Post on Coin Op Space Richie Knuckles Closing is it true?

mlenardon

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Post on Coin Op Space Richie Knuckles Closing is it true?

Is it true that Richie Knuckle's is closing his arcade? It looked like one of the best classic arcades out there with an owner who loves the games enough to do it right? Richie if this is true good luck and your arcade will be missed I am sure.

Michael
 
I noticed a couple comments here on KLOV from Richie that pointed to the fact that he was closing the arcade. Didn't see a direct post from him about it. I recall a comment about new years or something being the last event/ get together at the current location I think. I believe another about bringing the games home and seem to recall still another comment with words to the effect of "if in the future we reopen the arcade."
 
This is accurate. New Years is the last shindig for the foreseeable future.
 
Wow, that sucks. So what will become of the Pac Off and the Kong Off II? I hope everything is okay with Richie.
 
I just did some searching and Richie has posted video's stating this. Let's all hope that he is doing well and keeps his games. This is an example of the reality of an Arcade being nearly impossible as a business model in current times without an extreme diversity. Richie's games all look like they are mint so lets hope for the best for him.

I know one of my Op buddies closed his doors 10 years ago and the other is having tough times but still making some money (redemption and laser tag). Vids are not making anything overall and pins are dead due to maintenance costs.

Michael
 
I just did some searching and Richie has posted video's stating this. Let's all hope that he is doing well and keeps his games. This is an example of the reality of an Arcade being nearly impossible as a business model in current times without an extreme diversity.

Richie has that extreme diversity, even more so than most every traditional classic arcade out there, and Richie's business isn't even really an arcade. People either seem to be forgetting that Richie Knucklez' Arcade Games is not really an arcade or they just don't know that in the first place. Richie's place is an arcade game restoration, service, and sales business, and the "arcade" is actually a showroom. Some time later they diversified their revenue stream by doing children's birthday parties and corporate parties on the weekends to bring in more steady business, and later still they added "Flashback Fridays" -- $10 at the door to play games on free play for 4 hours -- due to people constantly bugging him about it. This business was never an arcade in the sense that most of us think of an arcade. Over time it became an arcade for a few hours on Friday nights only, and very occasionally on Saturday nights for the local regulars.

Some actual classic arcades around the country are doing pretty well as far as I know. I believe Ground Kontrol in Portland, OR still does decent business and they just recently completed a total remodel. Barcade in Brooklyn, NY reportedly mints money, but that's more from the alcohol sales than from the games. 1984 in Springfield, MO does very well even without alcohol sales (not as much to do in Springfield, and they're down the street from a major college campus). And there are newer classic arcades popping up around the country that are building devoted followings: Dorky's Bar Arcade in Tacoma, WA; Stella's Lounge in Grand Rapids, MI, The 1UP in Denver, CO. Barcade has opened a second location in Jersey City and a third in Philadelphia.

So it's even worse than mlenardon's post above postulates -- not only is it very tough for a classic arcade to survive and thrive in this crappy economy thirty years after the peak of the golden age, it's tough for an arcade game restoration, service, and sales business to survive and thrive even when it does very profitable (but stressful) kids' parties every weekend and charges $10 a head every Friday night to come in and play. Viable video arcades today seem to be fueled by beer and nostalgia, in that order. And location is everything.

All that said, though, Richie has stated that it's not a money issue. Richie has said that he's closing the business more for personal and family reasons more than anything. It sounds to me like the last year of long hours and hard work and constant promotion has taken its toll and he wants and needs a long break. He says he's going to build a kick ass home arcade and spend more time with the family. Give him a year or two. I'm betting we haven't seen the last of a Richie Knucklez arcade game business in some form.
 
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I can't believe that Fun Spot/ACAM in Weir's Beach NH was not in that nice little sum up of still successful arcades....

I wanted to visit Richie's last summer but we couldn't make it on a friday night...still very happy to have gone to FS for 4 nights and the New Jersey Barcade for a couple of hours.

It's a shame, but I can fully understand that Richie would like some more time with family and stuff....I can imagine he made lots of hours.
 
Don't forget about Pinballz Arcade here in Austin, TX.
Been there a couple of times - great place -great selection.
Just got back from a fantastic night at Pinballz! There were four of us, and we spent almost all night playing cooperative or head-to-head games - Gauntlet, Rampage, Wizard of Wor, air hockey, X-men, racing and battlemech cockpits, etc. There is still some room for improvement, and a lot of the games have minor issues, but it was a blast.

LeChuck
 
Wow this is sad. His arcade kicked ass. I've only been there once on
a Saturday in the early fall. I was wondering to myself how he keeps
this place in business though. There were maybe 5 other guys there.

I hope he finds a way to open again or stay in an arcade related business.
He is a hell of a showman and a big arcade personality. Hopefully he can find
a way to turn that into dollars and avoid going back to working for
"the man":)
 
I can't believe that Fun Spot/ACAM in Weir's Beach NH was not in that nice little sum up of still successful arcades....

Richie's is analogous to a classic video arcade and in the context of business models for classic video arcades I left out ACAM because it piggy backs off of Funspot, which is a much larger modern day amusement center. ACAM loses money horribly for 361 days a year. Only during their annual tournament does it comes close to paying its own keep.

The first two floors of Funspot -- the modern games and skee ball and other redemption games -- as well as the bowling alley, the outdoor mini golf course, and the indoor golf simulators they run during the winter is where they make their money. Hell they run that bingo parlor across the parking lot specifically to keep the lights on at ACAM. Makes me wonder what they'll do when their bingo clientele die off and there's no one to replace them.

