Arcades without alcohol or freeplay?

I remember the first time I visited a pizza joint in Chicago that was BYOB.

I thought it was the coolest damn thing ever. Are you telling me that I can drink a 6-pack of my own beer for the price of 1 draft beer in Denver?

Yes please! :)
 
I own an arcade/axe throwing place called Axecadia. We opened in the beginning of 2023. We do not serve any alcoholic drinks. We have limited food and a large selection of glass bottle pops, energy and sports drinks. We run our arcade on quarters and tokens. We host a lot of elementary field trips and youth church groups. Couldn't really do that if serving alcohol in my area. PM me if you want to talk more. I'll tell you everything I know and have learned.
 
I own an arcade without freeplay/alcohol. We've been at our current location for nearly 5 years. Started on quarters, tried freeplay for one summer, switched to tokens 1 year in, and then added redemption on year two. Redemption is what keeps the bills paid and gives me enough money to add more actual video games for those who appreciate them.
 
redemption, of all the games I have owned this one was probably the most popular among guests. I bought it for $250 in like new condition working all the way.

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or maybe my Fun Chicken, it was featured in a news piece from an Arcade Expo and got a lot of play at the show, both redemption.

 
Arcades are alive and (mostly) well around the British coast and every one I've been to are coin-op. I say 'arcade' loosely because they're 99% just children gambling centres (ie full of redemption games) so I'm not sure if my example counts?
Silver Slipper in Gt Yarmouth UK is a famous one that's been around since the 80s. Photos from Alex Bright on the UKvac facebook page, all are from the 80s.
 

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There is a traditional coin-op arcade at the Berkshire Mall in Berks County, PA, called Challenge Arcade.


I don't know the proprietor personally, but they have an active page on Facebook you could reach out to. I believe it's basically her personal collection.

It's not a glitzy place, but they have a pretty cool collection. I think everything is only a quarter to play. Even some of the pins.
I went there once when I was in the area and they were still in the Reading Mall. Probably been 15 years ago.
 
I own a mall arcade. We run tickets and tokens. I bought it a few years back, it had been in the same location for close to forty years. Of course last year the mall announced that it was closing and we had to move it to a different mall in a slightly different area. Like was mentioned earlier in the thread, the redemption games pay the bills. I have over a hundred games on the floor a few classics (at least what our customers consider classics like MK4 ) and typically at the end of the week the classics have less than $5 in them. You can make a traditional mall arcade work nowadays but it is a ton of work.
 
In many states the proprietor is responsible for what happens on their property, even if they're not serving.
Even if you're 100 % in the right and did absolutely nothing wrong, you can still get sued. Having insurance is crucial when dealing with the public. You never know what can happen and it is all out of your control. I had a situation last summer where a woman wearing an air boot on her right foot that was told not to drive by her Doctor was driving and stopped at a location where I have kiddie rides. This particular one was one of those 3 horse kiddie carousels that weigh probably 500 pounds. This woman gets in her car, puts the car in reverse and gets her air booted foot stuck on the accelerator and goes full warp speed into a soda machine in front of the building. The soda machine slams into my kiddie ride, launches the ride into the air and it lands on a woman, pins her under it and breaks her leg. It took 3 men to lift it off her. The car impact also destroyed the corner of the building to the point where they had to prop the roof up. You would think that it is pretty cut and dried who is at fault and getting sued right? Well, they sued the property owner along with Mrs. Airboot. Surprisingly, they didn't come after me but I was waiting for it. The property owner's insurance paid out too. They found he was at fault because he didn't have any barriers to prevent this from happening. I got a partial payment for the kiddie ride from my insurance company but I am still out my $1000 deductible. (Mrs. Airboot insurance company is horrible)
 
There is a traditional coin-op arcade at the Berkshire Mall in Berks County, PA, called Challenge Arcade.


I don't know the proprietor personally, but they have an active page on Facebook you could reach out to. I believe it's basically her personal collection.

