Setting up an arcade??

[killa]

Ok im having my mid 20's flip out i guess, my mind is all over the place....im thinking a million things and it all leads to bordom....

So me and my best mate have been discussing owning and running an arcade.
Before you all smash my hopes and dreams to bits with your baseball bat posts ill just mention that Cheltenham (where i live) is chocka with students, its modern and moving with the times. We have wicked high street and social life in the day and at night. One thing we dont have is a games arcade. Not one, nothing.
So i saw a really good place 'to let' the other day and it reminded me to talk to my mate again about it, its the perfect size and shape for such a thing.

So i imagine you need a special licence, as it is, gambling? Im not talking one arm bandits, we're thinking games games games, you know like you get at the coast and the big cities.
Also, money. Yeah, just how much are we looking at? Ive been putting some figures together and i dont think ill see cash like that in my life time!
Anyone here have clue about this sort of thing, should i walk away now?
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[Itchy]

I'd say, maybe, in that if they can be run for a profit in Hong Kong where the rental is phenominal per sq metre, though as a concession HK biz rates aren't massively high , labour costs and electricity are low. (biz rates in the UK in the town centre can be very high about £1000 per sq metre, in a poor area of Bolton i know a shop on a side street of a back street in Ashley bridge who pays £210 per sq metre in biz rates).

Shin Wing in Tai Po market Hong Kong runs one right in the middle of town on prime retail space, him and nis brother (Wing he is called Shin funnily enough). He is the son of my dad's high school friend.

From what I can gather he doesn't use standard cabinets, he picks them apart and puts wires all over the place so most of the hardware is kept piled high in a back room.

You have to stand bum touching bum with the bloke behind you virtually if you want to go in and play. His games are set at an absolutely rock hard difficulty to get the turn over needed , ie tekken 5 the first opponent you face does some super combo on you giving you a game over almost instantly. Though this may reflect the skill of the players there.

I have no idea about licencisng since Hong Kong is Hong Kong, copyright piracy has a blind eye turned to it as long as it is not done overtly, but I imagine since a few places I've worked get pestered for a licence from the PRS or something for playing the radio at work they will be stricter on it.
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[T1z3R]

i could be barking up the wrong tree but why do you think there are no other arcades around?

i used to be an arcade junkie but who is willing to go and stick a £1 in a machine these days for a few minutes entertainment?

id say youd earn more from a kids merrygoround in the middle of town.

but im clueless about business
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duck my sick!

[Darth]

[Faldo]

Best thing is to go and do some market research. Visit your closest arcade and see how busy they are would be a good start. If they are busy, what are they near, what's dragging them in, what is the average age of the punter in there?

I too would of thought a games arcade anywhere other than by the seaside would be dead these days with home consoles, a bit like gambling type arcades with the internet gambling revolution.
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[Pernig]

I live in a seaside town which is full of arcades and they are all shit. I would jump at the chance to go to a proper arcade with the latest games. Also I wouldn't mind paying a £1 a go if it had the games I wanted.

You would have thought that by now somewhere in Skegness would have Initial D 4 by now, but no! Got a card 2 years ago in London and I'm still waiting!
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[pa_broon74]

Mmm.

I used to manage an arcade so have a wee bit of experience. First off, machines are expensive to buy, most set ups buy one or two year old machines from the national players after they've devalued them. That's why high street arcades tend not to have the most up to date machines while bigger organisations do. I worked for Bass leisure, one of the biggest but in a shit arcade within a caravan park's amusement & entertainment complex.

I had about 110 machines including gaming (which has changed so much since I was involved) video (which I think has kinda gone down the tubes with games consoles but is still somewhat lucrative although they're very very expensive to buy.) We also had Cranes (you still need a gamig license for these machines as they are cash for gain.) Pushers or coin fountains (used to take a packet with these) our two pence pusher had 6 beds and would regularly clear £1k per week profit, so easy to maintain, def the most lucrative (prob after cranes which are a huge rip off.) We also had some token machines, you whack some pop up plastic thing with a bat and get tokens in return which you exchange for a seriously cheap & shit gift.

We had a captive audience in terms of customers so it doesn't really compare to a high street set up, which I think would be much more competitive and harder to keep up. For a top flight video games machine you could spend upwards of a quarter of a million quid. Most orgs do a lend lease type thing though.

So, you could buy your own, or rent them. If you rent, you pay a flat fee per week but keep the takings. I'd work that way with video games (although where you are would be everything, its not cheap to rent these m/c so you want as many folk playing as possible) I'd buy my own bandits as they're quite easy to change around (its basically the same innards with different livery on the outside, making them easy to reinvent.)

Its a bit of a dodgy business though, popular with money launderers and organised crime as it's all cash. Also, the bandits are a target for spikers and you'd be a target for every head case.

If I had a pound for everytime some thick headed glaswegian told me "Ah wan ten notes frae tha' machine an it never pied oot but!" I wouldn't have had to work there. Got threatened just about everyday, ferral kids. Their parents give them a pound and tell them to fuck off for the rest of the night, that lasts about 2 seconds so they then either try to rob/con/threaten staff for money because they know if they ask their minging drunk lowlife parents they'll get battered, what that place needed more than anything else was a full time social worker.

So yeah, good fun though. I became really good at Alpine Ski when I was there.



PS: If you want any more indepth info, PM me. I still know most of the details.
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Didn't catch anything.

[MarJay]

Watch TRON. That will tell you all you need to know about running an arcade.

You're more likely to succeed if you change your name to Flynn.
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[colin1]

internet cafes are the modern arcade

coin ops used to be better graphics than what you had at home

not any more
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[iooi]

Don't know if it would be possible to do this.

