Hypothetically How Much To Start A Pinball Arcade?

[Fungi]

I like the pay-per-time model. I'd easily pay 5 bucks for an hour moreso than pay 5 bucks for 5 plays.

 

[trash80]

It's not quite impossible. Modern Pinball in NYC has none of that, nothing but pinball (just a few tiny souvenir items like t-shirts) and seems to be doing fine. Of course NYC is an outlier in terms of available audience and foot traffic.

It uses the pay-per-time model (1 hour / 3 hours / all day), which I think seems to be more successful than pay-per-game for a place with enough machines (20+). Silverball Museum in NJ is also like that, with only the games (video along with pinball, but no food service), and has been in business for quite a while.

It is impossible...

Both Modern Pinball and Silverball Museum offer food and drink and various "party packages." Silverball Museum even has the Silverball Cafe' which is mentioned on the website "THE SILVERBALL CAFE OFFERS A TEMPTING SELECTION OF CLASSIC BOARDWALK TREATS AND SNACKS, ALL CONVENIENTLY AVAILABLE IN THE MUSEUM."

Modern Pinball only does day-long passes and you can come and go as you please, and they have Street Taco and Stay Gold right next door.

 

[trash80]

I like the pay-per-time model. I'd easily pay 5 bucks for an hour moreso than pay 5 bucks for 5 plays.

One hour will usually cost more than double what you are willing to pay at these places.

 

[Gorgias32]

There's another arcade in Madison, Geeks Mania, that operates on a similar model to the Eau Claire arcade mentioned above; it's $15/day unlimited, they also have pricing for birthday parties (party room and 2 hours unlimited play for $10/person, my middle-school age son has been to a few parties there). They are heavy on classic videogames, more than pinball, but they do have a very respectable selection, probably around 20 machines including everything from wedge heads to modern Sterns. They also have an area where they sell comics and collectable cards.

For me, the $15 is the hard part- I would prefer something where I could just pay $5 to stop in for an hour or so over lunch. At $15 it's enough of a commitment that you would want to spend a few hours there, which may discourage people who don't have the time for more than a "quick fix"

 

[shutyertrap]

There's a clear advantage to having an entry fee and then everything set to free play; you don't have to worry about theft from the machines. I worked at an arcade in the early 90's, and that was a legitimate concern. Most of the games had those ugly steel bars across the coin doors, and people would further damage the cabinet trying to get those open. Most of the games we had were owned by the arcade, but the latest and greatest were always from a route operator. We didn't have keys to those games and it was up to them to come and collect the coins out of them. We had a Street Fighter II come in, no steel bar. Crazy busy weekend, tons of people packing the arcade, I walk by the cabinet and see the coin door just swinging open. Someone had jimmied the lock and made off with around $200 in coins.

The problem with offering 1 hour passes is policing it. You now have to have an employee at the entrance selling the color coded wristbands (?) and another walking the floor checking to see that people aren't overstaying their allotted time, essentially being a bouncer. A high tech solution would be to have those rubber bracelets that have made their way into amusement parks that can store very basic data to unlock lockers or hold place in line. If you were able to have each machine read the bracelet so that it knew to work or not based on if their time was still valid, that'd be awesome. Except for the expense involved making it all work!

$5 for 1 hour seems low. Here's where all those prices in free to play apps come into effect. Charge $7 for 1 hour, but $10 for 2. All day pass for $20. The psychology of handing over a 10 versus having a 5 and 2 bills, it just is. I'd also set the machines up to be a bit friendly, encouraging longer game times. You don't want someone to be balling out every 2 minutes and then hopping on another machine, because if they can hop on every machine inside that hour, why would they want to be there longer? If instead they had some decent play times and only hit 5 machines in that hour, they'd wanna go longer or feel the need to come back again for more. The object of the arcade owner in this situation is to have the customer not get $7 worth of play in that hour compared to if they were sinking coins in. It'd also ensure more even utilization of all machines, as why would you stand around waiting to play if you can just hop on to an open machine in the meantime?

I would think running 'happy hours' at noon and maybe 5pm would be a good idea, dropping the price for 1 hour of play to $5 on the weekdays. I'd certainly offer a discount to league night players, but having them buy a bulk pack of events.

