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Thinking of opening an arcade...

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MonMotha:


--- Quote from: Benevolance on November 18, 2009, 05:05:54 pm ---A lot of places I've noticed moving towards the swipe card method. No more tokens or coins.

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People seem to spend "points" on a card with impunity whereas they are generally better at tracking expenses when using coins (cash or tokens).  The card systems also allow for "VIP clubs" and similar.  The cards also encourage people to put lots of money on the card up front (to get a better deal on the "points") which lets the establishment get cash sooner than if people buy tokens $10 at a time or just drop in quarters.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of card systems, but I like them better (as a player) than location-specific tokens that I have to cart around and remember.  Cards at least fit in my wallet.  i still prefer just using quarters or dollar coins, though.  The Japanese arcades were wonderful: just drop 50 or 100 yen coins that you probably have in your pocket, anyway.

Cover/admission also seems to be becoming popular.  I basically don't patronize such establishments.  I never, ever get my money's worth as compared to places without cover, even if the game prices are discounted.  I think that has more to do with the types of games I play than anything else, though.

lingpanda:

Any other site besides Super Auctions in the US for Arcade auctions?

SirPeale:


--- Quote from: Aceldamor on November 16, 2009, 03:13:40 pm ---On the flip side, it is a one time expense, short of maintenance. Overhead is going to be a tough one here, since laser tag arenas have to be very large to be any fun. There is a laser tage place that opened up by where I live, and it is slow going. It doesn't even open until 2PM during the school year.

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Take it from a guy that used to maintain Laser Tag equipment, though the up-front is a one time, if anything breaks on it it's an arm and a leg to get it repaired.  Even if you do the work yourself the parts cost a TON of money.  I know it's how the companies stay in business when they're not selling whole setups, but WOW.   I couldn't believe the money they were asking for really basic stuff.

Expressline99:


--- Quote from: MaximRecoil on November 18, 2009, 01:21:39 pm ---
I wonder how many people here (especially the ones who own at least several of their own machines, and/or a MAME machine) would really frequent an arcade if one opened up locally.

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I live in a casino town...and the arcades are run by the casinos. I tried to go to one about 3 months ago and found it horribly depressing. Lights were dimmed and all machines were ticket/redemption type. Very very few actual video or pinball machines. I'd say out of 50-60 games 6 total were video or pinball.  Personally I don't like where the industry went with that. My expectation was to leave the place with a little bit of nostalgia. Instead I left within a couple of minutes pissed off and looking forward to working on my pins and MAME machine.

So if it was an actual arcade I.E. no ticket givers. I'd love to go.

MaximRecoil:


--- Quote from: Expressline99 on November 19, 2009, 10:00:54 am ---So if it was an actual arcade I.E. no ticket givers. I'd love to go.

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I'd go too, but how often? I mean, I'm not 12 years old anymore, walking past a place with arcade games on my way home from school with allowance money to spend. I certainly wouldn't go most every day like I did when I was a kid.

Now if there were games I liked (unlikely, considering I only care for a tiny percentage of the thousands of games that were made), and if there was a worthwhile social aspect to it (i.e., people from my generation, rather than a bunch of kids), then I might go somewhat regularly.


--- Quote from: IG-88 on November 18, 2009, 03:05:34 pm ---I came from a small town myself and our "arcades" were local mom & pops too. What I have come to appreciate about them was that they didn't have just "favorites" or even top sellers. The limited selection at the time forced one to try different games. And more times than not I ended up loving a game that on initial inspection didn't appeal to me at all. Or when they did rotate in a new game we jumped on it immediately. Eyes and Omega Race are both games that fall under that catergory. Mouse Trap was another. Although I never could get the love for Dragons Lair.   ;)

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What you're saying was true for me back then too. Obviously, the only way that my favorite games became favorites in the first place, was that at one point I had to play them for the first time as completely unknown games. However, there is little chance of me finding another favorite among random unknown games in this day and age, considering all the years I've had access to MAME and thousands of random unknown (to me) games. My list of favorites still mostly consists of games that became favorites when I was a kid. About the only addition that I can think of is Pengo, which I never played, saw, or even heard of as a kid. Even then, I don't put it on the same level as my childhood favorites, because there is no nostalgia associated with it for me.

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