But a set up of the std games machines ps3 xbox 360 etc. With all the latest games and then charge per say hour on them.
Might just drag a few people in to try out games they are thinking of buying.
If it worked well you could then get into competitons.

Might need to also have a side line of say making it a cafe and a few internet machines.

Your biggest problem is the very fickle nature of people. Many would rather sit at home than trail out to play with like minded souls.
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[GhostRider]

[T1z3R]

you would need to pay licence fees to the console folks and they would obviously need to authorise this type of use as public display is not authorised in the copyright terms.

would be the way to go IMO though.
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duck my sick!

[killa]

Thanks for all the info guys, espcially Broon.
Im kinda thinking now along the lines of a really nice cafe social type place which would keep it up market with the style and the food and drink served perhaps.
The gaming areas would all be connected, people would be informed of competitions running for No1 slots on the latest games, and old skool ones. A bit like games master, people would come in and compete for the top slot and maybe win things. Facebook could update people as to whats going on as well as the glossy mags we have in our town.
Word of mouth would be brilliant as the age group would be teens and students.
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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
Bike:- Yamaha TRX850 | Killas Biking History | Killas Gaming History | Killas autmotive history

[G]

When I first read this I was thinking something a bit like that - I think you would need to put a massive amount of effort into marketing to the right people so that it was 'trendy'.
I'd consider looking at a 'classic' arcade section along with the 'trendyness' - try and get in some older people with money to spend. These days broke students will probably just download a torrent for their chipped x-box, or whatever.

[killa]

[G]

I can remember at the second sixth form college (this one was a bigger place that did lots of other stuff) they had an old 'international athletics' machine in the cafe bit we'd hang out in, which actually got quite a lot of use from those that remembered it from their youth. It was only 20p a play or something.
Reckon you'd want machines right through the ages, from pong to the latest ones, but trying to focus on the kinda 'cult' ones.
On the 'competitions'; not sure how much this would appeal to the sort of clientèle I was considering if you're talking organised at a specific time.
However, maybe having some big plasmas with current high scores and entered initials shown.

If you're in this area, another thought is to have some setups for realistic driving and flying simulators - can do a lot of it DIY with some 'real' instruments (even on extra screens) and 'real' simulators; ie MS Flight Simulator and Live for Speed or whatever. Could get some more serious people coming in to actually practice for their PPL or before going to a track or whatever.

Whatever, to do something a bit higher class and 'trendy' I do think would be a hell of a lot of work and probably a lot of risk if you don't get it quite right.

[MarJay]

It won't be an arcade without Daytona USA, House of the dead and Star Wars.

May I also reccomend Quick and Crash?
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Remember kids, bikes aren't like lego. You can't easily take a part from one bike and then fit it to another.

[sebastianw]

Check with the Councilif you need planning consent for the change of use

[Carl_steveo]

Theres a million arcades up here (sunderland) on the coast and they are dead. Only time people are in them ae the 1 or 2 days a year when everyone invades the beach.

In sunderland we have a couple of cool cafe's but alot of the students spend their time and money in the pubs like gatsby's and wether spoons.

I like the idea of the games machine cafe and the kids up here would love it. They spend a fortune on milkshakes. Theres a shop called simply shakes where you can get a milkshake made with anything. I love nutella ones but they do everything you can think of like millions sweets and bourbons lol.

Good luck anyway mate.
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[pa_broon74]

Personally...

I could spend most of an afternoon re-honing my skills on Out Run... I used to be able to complete it.


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Didn't catch anything.

[Throttle]

There used to be a LAN centre next to my high school. That place used to do well but the only customers in there were the regulars who wasted hours on the machines. That was back in the days when broadband was around £30 a month and was still a "posh" thing to have.

I have noticed that HMV in Manchester have opened a LAN centre. The setup of that seems to work VERY well. They allow you to test games BEFORE you buy them for a fixed price. Maybe you could try this??? Have set machines playing the latest games, with a set price for an hour and also have the game in stock so players can purchase it off you. You could also set up a premium membership area where users have comfy seats, longer on machines etc

One event I remember fondly was the "all night" LAN Party's. This could probably rake you in a few bob.

[killa]

Really this idea of a few gaming machines and some console play would be one of kinda in this area. This i think would draw people along with the social aspect of the cafe.
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Cleverly disguised as a responsible adult.
Bike:- Yamaha TRX850 | Killas Biking History | Killas Gaming History | Killas autmotive history

[Carl_steveo]

Just after I read this I popped into town and saw the front page of the echo. Main story is the closure of 13 arcades. So I suggest forget opening an arcade lol.
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[Luke_Retrofly]

Gamerbase in reading just opened up here, £3 per hour to play xbox/PC/PS3 games,

https://www.gamerbase.com/?a=post&id=39591

https://www.gamerbase.com/files/images/2009/5081-P1010056.jpg

Its owned by HMV I belive.

Personally I would go for the internet cafe, there is one near to where I work which is right next to Reading uni which is always packed.

I've seen quite a few internet cafes that offer PC/Xbox/PS3 gaming aswell. Could put a coffee shop spin on it aswell, student love their coffee. IMO that will open you up to more markets, arcades are quite a specialised thing, either for gambling addicts or familys on an exscursion, hence why you only see them at the sea side.
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[Itchy]

I reckon you should stock it full of instant noodles (not pot noodles though stuff like cup noodles) and a well stocked fridge of all sorts of drinks but not alcoholic ones.

In Korea I noticed some people LIVED in internet cafes and would spent whole weekends in them.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.