Megatouch Live...ML-1

[smartbomb2084]

Any thoughts out there on the ML-1?    Looking for BOTH operator and player opinions...

We have three on the route and for the most part... It is not well liked...

One location also has a non-Meganet ION as a second game that earns 30% more than their ML-1...

A recently acquired location which we are trying to satisfy.... DOESN'T EVEN WANT ONE!  They want a standard ION 2013.. be it an EVO, Elite Edge, Aurora, or an RX.

The sad part is... Merit ONLY makes the ML-1 now ...so far I think they are cutting their own throats as well as ours....What say ye?

[lilshawn]

We personally don't like it because then AMI has their nose in your cookie jar. None of our units are online. Profit splitting with a 3rd party just ends up costing us money period. They just want a cut of the profits, they aren't really doing anything to earn it by rehashing crappy games with new pictures and ripping off other games. (come on, angry monkeys? seriously?)

give me the unit for free and fix the damn thing when it breaks down, then we will talk splitting my proffit with you. 

[smartbomb2084]

We have almost 40 MegaNet online games that cost about $25 a month to operate.

In a way, the 10% Merit gets for the ML-1 isn't really bad because no more having to buy NEW software every year.

The biggest complaint about the ML-1 is the lack of games compared to ION software.  Merit told me it is because it takes a lot of time to convert games from LINUX to WINDOWS.

What kind of music are you operating?  We have TOUCHTUNES and they take 20% off of the top of our 'cookie jar'...

[lilshawn]

What kind of music are you operating?  We have TOUCHTUNES and they take 20% off of the top of our 'cookie jar'...

Well, we never really cared for Touchtunes or Rowes setup either. The TT jukes look and sound pretty good, but the monitors are the...yeah terrible. I have been repairing TT monitors for one of the other route operators here. Probably have to fix 4 or 5 a month for them. Did a few 100 series Rowe conversion kits for another operator and they were a bugger too.

We were custom building our jukes with some Jukebox software some fellas in New Zealand made. The support for the software has basically dried up (there is still bugs that need fixing) so we may have to switch.  The advantage being, that we hand built all the electrical/lighting/data systems. if anything goes wrong, bam! we know right away where the problem is because we know every inch.

It's another reason we never bothered with having online on our Merit/JVL machines... our juke isn't online... the feature was planned but never implemented by the kiwis.

Merit told me it is because it takes a lot of time to convert games from LINUX to WINDOWS.

Shouldn't they just be able to plunk the soucecode for the game into a windows compiler and have a windows program in 10 minutes?  (debugging and testing aside)

[smartbomb2084]

In spite of the 20% monthly debit... TOUCHTUNES ...MAKES MONEY...

An ever growing part of the cashpan is in smart phone payments done remotely...

Don't have to worry about the CRAPPY ICT OEM Bill Acceptors getting a limp Bill stuck in them resulting in a service call...

Are you listening  TT?  It's MEI or GO HOME...PERIOD.

I thought we were PARTNERS?

[ed12]

hi
i could not agree with u 2 more
touch tunes for there pricing suck's
forget the 20% they take and fix on the montly flat fee,that get's billed every month.
then add on the fact that up until this year we were tied to high speed or dial up
where usa coustmers could use a usb modem wireless
which they just did this month with a agrement with rogger's :30.00: prmth.
or the fact that they never came out with the patch's for the ict's
where i had them and got all of the ict user's up and going that wanted the patch's
or the fact that they never came up with a proper coin mech fix once we went to the new loonie/toonie,so i swapped all mine out to cashcode 330's and never looked back,
so i took 1 of my vrock's down to the warehouse for service
my boss flipped out,not mad but at all of the thing's u could do with it
blew touch tune's out of the water

ed

[lilshawn]

uhg.... let's not talk about ICT. I STILL don't have an updated, WORKING poly set for the P70 yet. Been e-mailing them almost weekly trying to get a reply from them. at this rate, the friggin queen is going to croak and we will have to reprogram them again when they put whats-his-pickle on the new bills.