 

[shutyertrap]

Definitely a jukebox of some kind and a pool table or two. Maybe some digital dart boards. I also wouldn't start with all brand new high end machines. Sprinkle in some older DMD and system 11 at least. Keep the start up costs down. Classic arcade always a hit too. Ms Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, etc.

Fun to dream about something like this, but you'd really have to find the perfect location to get it to fly.

See, I think this is what would make the pinball side of things not work. Now you are courting an audience that just wants to play games, and they really don't care what. I've been to these places, they have 4 machines that aren't well kept tucked in the corner and a slew of multicade cabinets. The jukebox will completely drown out the sound of everything, further degrading the pinball experience. In other words, it's most bowling alleys. There's probably a crane machine, DDR, and House of the Dead too. Though instead of pool, it's air hockey.

A place solely dedicated to pinball would bring in a different sort of customer. They'll appreciate new titles, become loyal on the prospect that you'll always have the latest and greatest. They'll respect the machines themselves, going so far as to yell at other patrons who do things like slam tilts and banging on the glass.

Or at least that's what I'd like to think.

 

[shutyertrap]

Okay, so you walk into a pinball arcade and it has 20 machines. What titles would make you go, "wow, this place is phenomenal"?

I'll list mine in a second, but keep in mind this would not be a collection you want to own, it's what you want to have fun playing. When I was going to all the houses for league play, I can't tell you how bored I was with once again seeing Creature, Monster Bash, AFM, Twilight Zone, and ST:TNG. Those seemed to be in everyone's collection. It's not that I don't like them, it's that I want to see something different or new.

My Wow Arcade

The Lawlor Wall

Whirlwind
Addams Family
Road Show
No Good Gofers
Dialed In
Willy Wonka

The Music Wall

Metallica
Guns 'N Roses
Aerosmith
Iron Maiden

Just Arrived Wall

Black Knight: SoR (Premium)
Munsters (Premium)
Deadpool (Premium)
Guardians of the Galaxy (Premium)
Pirates of the Carribean (JJP)

Classics

Rollergames
NBA Fastbreak
Centaur
Bride of Pinbot
Medieval Madness

Pins For Rotating In

Indian Jones Pinball Adventure
Eight Ball Deluxe
Lord of the Rings
Tales of the Arabian Nights
World Cup Soccer '94

I'd seriously lose my mind if that was all local to me.

Other than Total Nuclear Annihilation, I'm not a fan of anything Spooky has put out. I also wasn't impressed at all by Houdini from American Pinball, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to try Oktoberfest. So I think I'd reserve a space for a route operator to be able to put this sort of thing in, just so people could try 'em. I also think I'd get that Zen cabinet they had all the Star Wars tables running on, just to encourage digital pinball play.

 

[Fungi]

$7 for 1, $10 for 2. That's fills my happy spot. Since I've only heard of these pay/time places, I always wondered how the time was policed. Question, how are these places policed?

 

[Narc0lep5y]

There’s a place down the road from me that is membership based and has a weekday lunch Special for $5 an hour and has tournament leagues and a running high score tracker on each table (kids get one adults another). Admission rates from website below

Admission to the Pinball Gallery provides access to most of our games, which are set on free-play (no coins required!). Admission rates are as follows:

$8 - one hour of play
$20 - play all-day (re-entry is OK... go out for lunch/dinner and come back and play!)
We also sell the following extended passes:

$50 - monthly pass
$250 - yearly pass
If you purchase a monthly or yearly pass, you receive a free Pinball Gallery "Player Card" that can be used for free admission anytime during that period, including our monthly tournaments, and weekly league.

We also offer the following reduced admission passes:

$5 - "Lunch-time special": On weekdays, anytime during the period from 11:30am-1:30pm, admission is reduced to $5/hour. Bring your lunch (we also sell drinks and snacks). Bring a friend. Have some fun playing plnball and classic video games!
If you are in hurry and only have time for a game or two, we also have something for you. There are a few games at the front of the store that are available for coin-play (no admission necessary).

