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How much did original arcade machines cost?
CheffoJeffo:
Tough question, although I think TOK is in the ballpark.
I thought I had an old Atari price list, but I can't seem to find it now. IIRC, Pong was about an $800 purchase. I know that Asteroids cost just under $800 to make, but I can't find what a first tier dealer would pay (and it is important to remember that there was lots of wheeling and dealing were going on -- what cost $1000 from Dealer A might cost $2000 from Dealer B).
I recall folks saying, during the heyday, that games could be paid off within a few weeks and that, as the crash neared, the life cycle of games shortened drastically making them difficult to pay off (hence, the crash). I'll need to watch the documentaries again to get a better handle.
WhereEaglesDare:
--- Quote from: Ginsu Victim on August 24, 2010, 05:49:43 pm ---
--- Quote from: idsane on August 24, 2010, 05:47:26 pm ---Wow that is amazing. I would never have guessed they could be that much in the 80s. 10,000 plays to get your $2500 back.
--- End quote ---
Back then, it wasn't that hard. Check the coin counters on some older cabs sometime. My Track and Field had 53,000.
--- End quote ---
Yea, because when you think about "Home Arcades" weren't around or affordable for a long while later...
idsane:
Interesting link Ray. It says StarWars costs about 1200 to make, Missile command around 800, so double to triple that resell would make sense. $150 a week also seems about right, as one of the SWESB memos compares it to other games in 85 and what they made, with marble madness at the top with over $200 a week. So if a game costs $2500 and makes $150 a week for about 4.5 months, it would be paid off, which still seems like a long time to pay it off. For the games that didn't become popular, who knows who long it took to pay those off. No wonder arcades were a boom and bust back then. But then again, I'm sure the retail chains like ChuckECheese would see a lot more than $150 a week from a Star wars game, especially during the summer.
RayB:
That Star Wars price sheet is for parts only. Labour and R&D not included. Atari would have added an amount to compensate for that, and then the distributors add their own mark-up as well. $2500 to $3500 is probably right.
nitz:
Interesting topic :)
On a related topic, I'd be interested to know what the cost/profit situation on a classic game is today. My local comic shop, movie theater, and mini-golf place all have a few old arcade games that get switched out now and then, so I assume they don't own them. I go to all these places semi-regularly and I hardly ever see anybody playing the games. So I really wonder how much it costs to lease them. I'd be very surprised if any of those games see 100 plays a week - and that would only be $25 since they only charge a quarter. Would it cost a lot less than that a week to lease those? I wouldn't have thought so, but maybe I'm wrong.
Alternatively, there's another place that has all the games set on freeplay and charges $10 an hour to play. That's probably more profitable I would think. Might be ok if you're playing some of those beat 'em ups that were basically designed to eat your money, but for classics, it's a ripoff. ::) $10 divided by $0.25 is 40, meaning you'd have to play 40 games an hour to make it worthwhile, meaning on average, each of your games is only lasting a minute and half! For most classics, you would have to be an outright terrible player for that to happen.