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Arcade-orientated new business - it's happening BUT NEED NAMES. Probably ;)

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thatitalian:
You could play on the nostalgia angle a lot. Offer the games free, you will get more people playing. Make it into a retro bar, somewhere cool to hang out or go out for a night out but also cool to chill. Coffee/eatery/arcade. It needs to be unique!

Anyone can open up an arcade or coffee shop but to bring several aspects together, marry them and provide the consumer with something unique is a money maker!

Maybe you could have token machines (with your own custom tokens made by arcade replay with your business on there, hey it's free advertisement!) and give away a token when someone buys a coffee or product to use on the machines.

You could have loyalty cards so that people get an extra token with their 10th coffee/product. It maybe expensive to buy several tokens but it is just an idea.

You could even give the people with the highest scores FREE coffee when they come in! And post that you do it CLEARLY! That will really entice people to play and try to beat high scores! You can ring a bell or a siren whenever someone beats a high score.

Singapura:
There are a few very large arcades in Singapore, all owned by the same chain. They seem to do very well but none of them have vintage cabs. I walk into the biggest one sometimes just for the noise. There nothing like an arcade in full operation  8) As far as opening a vintage arcade is concerned, you have to offer more then that, like a bowling alley or a bar. I'd love to see a 80's movie theater with an attached arcade!

dreamakuma:
Me & a close friend are thinking about this, we are looking at an old bank that's huge and going for $30,000(at one point the bank was $200,000, But the bank holding the bank wants to drop it cheap because of property taxes.) And turning it into a Arcade/card shop/comic shop/videogame store. My friends looking into a grant and about to recive $300,000 to start a buisness. we've looked at the property and it's in great shape. Just needs new carpet. The community really needs some place for kids to go. We've listened to many kids and adults want someplace nice to go for entertainment. In our small town of 34,000, we have no theater, a bad, corrupt, gamestore, and about 40 fast food places. so the community really wants something to do. So my Friend and I are looking into doing this to help our sad little town. We have a LOT of nerds here that play D&D,Magic the gathering, read comics, and just game.

ItchyD:
There's a place called The Works in reading, PA that I like to go to sometimes.  There is a bar on a large balcony, and below that is a substantial arcade.  I think the bar being upstairs gives parents a place to go and once they get alittle ripped they are ready for some DDR themselves.

CheffoJeffo:
As a first step, you may want to have a look at some folks who are making arcades work:

http://www.1984arcade.com/

http://www.barcadebrooklyn.com/

http://www.groundkontrol.com/

http://www.funspotnh.com/

http://www.pinballmuseum.org/

There is a really good article in the March 2007 issue of GameRoom Magazine about Ground Kontrol, including a discussion with Clay Cowgill (one of the owners) about their formula for success. Also an article about the Pinball Hall Of Fame in July 2007. I could have sworn there was an article about Barcade, but I'll be damned if I can find it (maybe MAMEMaster or KevSteele can tell us if I am imagining things).

Some threads here on BYOAC about 1984arcade:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=68068.0

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=42319.0

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=38646.0

After reading those, I would check into the local licensing and insurance requirements.

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