[mahkeymike]

We personally don't like it because then AMI has their nose in your cookie jar. None of our units are online. Profit splitting with a 3rd party just ends up costing us money period. They just want a cut of the profits, they aren't really doing anything to earn it by rehashing crappy games with new pictures and ripping off other games. (come on, angry monkeys? seriously?)

give me the unit for free and fix the damn thing when it breaks down, then we will talk splitting my proffit with you. 

Ive not even seen one single ML-1 in any local sports bar/restaurants. Most still have force evo's or the rx's. Its rare to see even a ion evo or aurora anymore.

[lilshawn]

We personally don't like it because then AMI has their nose in your cookie jar. None of our units are online. Profit splitting with a 3rd party just ends up costing us money period. They just want a cut of the profits, they aren't really doing anything to earn it by rehashing crappy games with new pictures and ripping off other games. (come on, angry monkeys? seriously?)

give me the unit for free and fix the damn thing when it breaks down, then we will talk splitting my proffit with you. 

Ive not even seen one single ML-1 in any local sports bar/restaurants. Most still have force evo's or the rx's. Its rare to see even a ion evo or aurora anymore.

I live in a city of nearly a million people and seen my fair share of pubs. I have yet to see a ML-1.

[smartbomb2084]

Since you say 'pubs' instead of 'bars' I take it you are not located in the USA?

If so that could be why you haven't seen any yet.

[lilshawn]

Since you say 'pubs' instead of 'bars' I take it you are not located in the USA?

If so that could be why you haven't seen any yet.

No, Canada...which is pretty much Europe. 

[mahkeymike]

I live in the US, but on the outskirts of big citys. Only places in my area that i would imagine may have them would be hooters, starters, or buffalo wild wings. But i have not been to one of those since before the ML-1 came out so i cant say for sure. But it does not take a rocket scientist to see that the ML-1 cant be selling better then the force, ion, and aurora's had sold. If it wasnt for there jukebox's i think the company would have went belly up by now.

[ed12]

as ami now own's merit
watch coustmer support go south...
the reason for this live stuff is simple as it get's >>they control the s/w<<
u no longer own it....
like before when we bought a juke or video/pin we >owned it<,
now day's they control it,under the gueis of oh on line real time play/up-date's
yadie yadie
if a machine is not hooked on line for more then 10 day's u get a bark from it
aying u need to hook it up,then same as toch tune's it could and will take 20-30 min's to d/l,reason for this..? there chking the book-keeping of the machine
to find out if u had tricked them out of there nickel

i know a @ here dose not like the ion's.i am by far no great fan of them
but it was a hit with most :pub's/bar's/pool-hall's we have

2 cent's worth

ed

[mahkeymike]

as ami now own's merit
watch coustmer support go south...
the reason for this live stuff is simple as it get's >>they control the s/w<<
u no longer own it....
like before when we bought a juke or video/pin we >owned it<,
now day's they control it,under the gueis of oh on line real time play/up-date's
yadie yadie
if a machine is not hooked on line for more then 10 day's u get a bark from it
aying u need to hook it up,then same as toch tune's it could and will take 20-30 min's to d/l,reason for this..? there chking the book-keeping of the machine
to find out if u had tricked them out of there nickel

i know a @ here dose not like the ion's.i am by far no great fan of them
but it was a hit with most :pub's/bar's/pool-hall's we have

2 cent's worth

ed

Interesting.........

So it actually doesnt need to stream data to play the games? It just needs to be told its connected, or told to only bark every 365 days, or longer.

[ed12]

10 to 20 day's  correct
it has to hook into for book keeping >money made< and get new firmware from there server,as it is virutial u no longer own the o/s...simple

ed

[lilshawn]

 

nobody associated AMI should read this:

A guy could use a TCP/IP packet sniffer, then analyse the return from the server...then "emulate" it. Later, a software patch could probably be written that modifies the IP address the ML-1 connects to, to re-direct to your machine that spits out the appropriate command that says OK, it's fine to keep working.

[ed12]

he he he
right off the floor laughing my azz off

ed

[lilshawn]

(not that I would condone such an action)

but still...

[smartbomb2084]

Gibberish aside...

It is actually 30 days not 10 or 20  for an ML-1 to self expire if it does not UPDATE  FROM SERVER within that time...

The same for TOUCHTUNES....

The reason it is called Megatouch Live is that it is supposed to be Broadband connected ALL OF THE TIME...