They have about 50 machines and some arcade machines. The newest machines, currently Batman 66, Deadpool, Maiden, Munsters, JJP POTC are currently not included in the AYCP time format but are the coin play games at the front for $1 a play (with some proceeds to charity)

Private parties are big business. You don’t operate any kind of amusement center without a solid party plan. Birthday , office, you name it. They also sell the machines on display and have a steady refurb business to cycle out the tables.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Narc0lep5y]

$7 for 1, $10 for 2. That's fills my happy spot. Since I've only heard of these pay/time places, I always wondered how the time was policed. Question, how are these places policed?

I’ve only gone at lunch time to my local place and it’s completely on the honor system. But we’re also talking about a lunch special that attracts people at their lunch hour that would likely have to get back to work anyway. If you’re a regular lunch timer at some point the membership option is cheaper and then it doesn’t matter how long they stay.

 

[wolfson]

I’ve only gone at lunch time to my local place and it’s completely on the honor system. But we’re also talking about a lunch special that attracts people at their lunch hour that would likely have to get back to work anyway. If you’re a regular lunch timer at some point the membership option is cheaper and then it doesn’t matter how long they stay.

Narc , if your wagging school , your in heaven . also the $250 for the year pass , wow $5 a week , now if I was a school kid again , I`d be wagging a bloody lot hahaha !!!

 

[vikingerik]

There's a clear advantage to having an entry fee and then everything set to free play; you don't have to worry about theft from the machines. ... If you were able to have each machine read the bracelet so that it knew to work or not based on if their time was still valid, that'd be awesome.

This stuff has already been solved. Dave and Busters has had that for ten-plus years, a card system without actual coins going into the machines. Chuck-e-Cheese has introduced an unlimited-play-per-time option also based on a card or bracelet scanned at each machine. Of course the big chains have more capital to install the hardware on each machine, but it certainly exists and has for some time.

 

[Fungi]

This stuff has already been solved. Dave and Busters has had that for ten-plus years, a card system without actual coins going into the machines. Chuck-e-Cheese has introduced an unlimited-play-per-time option also based on a card or bracelet scanned at each machine. Of course the big chains have more capital to install the hardware on each machine, but it certainly exists and has for some time.

Oh. So then would it be possible to then set up a card system that's timed? Is that how it's done?

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Oh. So then would it be possible to then set up a card system that's timed? Is that how it's done?

Yeah. They even have timers on rescan so you can’t swipe it again for 45 or 60 Seconds. I take my 5 year old to Round One where we get 90 minutes and play those endless continue games and I’m constantly trying to keep us both alive on gun games like Jurassic Park long enough to be able to swipe again for the next credit or getting it done early so we can bank some. Usually have one hand firing and another getting either hers or my play card ready for swiping. It’s an added challenge that keeps it interesting.

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Also the scan cards hold the “tickets” for the redemption type games. Slot machines have been doing that type of stuff for years too.

 

[shutyertrap]

I swear I am in no way serious about doing this...

But the space that is open that got my wheels turning, it's 5500 sq ft and going for $450 a month plus NNN (which I really don't understand), other than that it doesn't cover utilities. Gotta imagine the electric bill would be pretty high for all those machines and AC.

Outside looks like this...

Typical ugly strip mall, the only one in this vicinity that hasn't had a face lift to match the current city architecture. It's the center corner of the strip mall, with housing to the east, schools to the north, shopping to the west and south of the intersection. Aerial view looks like this, which also give you an idea of the shape purely based on the roof line...
View attachment 289

I'm estimating the front being 32 to 36 feet wide, for sense of scale.

Years ago, in a pure dick move, Blockbuster built a store right there on the street corner, essentially blocking the much older video store from being seen easily from the street. Amazingly enough, the mom and pop vid store only at the end of 2017, outlasting Blockbuster by a few years.

