Anyone curious what the worst earning games at Game Galaxy are?

[orion3311]

LOL, I really think you are overestimating classic games =P

A lot of this depends on demographics. When we had our Rivergate Mall location (mostly Caucasian) classics did well there. This location is about 33/33/33 across the board but more Hispanic and Black customers than RIvergate.

We had Food Fight in front of the door and it did a whopping 50 cents a week.

I only said Marble Madness for 3 reasons:

1. Although I've practically never played the game, I know what it is and how popular it was in my era.
2. I did play the arcade version once over theBman's place and can't wait to play it again.
3. I'm a simpleton with add so other classics tend to go over my head unless the'yre simple like Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc. Because of this I'd like to say I represent the modern population and non-existent attention spans fairly well lol.

If it were my place I'd be doing promotions left and right...maybe "feature" one "classic" (or low earner either way) a week/month, perhaps a high score contest with a gift card as a reward. Like the other guy mentioned, I'd be really curious to try putting a low or non-existant earner on free play if possible just to see what would happen. Do it for a different game each week (or every 2-3 days) and see if that draws people in. The only downside would be time limiting someone if they were hogging the machine but if it brings people in and that game can earn its space one way or another, why not?

To really add a twist to it...throw a "one game on free play every day" sign out front, and change the free play game every couple days and make people "find it"

 

[DreamTR]

I only said Marble Madness for 3 reasons:

1. Although I've practically never played the game, I know what it is and how popular it was in my era.
2. I did play the arcade version once over theBman's place and can't wait to play it again.
3. I'm a simpleton so other classics tend to go over my head unless the'yre simple like Asteroids, Space Invaders, etc.

If it were my place I'd be doing promotions left and right...maybe "feature" one "classic" (or low earner either way) a week/month, perhaps a high score contest with a gift card as a reward. Like the other guy mentioned, I'd be really curious to try putting a low or non-existant earner on free play if possible just to see what would happen. Do it for a different game each week (or every 2-3 days) and see if that draws people in. The only downside would be time limiting someone if they were hogging the machine but if it brings people in and that game can earn its space one way or another, why not?

To really add a twist to it...throw a "one game on free play every day" sign out front, and change the free play game every couple days and make people "find it"

Already mentioned in one of my threads we have a hi-score contest usually.

People get 24 credits in the morning on Monkey Ball because of a stupid Naomi RAM Error. That's enough for me. I don't have time to randomly put something on Free Play, it doesn't really do anything for earnings and won't drive traffic, little kids will just bring ice cream in and slime the classic, LOL

 

[FrizzleFried]

Not sure how an arcade could survive on those numbers. How much does it cost in electricity to RUN a game per week? I am sure every one of those on the list LOST money for the week...

 

[DreamTR]

i can remember when i was growing up in the early '80s we had an arcade that on friday nights you could pay a flat rate to get in and all the games were set to free play. my dad would drop me and my brothers off and we'd play for hour's (my brothers mostly hung out with there friends,i was the baby) but the place was packed. i know that was a diffrent time but say if you charged $10.00 for unlimited play for a day and issued wristbands (very cheap in bulk) you would still make more in a day than some of your machines are making in a week.

We're in a mall. Business model only works if you don't have mall regulars and quickies who want to spend 50 cents to a $1 on their lunch break. Plus you can't tell what people actually play unless you go into bookkeepings for each at that point but since they are on free play, more problems than you can imagine with $10 all day in a mall....if we had an outdoor location and did it once a month, "maybe" but then you will have people that WON'T SHOW UP until that ONE DAY in the month you do the free play and your business suffers with no traffic til that one day...

 

[EVB]

You could do the Nickle city model. I think it's $5 to get it and all the classics are 5 cents, other games may be multiple nickles.

We're in a mall. Business model only works if you don't have mall regulars and quickies who want to spend 50 cents to a $1 on their lunch break. Plus you can't tell what people actually play unless you go into bookkeepings for each at that point but since they are on free play, more problems than you can imagine with $10 all day in a mall....if we had an outdoor location and did it once a month, "maybe" but then you will have people that WON'T SHOW UP until that ONE DAY in the month you do the free play and your business suffers with no traffic til that one day...

 

[Robotron Jon]

What about renting the place out for birthday parties?

I suppose a liquor license is out of the question.

 

[bongoben]

People get 24 credits in the morning on Monkey Ball because of a stupid Naomi RAM Error.

Oooh, that is my absolute #1 grail. We have a local "fun center" in town that has the game that I've been working on convincing them to sell it to me for about a year now but nothing yet. If/when you want to let your's go let me know... it would be worth the roadtrip down to TN for me to grab it from you.

 

[Shoegaze]

I'm surprised nobody in this thread has offered to take some of those underperforming space-wasters off your hands.

 

[DreamTR]

EVB: Nickel model won't work here unless we were not in a mall. The concept is good, but there are less than a handful of Nickel arcades even left these days....Nickel City in Northbrook only survives because of parties.

Birthday parties here...well...no one can sit anywhere, we're an arcade, LOL...I don't do redemption or any of that jazz...

