Best selling machine?

[neil324]

Whats the best selling arcade machine of all time by number of cabinet sales, searched on google and the only thing i can come up with is NBA Jam but that is by revenue made.

[HaRuMaN]

Whats the best selling arcade machine of all time by number of cabinet sales, searched on google and the only thing i can come up with is NBA Jam but that is by revenue made.

I highly doubt it was NBA Jam...

Pacman maybe?

Asteroids? 

These are just guesses.

[DashRendar]

Yeah, I'd say either Pac Man or Donkey Kong.

[CheffoJeffo]

NBA Jam ? 

BrentRadio compiled a list taken from a variety of sources -- it isn't cabinet sales, but about as close as you will get.

http://www.brentradio.com/ProductionNumbers.htm

[Ginsu Victim]

Looks like, what, Ms Pacman maybe?

[CheffoJeffo]

MsPac would have been my guess without Brent's numbers (it's the classic I have seen the most of), but I was surprised how close Pac and DK were.

[Ginsu Victim]

Wow, seeing how many Arabian machines were made makes me want to rescue this converted one at the local laundromat. I took a pic because the sideart was still perfect!

[DJ_Izumi]

I believe that Daytona USA is the best selling arcade machine in terms of net revenue, but I think that's in how much cash it brought in for Sega, not the raw number of units.  Obviously a Daytona USA machine cost more than other machines years ago afterall.

[neil324]

Interesting numbers. Some seem low to me(Missle Command). I remember when i went on holidays in the early eighties(UK)that the large arcades had multiple cabinets of the most popular games sometimes as many as 5. Most of these cabinets would be best described as jamma and not dedicated with a no artwork only a marque, but the jamma standard started in 1985, maybe my memory and dates are playing tricks, but most of my gaming experience was done on non dedicated machines for sure. The only mass dedicated machine that i remember seeing everywhere, even going shopping with my mom there was one at the checkouts was Space Invaders.

[CheffoJeffo]

OK, you guys who are posting about revenue numbers -- where are you getting this ?

I'm not asking to be a punk -- I've just never seen any such compilations or stats and would love to.

[CheffoJeffo]

Interesting numbers. Some seem low to me(Missle Command). I remember when i went on holidays in the early eighties(UK)that the large arcades had multiple cabinets of the most popular games sometimes as many as 5. Most of these cabinets would be best described as jamma and not dedicated with a no artwork only a marque, but the jamma standard started in 1985, maybe my memory and dates are playing tricks, but most of my gaming experience was done on non dedicated machines for sure. The only mass dedicated machine that i remember seeing everywhere, even going shopping with my mom there was one at the checkouts was Space Invaders.

You were in the UK -- you were sadly deprived of the glory of dedicated cabinets that we enjoyed here in North America.

The Atari numbers are probably pretty accurate as much of the documentation was saved.

For example, Atari Production Numbers Memo

[neil324]

Interesting numbers. Some seem low to me(Missle Command). I remember when i went on holidays in the early eighties(UK)that the large arcades had multiple cabinets of the most popular games sometimes as many as 5. Most of these cabinets would be best described as jamma and not dedicated with a no artwork only a marque, but the jamma standard started in 1985, maybe my memory and dates are playing tricks, but most of my gaming experience was done on non dedicated machines for sure. The only mass dedicated machine that i remember seeing everywhere, even going shopping with my mom there was one at the checkouts was Space Invaders.

You were in the UK -- you were sadly deprived of the glory of dedicated cabinets that we enjoyed here in North America.

The Atari numbers are probably pretty accurate as much of the documentation was saved.

For example, Atari Production Numbers Memo

Deprived  :'(

So any pre 1985 machine that looked like a jamma was infact us Brits getting palmed of with chunk then 

[CheffoJeffo]

Yeah, you guys got shorted on the cool cabinet designs, although Atari did build in Ireland, so I would have expected that you would have seen some cool Atari cabs around.

[councilface]

What I can remember in the UK during the golden years was an incredible amount of Bootlegged machines. I think they were mainly Italian?

[MaximRecoil]

I've seen the following claim in various places:

Defender Factoids:
- Released in 1980 by manufacturer Williams.
- Has reportedly grossed (Arcade revenue) over one billion dollars world wide since it's release, making Defender one of the highest grossing video games ever made. Paralleled only by Pac Man.
- Was considered an arcade flop at the 1981 Chicago arcade machine trade show.
- Spawned a sequal Defender 2 a.k.a Stargate.

That of course is another revenue claim; not a units sold claim; though I would think that the two would be somewhat related.

[Jakobud]

I would definitely guess Ms. Pac Man over Pac Man.

[taylormadelv]

I've never read definitive production numbers on Defender. I'd go with Defender, those things were everywhere BITD!