So I had two ideas that might set a pure pinball arcade apart from other places. We've all seen places that have the camera over the playfield for viewers to see on monitors above the machine. Watching a few of Dead_Flip's streams, he's displaying that, the backglass/video screen, and a camera view of the player. What if that was all in place daily and people could come in and host their own stream? Or if the arcade itself just did a broadcast weekly no matter who was playing on it? Might make the place a bit of a destination, especially if the stream starts getting a following. In conjunction with that, if there were a video wall someplace for displaying whatever (tournament scores, sporting events, etc), you could at the touch of a button flip over to a particularly good game happening on one of the (let's say) 10 machines with camera's on them.

The other idea would be on Fridays and Saturdays when you are most likely to be open to midnight, to do 'pinball madness' starting at 10pm. All the lights get turned off and it's the whole dark room experience. In my fantasy world, a klaxon with spinning yellow emergency lights would start and Mother from Alien would do the countdown, fog machines spewing from all over, and then lights out. If that's too much darkness, you could put black lights all over, which I've played pinball under and it's cool as hell. And then of course, you don't actually close at midnight but 12:15 so the various tables that do have a midnight mode would be playable.

 

[shutyertrap]

I swear I am in no way serious about doing this...

But the space that is open that got my wheels turning, it's 5500 sq ft and going for $450 a month plus NNN (which I really don't understand), other than that it doesn't cover utilities. Gotta imagine the electric bill would be pretty high for all those machines and AC.

Outside looks like this...

Typical ugly strip mall, the only one in this vicinity that hasn't had a face lift to match the current city architecture. It's the center corner of the strip mall, with housing to the east, schools to the north, shopping to the west and south of the intersection. Aerial view looks like this, which also give you an idea of the shape purely based on the roof line...



I'm estimating the front being 32 to 36 feet wide, for sense of scale.

Years ago, in a pure dick move, Blockbuster built a store right there on the street corner, essentially blocking the much older video store from being seen easily from the street. Amazingly enough, the mom and pop vid store only at the end of 2017, outlasting Blockbuster by a few years.

So I had two ideas that might set a pure pinball arcade apart from other places. We've all seen places that have the camera over the playfield for viewers to see on monitors above the machine. Watching a few of Dead_Flip's streams, he's displaying that, the backglass/video screen, and a camera view of the player. What if that was all in place daily and people could come in and host their own stream? Or if the arcade itself just did a broadcast weekly no matter who was playing on it? Might make the place a bit of a destination, especially if the stream starts getting a following. In conjunction with that, if there were a video wall someplace for displaying whatever (tournament scores, sporting events, etc), you could at the touch of a button flip over to a particularly good game happening on one of the (let's say) 10 machines with camera's on them.

The other idea would be on Fridays and Saturdays when you are most likely to be open to midnight, to do 'pinball madness' starting at 10pm. All the lights get turned off and it's the whole dark room experience. In my fantasy world, a klaxon with spinning yellow emergency lights would start and Mother from Alien would do the countdown, fog machines spewing from all over, and then lights out. If that's too much darkness, you could put black lights all over, which I've played pinball under and it's cool as hell. And then of course, you don't actually close at midnight but 12:15 so the various tables that do have a midnight mode would be playable.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I always wondered about the electric bill for arcades. I know just for one pin, I can go online and see my current electric usage and it spikes way up when I’m playing (maybe the old pins were less efficient and used more juice?). I couldn’t imagine how much electricity the huge arcades guzzle, espcially when you throw in the Cali heat and constant AC. I imagine most of the mall arcades had their utilities included back in the day or they would’ve shut down even sooner than they did.

 

[Wapcaplet]

I always wondered about the electric bill for arcades. I know just for one pin, I can go online and see my current electric usage and it spikes way up when I’m playing (maybe the old pins were less efficient and used more juice?). I couldn’t imagine how much electricity the huge arcades guzzle, espcially when you throw in the Cali heat and constant AC. I imagine most of the mall arcades had their utilities included back in the day or they would’ve shut down even sooner than they did.

This is a primary reason why the Museum of Pinball in Banning is only open a few times a year. From this LA Times article: “It’s 45,000 square feet of pinball. Just to flip the electrical breakers, it costs a few thousand dollars.”

 

[ZREXMike2]

Thanks for the pic trap, $450 a month is not bad. Depending on whether Cali hits you with their "usage tax" to shut you down. They hate seeing anyone outside their clique making any money.