Corday, we have a lot of crazy stuff not listed (working I, Robot and working Lunar Lander comes to mind, and we just pulled a fully working Journey) that I want to try out here but we're just going to have to open a museum route with this.

Best business model honestly is people come in free, then play all the "classics" in the museum for $6-7 and all the regular games on quarters but we would need the place separated and well, can't do that here with only 3,000 sq feet.

Bongoben: Maybe one of these days I'll sell it...who knows...I seem to recall you NOT selling me some PCBs recently =P

 

[bongoben]

Bongoben: Maybe one of these days I'll sell it...who knows...I seem to recall you NOT selling me some PCBs recently =P

Aww... that's not nice.

I did sell you the Multi-Jamma setup though.

 

[PrairieDillo]

in my location

These are three week stats/averages

Neo Geo 4 slot with MS3 taking the biggest portion - $120
Wacky Gator $120
Point Blank $100
TMNT 4P $60
48:1 multicade $25

 

[DreamTR]

Bongoben, I only kid, lol

 

[lilman573]

Man that sucks to hear. If you were anywhere near me i would be playing that Marble Madness in a heartbeat. I still haven't been able to play one in person

I have to play it on nintendo! ...

 

[bongoben]

Bongoben, I only kid, lol

I know... but why does it still hurt so bad.

 

[shertz]

I blame MAME lol

www.gamegalaxyarcade.com

For those of you that do not know, I have an arcade with about 125 games (that's all we can fit) and we try and rotate them from time to time with another 100 or so games we have in storage in the mall.

I'm going to list what the WORST games are average per week, and it's interesting to note the majority of the "worst" games are the classics...and when I say "way down" I mean in terms of earnings, all of these games work.

Defender-$1
Tempest-$1.50
Tapper-$1.00
Street Fighter EX 2 Plus-$1.25 (in big blue Q-SOund cabinet)
Violent Storm-$1.75 (this has gone down lately, it was running $5 a week for awhile)
Tekken Tag-$1.75 (also gone down lately)
VS. Tetris-$1 (even original Tetris did not do well for us)
VS Excitebike-$1 (down lately, usually $2 or so)
VS Pinball-$1
Satan's Hollow-$1 (pulled this once already, brought it back for Halloween)
Pac-Man PLus-$1.50 (way down, usually $5 or so)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs-$1 (another one WAY down, usually $3-4 a week)
TRack and Field-$1.25
Toobin-$.50 (down as of late)
Food Fight-$0.25 (We're pulling this)
Dr. Mario-$1.50
VS Gradius-0 (LOL)
VS Goonies-0 (this one has made a total of $2 in 2 months)
R-Type-$1 (only the second week we have had it too)
Elevator Action-$1 (3rd week since we brought it back in)
Marble MAdness-$1 (probably going to pull this)
Arkanoid-$1.75

It's pretty obvious we don't have enough people to support the classics, LOL...we have many more classics that do well like Super Punch Out, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, etc...

 

[DreamTR]

Shertz: that's another sore spot (MAME)

I have MAME kiddies coming in here and wasting time when we sell empty cabs for $20. Half of them want free panels and things moved from one cabinet to the next....so not worth it for $20...another guy wanting to hold cabinets for a month at a time with sob stories about why he can't pay when he says he can, wanting to drive from KY, lol...boy oh boy, fun stuff

 

[AtariShag]

Thanks for sharing - the only thing that surprises me is that some people are surprised by this. I run into it often when I talk with people about opening an arcade and it baffles me when I hear expectations that old games should earn like they used to. Classics are nice for filling things up but not making money - as someone already mentioned in this thread, it has to do with factors such as age, home availability, MAME, etc.

I see a similar effect at my own arcade - I have a Warlords cocktail and it might pull in $2-$3 on a good week. I've had weeks where it only makes .25¢. It doesn't matter that the game is very fun to play and four people can play on one coin, it's that it's 30 years old now. And there's MAME, console ports that have come along over the years along with an XBLA remake.

 

[LeeB99]

I'm gonna get a little RACIST here: Why the HELL did you move???

Sounds to me like the "white" Mall was delivering MUCH better earnings. If the earnings of the games were even ONE THIRD of your income, then you need to move those games to another Mall loaded with Crackas and "git some white folk up in here" to get PAID...

 

[pseeds]

Regarding Toobin': When I have had my Toobin' at places on free play, it always gets played and people really like it. I was shocked that it had such a following.

 

[VectorJunkie]

Logistically that makes no sense. Most of our money here actually comes from console sales, so I can't have one of my guys walk over to a cabinet and give people a free game every few minutes...

We do have hi-score contests for cash from time to time (Beat XXXX score on this game posted on the machine win $20-30 cash at the end of the month) and that did pretty well with Mikie until the game broke, LOL

It makes perfect sense. Your staff does not have to go around giving credits. You set the games to two plays for one quarter and put a little sign on the ones you are doing this on so folks know. That would be a nice way to get people to try out the under-performers. If it cut your $1 take in half on a game would it really matter if the idea failed? You can just put them back to 1 quarter 1 play anytime. If you rotated games that you do this on, it would add a little bit more excitement to see what games you get the Daily Double on.

Edit: All you need is some signs and to flip some dip switches.