So, I'm thinking about opening an arcade...

[Lokkenjawnz]

Hey man I just wanted to throw in a quick mention of the Mario Kart GP cab - if you can get one (preferably two or more actually) for a good price, absolutely go for it. We've got I think 3 or 4 in the local arcade here (the arcade that RacketBoy did the interview with a little while ago) and it's a real chore to get a turn at any of the seats, it's very popular. And for good reason: it truly is pure Mario Kart, so the best of the best can play with brand new gamers and they'll always have fun.

It sounds like this arcade you've got planned is going to be pretty amazing. Those fees sound like a real bitch, I sure hope you can figure out a means of dealing with them in some way or another. I'm thoroughly impressed though, you're really living the dream of I think a lot of us on this board just to be even considering opening an arcade. If there's any way an unemployed college student on the opposite coast can help, you just let me know!

[the7k]

Thanks man - yeah, those Mario Kart cabs are expensive, but I seriously can't think of a game that would have a bigger impact than that. Everybody knows Mario, and I think everybody loves dedicated racing cabs, but I know that I find those super-deep racing sims to be very intimidating. Mario Kart is more like comfort food.

Of course, it ain't gonna be cheap.

I'm currently shopping for locations. I'll be off in two days, and I plan to use that time to talk to the owners of these locations and find out how much they're charging per square foot, and if they have any rules that would make them a bad choice.

Anybody know of a good program that allows me to make virtual rooms and objects, so that I can kinda tell how much I can cram into a space? It would be a big help to know how much I can realistically have in a given location.

[the7k]

Excellent - I finally got some answers from the Department of Revenue. Looks like I can set the machines to freeplay and just charge at the door. Unfortunately, I have to charge at the door (I was planning to charge as they left, tallying up how long they stayed and charging based on that) - still, I only have to give 5% of my earnings to DOR with an admission fee, which is a lot more manageable than the ~$10,000 up front cost of licensing all the machines.

I'm planning to get different types of tickets which correlate to different times and dollar amounts, so that it will be just as appealing to the folks who only want to play for 15 minutes as it would be to the folks that want to spend the whole day.

[jfrost]

Will you charge the same, say, to play Street Fighter 2 and to play DDR, then? It seems counter-intuitive.

[the7k]

Will you charge the same, say, to play Street Fighter 2 and to play DDR, then? It seems counter-intuitive.

Yeah, I would. Honestly, if I DID charge for each game, I'd charge no more than 2 quarters. Charging $1.25 to play one round of HotD4 (lookin' at you, D&B!) just leaves the customers feeling ripped the f' off.

In any case, it would give players a reason to experiment. While the 'I Got Next' rule would be firmly enforced (anybody who hogs a machine will not be welcome back), most people aren't going to be willing to sit around and wait for a machine to open when other machines are already open - after all, they've got nothing to lose. This then might end up leading to a machine which would have never pulled players in getting plays, and even repeat plays if there's something to it.

[chupon]

Can't remember where you are from but though it was somewhere on the Eastcoast. So these aren't the best prices and are in CinCin but if you actually have $20K or so on hand then you're all set. Just hire a truck to move them all for ya.

http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/vgm/2250374464.html

Also I hope you use http://www.searchtempest.com instead of craigslist.

I guess I'd also like to add that I see something like this (within 200 miles of me) every two or three months. If only I didn't just buy a new Toyota Siena van for the family.... Could've picked up all these.

[Para]

The biggest and most important thing about an arcade, especially nowadays is the environment and community involved in it. Anyone can throw arcades in a building and it might get people coming in once in a while when they are bored, but you're going to want to make people want to come to your arcade, not just pop in if they are in the area. Having friendly staff who actually have a passion for gaming and who get involved is very important. People can just emulate 99% of the games that are going to be in the arcades anyways so you need to have tournaments, prizes, highscore/achivement wall, etc to make people actually want to leave their house to go there.

There was an arcade at the mall I used to go to and it was really popular when I was growing up but a lot of factors lead to its demise. I remember it being so much fun when I was younger and it was very popular for a while, but eventually it was just crowded, dirty and stuffy in there and the machines were never maintained. If you lost a quarter or the machine wasn't working properly, tough shit. Eventually they slowly got rid of all the good arcades and any ones that were left were half broken and dirty.

Make sure to have one hell of an air conditioning system because one of the biggest problems with arcades, especially with DDR type machines is the smelly nerd musk that plagues the entire building. Nothing kills my buzz more than people with bad hygiene, especially when I am waiting to use the machine that they just sweated all over. I know it may seem like a non-issue but this has always been a problem in any popular arcade/amusement area that I've been to. Crowds of sweaty nerds is bad for business.

[the7k]

chupon: Didn't actually know about this site - I had been using a Craigslist app in my phone that let me search multiple counties at once, but this is even better. Thanks, man.

Also, CinCin is quite a drive, but I'll keep an eye out. That's a good deal of machines, and quite a few good ones.

Para: Yeah, I'll have to look into AC. I'm definitely with ya, nothing worse than the smell of a bunch of sweaty nerds. And yeah, tournaments were a must from the beginning, but I've recently started looking into achievements as well. Also, all the guys I'd likely hire on are very much into arcades as well - hell, most of them used to work at the arcades that used to be around here that closed down due to crappy corporate management and/or awful location.

[the7k]

Decided to take a trip to the closest arcade around here, to basically scope out the competition. While an hour and thirty minutes is a long time to drive to me, it's actually what a lot of the arcade gamers around here have to do.

So, I finally got to play a lot of the games that I've only heard about until now. Got to play Terminator Salvation - and honestly, found it really disappointing. Maybe it gets better later on, but at $1.25 per play, I wasn't willing to spend more cash to find out. It was especially disappointing compared to Namco's Razing Storm, which basically did everything Salvation tried to do except 10x better.

In fact, after trying out a ton of the games there, I came to realize something: Namco owns the arcade. Between Razing Storm, Dead Heat and Tank! Tank! Tank!, I feel fairly confident that I could look to Namco for the majority of my modern arcade consoles and it would work out pretty damn well.

As for the diversity of genres... well, there wasn't any. It was nothing but Driving games, Shooting games, and Redemption games. Of course, I realize this is what makes money now, but it was just a real shame there wasn't anything else to choose from. Not even a multi-cade.

[Para]

Where is this arcade going to be located?
And will you pay for my living expenses so I can come work for you?