It's not a glitzy place, but they have a pretty cool collection. I think everything is only a quarter to play. Even some of the pins.
Is that the same one that was there a good 20+ years ago? If so, that's the one I purchased an MCI The Safe from and I remember it was a nice arcade. They had a prototype Baby Pac Man there, if I remember correctly.
 
Is that the same one that was there a good 20+ years ago? If so, that's the one I purchased an MCI The Safe from and I remember it was a nice arcade. They had a prototype Baby Pac Man there, if I remember correctly.
Interesting! They do have a Baby Pac proto, so I guess so! I was really under the impression it was a newer establishment in the last few years but maybe not. I don't get to that mall very often. Or I should say I don't have reason to go to that mall very often. Like most malls, it's a shadow of the type of place most of us remember as kids.

The mall of my youth was the Plymouth Meeting Mall in (yup) Plymouth Meeting PA, which had a Supercade. We spent so much time at the mall in general and at that arcade…
 
Interesting! They do have a Baby Pac proto, so I guess so! I was really under the impression it was a newer establishment in the last few years but maybe not. I don't get to that mall very often. Or I should say I don't have reason to go to that mall very often. Like most malls, it's a shadow of the type of place most of us remember as kids.

The mall of my youth was the Plymouth Meeting Mall in (yup) Plymouth Meeting PA, which had a Supercade. We spent so much time at the mall in general and at that arcade…
They moved from the Reading mall.
 
LOL, I've lived in the Reading area for 20 years and didn't even know there *was* a Reading Mall.
Ok, maybe my memory isn't right. Or maybe the mall had a different name but was in Reading? I dunno.. 🤷 It was the same people, I'm pretty sure, and was called Challenge arcade.
 
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Interesting! They do have a Baby Pac proto, so I guess so! I was really under the impression it was a newer establishment in the last few years but maybe not. I don't get to that mall very often. Or I should say I don't have reason to go to that mall very often. Like most malls, it's a shadow of the type of place most of us remember as kids.

The mall of my youth was the Plymouth Meeting Mall in (yup) Plymouth Meeting PA, which had a Supercade. We spent so much time at the mall in general and at that arcade…
There is still a great arcade at the Plymouth Meeting Mall, Uncle Joes. Also uses tokens and tickets. He has a mix of old and new games there.
 
I own an arcade/axe throwing place called Axecadia. We opened in the beginning of 2023. We do not serve any alcoholic drinks. We have limited food and a large selection of glass bottle pops, energy and sports drinks. We run our arcade on quarters and tokens. We host a lot of elementary field trips and youth church groups. Couldn't really do that if serving alcohol in my area. PM me if you want to talk more. I'll tell you everything I know and have learned.
Plus I think axe throwing and alcohol would be a natural selection accelerator.
 
Plus I think axe throwing and alcohol would be a natural selection accelerator.


The whole axe-throwing-business thing has fascinated me since the beginning. Especially since many of them also DO also serve alcohol.

How the hell does anyone get insurance for that? If I asked you to come up with the least insurable business concept, you wouldn't come up with something that nuts.

And the countless clips of 'near misses' on youtube are frightening. I don't know how this became a thing, or how it still exists.
 
The whole axe-throwing-business thing has fascinated me since the beginning. Especially since many of them also DO also serve alcohol.

How the hell does anyone get insurance for that? If I asked you to come up with the least insurable business concept, you wouldn't come up with something that nuts.

And the countless clips of 'near misses' on youtube are frightening. I don't know how this became a thing, or how it still exists.
You sign a waiver and they drill new customers on safety.
Plus most of the clientele is the type to not mind a self inflicted cut here and there .
The idea seems to work here (WI drinking just is assumed with everything) as the few who do it have opened other locations.
 
I am interested in learning more…I can't see how an arcade can make $$ without alcohol. Or maybe said another way maybe it can but "with" alcohol it can make way more?
 
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