Know Jack". Otherwise, he is okay with my video games as long as I play when he doesn't have to sit bored.

 

...and the Mega-Touch coin-op I got her.

Ooooh! I am incredibly jealous! I used to sit and play the Megatouch in the pub till I was playing tennis with two nets. Good times... good times.

 

Are you sure it was a present for her?

[davepesc]

My wife just tolerates it. She enjoys Street Fighter 2, but that is about the extent of her video game interest.

I know she had a Colecovision as a kid, maybe I should invest in one...

[Inky]

My wife has been known to fire up a game of pitfall or space invaders from time to time.

[BydoEmpire]

She's pretty supportive of my gaming and collecting. I don't spend tons and tons of money, and while I spend a lot of time w/ games, I don't play at the expense of other parts of my life. My wife isn't really into games, other than Crystal Balls on my Touchmaster Coin-Op (she has the highest score I've ever seen), and the occasional game of Sega Swirl or Columns. Funny that someone else's wife is into Megatouch games - anyone else have touch screen coin-ops at home?

[jeepnut24]

My wife is ok with it as long as it doesn't hurt the budget. Ocassionally she will help me look. The best part though, is that my mother in law finds carts for me all the time. Yes, my mother-in-law. She is awesome.

[Malc74]

My wife pretty much just shakes her head and lets me get on with it. She's quite happy with me buying games from time to time as she then feels better when she cracks and has to buy new shoes or pants or whatever.

 

She won't touch my old consoles or computers and generally sticks to the Gamecube for her gaming needs. She'll only hit the thrifts on my behalf to buy me Christmas presents, but that's fine I suppose.

 

She's understanding, though. Considering how much it cost me to ship my games collection from Scotland to Canada when I emigrated, she would have been quite entitled to put up a stink, but she didn't.

[sku_u]

My wife not only accepts it, she plays the games more often than I do. She's the one who got me into videogames when she grabbed her old 5200 from her father's house. Prior to that, I'd more of less forgotten about old videogames and had only played FIFA and Madden Football on occasion with a few friends of mine.

[birdie3]

My wife does not like vids the same way I do. She will play the odd NES game if I have the system hooked up but she doesn't go looking for them like I do. I would say that she prefers that I spend more time paying attention to her instead of my games. Can you guess why I still continue to collect video games?

[Shawn]

My wife gets a kick out the fact I still play Atari and the like but she gets a little annoyed if I talk about games to her for more than 15 mins in a day...lol.

[Zonie]

..does you wife/husband wholeheartedly accept your fascination with Atari/NES etc.? My wife thinks the whole idea of classic gaming is boring and dull and I like to waste money  Am I alone on this front?

 

No...You're not. My wife expects me to get rid of the conoles as I get the emulators working on the DC. Instead, I have actually picked up a NES Genny, and a Saturn (today) that will be clandestinely brought in to the house and hidden behind the existing consoles that she already knows about. I keep them on an old little printer cabinet with extra shelves which are deep enough to put consoles up to three deep.

 

She knows I do this, but she just rolls her eyes and doesn't say anything since they don't outgrow the space already taken. It's not like we live in a cracker box. We have a pretty good size house. She thinks I have too much stuff.

 

I also don't spend a lot. I get the stuff cheap. The NES was a whopping $5. I buy carts at swaps and thrifts and trade them for more usually at the game store. She spends more at Starbucks than I spend on Game stuff. I also share the games with my Son.

 

So, you're not alone.

[wrldstrman]

My wife thinks Im insane for getting up at 6 am to go to yard sales and flea markets..She does like to play dr mario against me though..and she ocasianally will pick up a game if she runs across one..Overall she thinks its a waste of money but so far she hasnt thrown me or my games out yet..

[Gregory DG]

The wife doesn't much care for video games. Or, maybe I should say, she doesn't care to play games with me. She knows I'll kick her butt mercilessly. She will play the occasional game with me if I ask her to, but that gets tiring. I wish she'd ask me to play once in awhile.

 

I have gotten her hooked on Gameboy games: Tetris (of course), Battleship, Ultimate Brain Games (for the Shanghai game), Donkey Kong (for GBC), and Mario vs. DK. She also played a good bit of Bust-A-Move and Akanoid on her computer via MAME. But that's about it. Everytime she sees me play DOA2 or Unreal Tournament or Half-Life she says she'll never play those type of games.

[racerx]

My wife wouldn't be my wife if she didn't like videogames. She's not hardcore or anything but she'll sit down and play with me unless she's losing too badly.

 

She's fairly tolerant of my little hobbies, though I'm not sure she understands why copies of BattleSphere or Virtual Boy store kiosks cost what they do, or why I get excited about unfinished Jag demos.

[cimerians]

My wife has no interest except for maybe a game of Galaga or Mappy now and then on Mame or the NES. She also likes Adventure Island on the NES but never really plays it anymore. Weird but at least there's a few games she remembers. When it comes to collecting she tolerates it as long as I don't go nuts and spend a fortune.

[cimerians]

here's a twist:

 

If your wife DOES NOT have interest or like playing games with you. WHEN or WHAT time of the day do you find the time to play?

 

I usually wait till night or after she goes to bed. In the begining she got mad about that for obvious reasons but now its no big deal...

[Zonie]

My wife thinks Im insane for getting up at 6 am to go to yard sales and flea markets..She does like to play dr mario against me though..and she ocasianally will pick up a game if she runs across one..Overall she thinks its a waste of money but so far she hasnt thrown me or my games out yet..

 

I gave up on yard sales. Nothing ever around here. (PHX AZ) you can't swing a dead cart without hitting a game store, so folks who are gettin rid of them are taking them there. I think they even outnumber 7-11 and Circle-K stores now!!!!

[thx1138]

My wife really enjoys hunting for games in the wild. She doesn't share my fascination with all things retro, and finds it a bit dull, but she does relly enjoy trying to find them.

 

I am allowed 2 rooms out of the whole house for my stuff.

[joeybastard]

 Are you sure it was a present for her?  

 

I knew somebody would say that!

 

When we go to the bar she plays the MegaTouch machines constantly. I had looked previously into getting her one but they were WAY too expensive for new ones($6000!). I lucked into getting an older machine from Cassidy here on AA for a VERY reasonable price. It doesn't play all of the games the new ones do but it has about 30 games on it and she loves it so it's all good. When I hit the lotto, I'll get her one of the new fancy machines. Mine uses chips to hold the games and a CRT unlike the newer ones that have LCD screens, hard drives, etc.

 

Someday we'll own a couple of video slot machines too

[joeybastard]

BTW, here's a pic of her playing it Xmas morning in baggy pajamas and drinking coffee. Notice the quaters before I figured out how to put the free credits on it.

[maibock]

It's pretty much tolerated in our home. My wife wants nothing to do the aquiring, playing, collecting or anything video game related. Although I must admire her patience with us since it's all over our house. I play, my two sons play.. my 5 month old can't play, YET.

 

She will get frustrated when gaming interferes with something, but over all, she knows it brings joy to us, so it's accepted