Mame credit limiter

[killboy35]

The other day, a few friends came by to play games on my cabinet. Since they're younger than me (read: "born in the 90's"), they didn't have any previous experience with arcade cabinets (they didn't even know how to call the darn thing). That evening, they played through a few games but told me  that they didn't find arcade games so much fun.

I then occurred to me that the best part of arcade games was that with the few coins that my parents gave me, I rarely managed to finish a game. I had to go as far as possible with the precious credits I had in my pocket. Arcade games were a pleasure because they were a challenge ! So my friends could not experience the real arcade feeling with unlimited credits spoiling the pleasure !

 

So my question is :

Is it possible to configure a kind of credit limit in Mame so that you're only allowed 3-4 credits per session ?

Or a timed credit dispenser where you could only buy credits every X minutes ?

Or even better : be able to buy X credits, until a "credit limiter secret reset key combination" is pressed ? :-)

 

(Of course the simple solution of telling my friends to stop after a few lives wouldn't work, it'd be like leaving my kid alone with a candy bar and telling him to only eat half of it) ;-)

 

[Metalzoic]

I've seen this idea brought up before, but never seen anything made to implement it in software.

Best way I can think of is to just install a coindoor and use actual quarters for credits.

[killboy35]

Ahah, since my mamecab is an old commercial cabinet, I could go down the coin door route...but I don't think it's right to collect money from your friends this way.

I also tried using some "fake coins" but when limiting the amount of credits myself, people would see me as purposedly preventing them to enjoy the game.  I reckon that the limit (the source of frustration) should come from the game system itself.

So I guess I'll look a bit more around and see if I can come up with another solution. Thanks anyway @Metalzoic !