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abuse that made me want to cry

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LLUncoolJ:
OK, so last week I am at the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. There is a section called Dog Patch that every summer resort town has/had. It is the place with ice cream shops, bumper cars, go-carts, skeeball, tattoo parlors, souvenier shops, and arcades. There is a run down arcade I have been taking my kid to for years. It has 10 cent skeeball, bumper cars and an arcade. It has never really been in that good of shape, but this year it has gone over a cliff.
Half of the skeeballs weren't working, which is about par for the course. The ones that were were registering every score but the right one. I played 2 that the coin mechs were not locked.

The arcade would make any of us cry...seriously. These machines have taken abuse, like in any old arcade. But when they broke, they were just left there to rot for all the world to witness. Why would they even turn on a machine that clearly hasn't worked right in 10 years? I am guessing the trashy woman that was handing out the ticket 'prizes' must have inherited the place. I can't imagine why anyone would buy the place and just leave it sitting there broken and disfunctional. If a machine hasn't earned a quarter in 3 or 4 years, there is a reason. Sell it or have it fixed or move it to the back or turn it off at least.

It was like a really bad dream. It was like seeing a pretty woman that has been abused and broken down by her ---uvula--- husband.

RayB:

--- Quote from: LLUncoolJ on May 28, 2009, 11:10:56 am ---I can't imagine why anyone would buy the place and just leave it sitting there broken and disfunctional. If a machine hasn't earned a quarter in 3 or 4 years, there is a reason. Sell it or have it fixed or move it to the back or turn it off at least.
--- End quote ---
It the classic problem where people think they will pay for repairs and maintenance out of profits, rather than looking at it as an investment that pays back later. So instead there are no profits... and thus no repairs or maintenance. Business spirals into debt and closes by year's end.

LLUncoolJ:
This hell hole has been running for a while on fumes. I think the dime skeeball pays the bills. All the working machines are in nonstop use...at least everytime I've been there. I never see anyone playing the arcade games. I'm sure not many work. They did have a pretty nice looking Millipede that prompted me to go home and play about 25 games of it on MAME. They also had a knock off multicade in a beat up Galaga cabinet. Those 2 were front and center. I guess they at least put their best 2 feet forward in that respect. <Side note: Are those multicade boards legal for commercial use?>

Man would it be sweet to stumble onto an arcade that was half-ass kept up. It would be like a 25 year time warp.

ChadTower:

...or it's there as part of a contract deal with the town.  A lot of those little towns will permit an ice cream shop or other little business IF you add some other service of value as well.  It could be that one of those owners is required by the town to operate that little arcade, at those per game costs, and they just don't care to sink any money into it because the contract only requires it to be open and not good.

Flake:
I wonder if you could offer to buy some of the salvagable games for cheap since they are obviously not making the owner any money?  You could buy that multicade and set it up at the lake house for us all to play when we are down there  ;D

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