arcade games

[blavis]

Hello everyone. I am building a dine in pizza rest.,currently do pickup and del… just wandering if anyone has any games or toy grabs, video games,etc. for kids. if so what are they and is it worth the trouble and money… thanks

 

[wiseguy]

I tried to get them and was told that noone in my area does them anymore. Used to the local amusement company would place them in your shop and split the proceeds with you. They stopped doing it. The only thing they fool with now is the poker machines. They said that too many kids have PSP’s and Gameboys (God I’m old) now days. A nice driving simulator would cost about 5 to 10 thousand dollars. Too long to recoup that kind of investment. Especially after having to repair and service the thing. That is why they said they just got out of it.

 

[pizzafanatic]

I have a vending company that supplied me with 3 video games, two standup, one tabletop (ms. pacman, galaga, donkey kong, and frogger). We split 50/50.

I have to say that the two standups barely pay for the electricity that it takes to keep them going. However, the tabletop game gets an incredible amount of play. The way I see it, my target audience are Gen X’s w/ families. They come in, order their pizza, see the tabletop game with all of their favorites from yesteryear, and dunk a few quarters in the machine while they’re waiting. The standups cater more to the kids.

I’ve contemplated buying a similiar tabletop myself and taking 100%, but have yet to pull the trigger. You can find them on e-bay for $1200-$2000. I can pay for it in 4 months with my current amount of play.

I’m thinking about replacing the standup video games with a crane (plushies or candy). I know they’ll get much better action.

 

[paul7979]

Golden Tee machines seem to keep busy in alot of places here. Some even host tournaments on them.

 

[sweetp1265]

I’ll tell my story…

When we opened in May of 2006, I wanted a Megatouch on the counter. Hubby thought I was crazy, but I stood my ground. Turns out - it brought in decent $ ( we split 50/50 with vendor - some vendors are 60/40…they take 60!)

We then opened our game room with additional seating in May of 2007 and wanted 5 more games. Vendor was skeptical it would work, but we told him to try it out and if they did not bring $, he could take them out and we would just use to have even more seating.

We got bubble hockey, air hockey, another megatouch, a multi arcade game and golden tee. The bubble hockey always broke and we replaced it with a claw machine with plushies - that game kills!!! Air hockey is also BIG hit! The golden tee, to my surprise, did not do well AT ALL, so he replaced it with Buck Hunter - a BIG HIT! The arcade game did not do well and he put in a Stacker game - the kids LOVE IT!!!

To promote our games, we put our own prizes in the claw and stacker, and prizes for top scores on certain games for Megatouch. We do Gift Cards to Donte’s, Pirate tickets, Pitt football tickets, Pens tickets, etc…
We also put a change machine in the game room so the kids could easily have quarters

If you work with a vendor, he will have ideas for you as to what works well and what doesn’t.
Some cons to buying your own machine is trying to find someone to fix it if it breaks, your time involved to empty machine and roll the quarters, and if you get a claw game - finding plush to fill it, storing them, etc…

Also, our township charges us $250 license fee per machine - so we have to pay $1500 for 2008 for our 6 machines. Our vendor pays up front for us, then takes his cut until the $1500 is paid back to him.

 

[blavis]

Thanks for all the input, all suggestions are appreciated. I am thinking about just catering to the younger crowd with the grabs, youth air hockey maybe skeeball . I think the money is from the younger crowd begging parents and having fun with parents acting like kids with there kids.

 

[PIZZAMAGOO]

If you are going to cater your games to the younger kids I would highly reccomend focusing on redemption games. The pizza place I am opening is very kid oriented, and I will have a ton of redemption games. The average redemption game in the U.S. generates $123 per week. There are even some automated prize vendors for the redemption goodies so you don’t have to staff a counter. There are some really good industry magazines/web sites out there for you to look at, one is replay magazine, and the other is called playmeter. I wish you the best of luck with your new idea, and if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 

[jimmy_s]

I went on craigs list and bought a 1989 WWF wrestling arcade game for $300.00
My employees now pay me to work in my store they love it. you can find these old arcade games cheap… Check out craigs list…