John's Arcade Forum - Classic Arcade and Pinball Collecting and Restoring Discussion Forum - RETRO MAME - Nintendo Vs Forum

I just bought my first Donkey Kong machine and have a question. Is it better to leave them on or off? Let's say I plan on playing again in 30 minutes or an hour, should I leave it on or turn it off and then back on again later? Thanks!

I do not like power cycling my games. I try to turn them on and off only once a day. If you plan on coming back to play in just 30 minutes I personally would just leave it on. However, if I am gonna play again but four or os hours from now, I'd probably turn it off. These are commercial products and they are designed to be on for hours at a time. However, they are old and if you are done playing for the day, turn it off.

I wouldn't worry too much about it but I also wouldn't leave the game on forever unattended.

I´m doing this exactly like John. I kinda treat my games and old consoles like the combustion engine my car and let them heat up fully before turning them off again.

Yeah you actually get wear and tear from turning computers on and off .
I remember going to arcades and them turning on all the machines and would tell people let the machines warm up first lol

It does make sense with the type of monitors in most cabinets.