So all of you Socially Connected Media People can see your current high scores on FACEBOOK....

WTF is the world coming too?

[ed12]

smartbomb2084
not to aruge with u
but up here in the great white north we get 10-20 day's for touch tune's
or it bark's,in dashboard control i can see it clearley
the rest of post is 100% correct,who really care's about live gamming ??
it's-gamming did and dose with there golden tee live,what a crock..
if u need to play that bad get out on a real course.
truly i think if i buy a game i OWN the full and complete thing.s/w and all

ed

[lilshawn]

And now, for something you'll really like...

"Infallible scientific proof that live is useless" OR "How to skin a cat without killing the cat."

OBSERVATION: GT Live vs Unplugged

QUESTION: Does having a live machine make more money than an "unplugged" machine

HYPOTHESIS: try 1 live machine because apparently some people at a bar HAD to have a live machine, not an unplugged. insert machine and leave it for a period of 3 years. see if it makes money.

EXPERIMENT GROUP 1:  Place LIVE machine in the site. pay for machine and monthly service fees for 3 years, paying to upgrade to the latest software version  when it becomes available. see if the machine makes more money than an "unplugged" versions of same game.

EXPERIMENT GROUP 2:  Place UNPLUGGED machine in the site. pay to upgrade to the latest software version when it becomes available. see if the machine makes more money than  the "live" versions of same game.


COMMON MODUS: machine Is considered "making money" if the cost (the site's split plus the cost of the kit/upgrade/connection/fees etc) is less than yearly income generated by the machine. IE: the machine pays for itself (excluding the actual cost of the cabinet itself)

RESULTS GROUP 1: Machine in first year lost money. The fees sucked up our profits. Machine in 2nd year made some money but we basically lost money. This was due to having to pay to upgrade the system to the next version. Machine in 3rd year lost money BIG time.  This was due to having to pay to upgrade the machine AND having next to no revenue for the game at all.

RESULTS GROUP 2: Machine in first year almost broke even. i think we were 50 or so bucks shy of turning a profit. Machine in 2nd made an okay profit.
Year 3 I think we lost money. mainly due to no revenue for the game at all.

NOTES: year 3 was a bad year, profits were down all over. people were afraid to spend money. (the "recssion" if you want to call it that)

CONCLUSION: In comparing live vs unplugged versions of the game...results in similar whole incomes, but the additional fees and other costs associated with a live machine meant any profits generated by the machine where eaten up. In our case, live was the loser because we needn't dip into our profits to pay for the service. There is always the possibility that the site was simply a "bum" site... but the specific request of the live machine by the players proves that just because it's LIVE doesn't mean they will play it any more than if it's not.

CONTINUATION: The LIVE machine was removed from it's site and placed in another site. This machine made about as much money as the unplugged machine which it replaced. The fees continued to eat into the profit of the company, breaking even. Since then, it's online services have been suspended. So, even though it says live, the tournaments and other online features are unavailable. It still makes as much money as the unplugged machine which it replaced...only we don't have the bleeding artery that is INET sucking up our profits.

 

TL;DR: the cost associated with operating a LIVE machine results in less profit for the operator.

[smartbomb2084]

Yeah Ed after 20 days TouchTunes 'barks' as you say about not updating but it takes a full 30 days without being conncected  for it to DISABLE itself completely.. at least here in the lower 48...

I don't agree that a non-Meganet game ALWAYS makes less than a Meganet connectyed one.

Many of our locations WON'T EVEN PLAY a non-connected game...They gotta spend $50 to try and win $25...

Besides, location operation is a package deal.  Not every piece of equipment in the location will make money...

One location shoots more pool than darts..another has a money-making jukebox and a Meganet connected Megatoiuch that barely breaks even...The Megatouch is there to keep the location happy so we can make money off of the jukebox and not have the competing operator in town steal the location from us because we are too cheap to give the customer what they want and the competition isn't.

Coin-op is a cut throat business these days...it hasn't been like 1983 for a long time.

[ed12]

smartbomb2084
i will not argue with u at all
u are 100% correct
drop the ball on a locations demand and another co. is there to take over
even at lower return's ie:30% instead of 50%
for a fact i now starburst will do it..lived it had it done to us


ed