[ark_ader]

Yeah, you guys got shorted on the cool cabinet designs, although Atari did build in Ireland, so I would have expected that you would have seen some cool Atari cabs around.

I don't know where Cheffo gets his information, but in the 80s in Blackpool, I saw more US based games in the arcade (Dragon's Lair included) than I ever saw in a Sega Center/Timeout or Electronic Corral in So. Calif.

I would say Space Invaders or Galaxian would be the candidate to the most sold.

[J.Max]

I'd make a guess and say Ms. Pac Man or Galaga.  (Especially if you consider the 20th/25th anniversary machines and the cocktail units.)  I saw new ones still being sold as late as 2003.

[angryred]

Wow, I would have guessed Galaga. That one sticks in my mind as the omnipresent machine back in the day. That sucker was everywhere.

[lettuce]

I thought i read somewhere it was TMNT

[DJ_Izumi]

Wikipedia does state that 350 000 units of Pac-Man machines were sold.  That's... That's a hell of a lot of units for an arcade machine.

[RayB]

It is, considering just 3 years later, a game like Crystal Castles saw barely 5000 units made.

[taylormadelv]

Yeah and prices for cabs went down also. Tempest started selling at something like $2095 in 1980 but by 1983 they were something like $300 each! Funny how these wood boxes cleaned up so much cash in a short time, then retired to be forgotten, collected, hacked or mamed later on.

[bertthedefender]

I'm in the UK and remember lots of dedicated Atari cabs as a young kid on summer trips to the beach:   Asteroids, Battlezone, Star Wars, Sprint 2 etc

In "Arcade Fever" http://www.amazon.com/ARCADE-FEVER-Guide-Golden-Video/dp/0762409371 the author states:

1) Pac Man
2) Donkey Kong
3) Asteroids  (>70000)

As the top 3 based on units shipped.  But thats the only source of numbers I've ever read.

[WhereEaglesDare]

How much do modern day arcade machines cost New In Box Delivered?  Like a New Street fighter 4 or similar.

[CheffoJeffo]

How much do modern day arcade machines cost New In Box Delivered?  Like a New Street fighter 4 or similar.

Expensive ...

Last I heard the SFIV kits (no cabinet) were going for $2500+.

I would expect a NIB current title to run $4000+ and since many of them are deluxe cabinets, many will run $7500+.

[MaximRecoil]

Last I heard the SFIV kits (no cabinet) were going for $2500+.

I wonder if anyone has hacked the $15 PC version to work as a coin-op game. Saving a couple of thousand dollars is a pretty big incentive.

[MonMotha]

I wonder if anyone has hacked the $15 PC version to work as a coin-op game. Saving a couple of thousand dollars is a pretty big incentive.

Also illegal.  The home version is almost definitely not licensed for public performance.

New dedicated deluxe cabinet games sold in the USA seem to be ~$6000-15000, depending on just how "deluxe", according to the operators I talk to.  Redemption stuff seems to sit in the $8000 range.  They'll pay it because it actually earns, unlike the videos.

Full conversion kits (artwork, PCB/computer, software, sometimes some control hardware) seems to run ~$4000-6000 depending on the game.  Upgrade kits to jump from one version of a game to a later version (same cabinet and computer hardware, just software and some new cabinet artwork) seem to run ~$1200-4000 again depending on the game.

All this is excluding shipping, of course.  Sometimes a local disty will cut you a deal and ship it to you for free or cheap if they want to be rid of it.

[MaximRecoil]

Also illegal.  The home version is almost definitely not licensed for public performance.

I know it is illegal, but since when has that ever mattered? Pretty much all of the popular arcade games of the past have been bootlegged/hacked by someone; and that was when it required the replication of custom hardware in order to produce a bootleg. How many arcade operators do you suppose went to jail for running a e.g., bootleg Double Dragon board back in the day?

Hacking a cheap (or free; via torrents, Rapidshare, newsgroups, etc.) PC game to coin-op standards (to display "Insert Coin", etc.) seems like a no-brainer given the alternative of spending $2,500. I know it has been done with Dreamcast games (as a cheap alternative to expensive NAOMI systems/games).

[RayB]

It not uncommon in certain countries (say for example, south american ones) to find regular pc and console game setups with coined timer devices.

[CheffoJeffo]

Hacking a cheap (or free; via torrents, Rapidshare, newsgroups, etc.) PC game to coin-op standards (to display "Insert Coin", etc.) seems like a no-brainer given the alternative of spending $2,500. I know it has been done with Dreamcast games (as a cheap alternative to expensive NAOMI systems/games).

It's interesting -- the last offer I got to purchase an SFIV kit came from the company that sold so many of those console-to-arcade kits. I note that they don't sell those console kits anymore -- maybe the money wasn't there ?