Main > Main Forum
Thinking of opening an arcade...
HaRuMaN:
Probably the one in the mall right across from Castles and Coasters
drawfull:
I wanted to do it too, but it will not work on its own. We realised that (with help from here) early on and ended up with three floors, only one of which has a FEW games. And they're all on free-play.
Generally mine is quite successful but by far it's the food that brings people - the games at the moment are a nice touch perhaps and we're getting more and more people booking that space out for private functions.
We currently have 6 retro games, two B&O tvs for presentations and sport I suppose and are about to put DDR in there too for Xmas. We also have a load of board games and stuff. Keep it fresh, offer something different (easier where I live) and you have a chance, but games alone, imo, will not make you $$
Games are not cheap. Rent, or buying somewhere, is certainly not cheap. Consider putting food on? Bars? Making it look nice? You will spend $$$$$.
I guess it depends what you want and what your budget is (as budget increases, common sense decreases too), good luck!!!!
If you want some tips on what it cost and stuff drop me a pm and it should give you a frame of reference
MaximRecoil:
Am I the only one here that doesn't care about the demise of the arcades? I didn't go to real arcades very often as a kid anyway. The main places to play arcade games in my small town were at the laundromat (3 video machines and 2 pinball machines), and the corner store by the red light downtown (5 to 7 video machines). There was one place that had maybe 10 arcade machines and a pool table, but it didn't last long, and there was a general store that had a room dedicated to arcade machines in the back (about 10 of them, plus a few pinball machines), but that didn't last long either. Maybe once a month I got to go to Space Port in the Bangor Mall (45 minutes away) which was a real arcade (I went there more often in the early '90s when I got my driver's license and was into SFII).
But the thing is, I never thought that having to go somewhere and pay money to play the games was ideal; I did it because it was the only way to play the games at the time. What was the big wish that was oft repeated in those days by kids? "I wish I had one of these at home."
It is similar to a movie theater. Would you ever bother going to someone else's theater; paying admission, and dealing with noisy people and sticky floors, if you owned your own theater?
So I have my own "arcade" now. Yes, it is only 4 machines, but that's more than the laundromat had back in the '80s, and almost as many as Fossa's had. Additionally, they aren't just 4 random machines, they are machines that I specifically sought out and acquired because they are favorites of mine. Even Space Port never had 4 favorites of mine simultaneously at any given time; in fact, I was lucky if they even had one favorite of mine when I went (and I stopped going completely when the SFII era died, because nothing past that point ever interested me).
So if an arcade opened up nearby, what are the odds that they would even have games that I care about? I can think of maybe 10 to 12 that I care about, and I already own 4 of them. And the games that I only have a mild interest in, I am perfectly content playing them on MAME from time to time.
The one thing I do miss about the "arcade experience" is the direct competition with other people for high score, like between Lawton Mann and me on the Super Punch-Out machine at Fossa's in '87; and of course, random human competition on SFII is fun too.
DashRendar:
--- Quote from: MaximRecoil on November 18, 2009, 12:51:57 pm ---Am I the only one here that doesn't care about the demise of the arcades?
--- End quote ---
Not the only one, but in this community, you're definitely in the minority.
MaximRecoil:
--- Quote from: DashRendar on November 18, 2009, 12:57:28 pm ---Not the only one, but in this community, you're definitely in the minority.
--- End quote ---
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.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version