Opening a local Arcade

[Corey]

Simpsons is a fantastic idea. I know the CiCis in Conroe has one that only one player works on and that bitch drags in more money than the pizza does.
KoF is a great idea as well. In terms of Fighters I wanted something easy enough the kids that come in to enjoy playing and button mashing. Tekken was an obvious choice as well, but Time Crisis is news to me. Is it as good as people make it out?

[Nemkoon]

Time Crisis is pretty good.
I beat it with my brother.
It has an......interesting story.

[Colamisu]

Question is: Is the UV theme lame or not?

Another problem I'm having is what games should I put in?
My first thought was House of the Dead, Ghosts and Goblins, Street Fighter, etc... And then realized all of my tastes are outdated.

The problem with a UV theme and/or blacklights isn't really an aesthetic thing. You have to worry about people not being able to see well enough while moving around. If someone falls down and chips a tooth, you're liable. If someone drops a can of soda, someone else slips on it and gets a concussion, you're liable. And you'd also have to worry about eye strain/epilepsy since you're mixing bright flashing lights with a dark room. And blacklights supposedly cause eye strain on their own.

As for games, pretty much what everyone else said. AND TIME CRISIS. Or one of those games. Because it's the original cover-based shooter. Pretty much.

[Zaladane]

To all the concern about it closing I know all too well how poorly arcades do nowadays and I appreciate the heads up.

Fortunately like Drageuth said, we own the (grocery store) in Cut N Shoot and our store is where all the kids who get home from school wait for their parents and hang out afterschool and such.
It's looking pretty promising for the most part.

As for the suggestions I appreciate them as well, I had mostly older games in mind, nothing too modern before I thought it would be a bad idea to just go oldschool from my preferences.
I know I'm getting House of the Dead 2 because I can get it for $600 in the box from a buddy.
I wasn't sure what fighters to get, but NEOGEO sounds like a good idea, they do have quite a few good ones.
MAME never even occurred to me, and I'll look into the legality of them. There are tons of those Multi game cabinets with like 300 70's era games that I think I could find a way.

What are your thoughts on the blacklight theme anyone? I found some UV Pool Tables and Air Hockey tables for a reasonable price and was wondering how you viewed those.

Again, thanks for all the replies.

oh ok, different story then. If you know kids are gonna be hangin around without much to do then great! Kids have moneys

Don't like the UV thing though.

[crimsonedge]

If you are going to get in the arcade business, you are better off buying cabs as cheap as you can get them and then charge a quarter to play.

You also might want to look at doing one of those arcades that has a variety of games and lets you win and exchange tickets for prizes.

[luffy4]

if you want popular ones that people sink money into get the following

1) Powerstone 1 or 2
2) dynamite Cop (short addicting game, but you die frequently thus spending more quarters)
3) Simpsons Bowling (it was ONLY available as an arcade machine)

[Corey]

if you want popular ones that people sink money into get the following

1) Powerstone 1 or 2
2) dynamite Cop (short addicting game, but you die frequently thus spending more quarters)
3) Simpsons Bowling (it was ONLY available as an arcade machine)

I'm more interested in having a "cool" arcade than a wealthy one. I want it to be reminiscent of a day when people actually went there and had fun with friends and such.
I know it's highly unlikely, but still, dreams.

On that note, I wasn't aware people liked Power Stone arcades, I've only ever seen one and it was void of players the whole night.
Never heard of Dynamite Cop, but I'll look into it. I'll likely be hitting up MAME a lot.

[Colamisu]

I liked Power Stone when it was at the Cici's near here, but it was more expensive to play than the other machines, if I'm not mistaken. I think if you're trying to break even, you'd need to go with something that has a slightly better name recognition, though.

[Zaladane]

4 player X-men!!!

[Nemkoon]

6 player X-men!!!

Fixed

[Cookie Monster]

I can't really recommend anything cos I dunno what would work, but I wish you all the luck in this, Corey

[Corey]

Fixed

If I could find it.

[luffy4]

around where i live powerstone was really popular, i see the cabinet for like $300-400 used usually, as for "cool" id say all 3 were pretty cool arcade games, if you want a really popular one among kids look up dino duel, you put in money it gives you a card of a set of 50ish, you can use that card or your collection to play

[crimsonedge]

If you can buy used cabs for under $1500 and charge a quarter to play, you might do OK on them, and cabs that cheap will hold their value better than lets say a new cab which will continue to keep going down in price. If worst comes to worst, and you go belly up you could resell the cabs you bought for a slight loss, or maybe break even, and possibly still get a gain depending on how much they were played. Always plan for the worst and hope for the best. Figuring out ways to minimize losses is very important in business should things go sour. And it will be your job as the manager to take this into consideration. I am sure even your father would agree with me on that.

[Nemkoon]

He's planning to get old cabs anyway.
So yeah, 6-player X-men. DO IT.
Then I will definitely have to go down there.