Funspot is more like a super-sized Dave & Busters (without the beer and pool tables) that has a classic video arcade section, not a free standing classic arcade that has to survive on its own revenue like the others I mentioned.
 
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Wow this is sad. His arcade kicked ass. I've only been there once on a Saturday in the early fall. I was wondering to myself how he keeps this place in business though. There were maybe 5 other guys there.

Typically they have hosted kids' birthday parties on weekends, but Saturdays and/or Sundays were left unbooked occasionally. There's only so many weekends in a row you can host back-to-back kids' parties all day before you collapse from exhaustion and stress. Over the last year Richie would open the place on Saturday nights occasionally for his local "Flashback Friday" regulars, and about a year ago that culminated in his starting the 3-hour "Arcade Culture" web show.

And again, Richie's is not an arcade business, meaning it was never meant to make money off of playing the games in his showroom. It's an arcade game restoration, sales, and services business with a showroom. You wouldn't expect to see more than a handful of people in there at any given time normally.
 
Richie has that extreme diversity, even more so than most every traditional classic arcade out there, and Richie's business isn't even really an arcade. People either seem to be forgetting that Richie Knucklez' Arcade Games is not really an arcade or they just don't know that in the first place. Richie's place is an arcade game restoration, service, and sales business, and the "arcade" is actually a showroom. Some time later they diversified their revenue stream by doing children's birthday parties and corporate parties on the weekends to bring in more steady business, and later still they added "Flashback Fridays" -- $10 at the door to play games on free play for 4 hours -- due to people constantly bugging him about it. This business was never an arcade in the sense that most of us think of an arcade. Over time it became an arcade for a few hours on Friday nights only, and very occasionally on Saturday nights for the local regulars.

Some actual classic arcades around the country are doing pretty well as far as I know. I believe Ground Kontrol in Portland, OR still does decent business and they just recently completed a total remodel. Barcade in Brooklyn, NY reportedly mints money, but that's more from the alcohol sales than from the games. 1984 in Springfield, MO does very well even without alcohol sales (not as much to do in Springfield, and they're down the street from a major college campus). And there are newer classic arcades popping up around the country that are building devoted followings: Dorky's Bar Arcade in Tacoma, WA; Stella's Lounge in Grand Rapids, MI, The 1UP in Denver, CO. Barcade has opened a second location in Jersey City and a third in Philadelphia.

So it's even worse than mlenardon's post above postulates -- not only is it very tough for a classic arcade to survive and thrive in this crappy economy thirty years after the peak of the golden age, it's tough for an arcade game restoration, service, and sales business to survive and thrive even when it does very profitable (but stressful) kids' parties every weekend and charges $10 a head every Friday night to come in and play. Viable video arcades today seem to be fueled by beer and nostalgia, in that order. And location is everything.

All that said, though, Richie has stated that it's not a money issue. Richie has said that he's closing the business more for personal and family reasons more than anything. It sounds to me like the last year of long hours and hard work and constant promotion has taken its toll and he wants and needs a long break. He says he's going to build a kick ass home arcade and spend more time with the family. Give him a year or two. I'm betting we haven't seen the last of a Richie Knucklez arcade game business in some form.

Sounds like he needs a partner or super trusted employees to take some of the stress off of him... that would be preferable to closing up...
 
...and the indoor golf simulators they run during the winter is where they make their money.

They no longer have those. They removed them just before the tournament this year and filled the area with games (with some seating in the back corner)

Hell they run that bingo parlor across the parking lot specifically to keep the lights on at ACAM. Makes me wonder what they'll do when their bingo clientele die off and there's no one to replace them.

Why wouldn't there be people to replace them? There shouldn't be any shortage of old people for the forseeable future :D
 
We are living in times that are VERY difficult for business owners. Forget about what the news outlets say about the economy. Things have gotten MUCH worse than a couple of years ago when they officially announced that the "recession was OVER". In fact, my business was not substantially impacted until the very same month that everyone CLAIMS that it ended.

I have been in business for 20 years now, and I have seen a lot of customers and competitors come and go over the years. But at this moment, I can honestly say that I have never seen so many customers (other companies that re-sell our products) simply disappear while the ones that are still around STRUGGLE to be able to pay us for their purchases. Credit cards are constantly declining and those on terms are late on payments, if they are paying AT ALL.

Money trickles down and spreads out through multiple hands and "touches the lives" of many people when it is being spent in the economy. When people don't have money to spend, it only makes it worse for many other people as well.
Tax revenues go into a black hoke that is completely unproductive and wasteful.

As for Richie's situation, I am really not all that surprised. And I had absolutely NO IDEA that his operation was anything but a classic style video arcade. That's what the sign on the building says, right? If it was a restoration and game sales establishment, he did not put fourth much effort to promote it as such in my opinion. I've watched numerous podcasts and videos that he posted on Justin.tv, and NEVER ONCE do I recall that he made an offer to sell any of the games in his "showroom". I would not have guessed that he was selling games out of his collection, due to the fact that you can watch a "virtual tour" on here and it appeared to me that there was a "specific collection" being represented.

This whole situation is very unfortunate, but in my opinion, the only way anyone is going to do well in a business that is related to classic arcade games is to A) Be on a high profile/traffic location and B) Serve alcohol. If you think that selling arcade games is a way to make a living, look no further than SuperAuctions. They have probably sold more equipment than anyone else (by volume) and took 25-30% of the sales numbers for every single cabinet directly into their pockets at every sale. And yet they still went under. I know that they recently did an auction, but they most likely went through a bankruptcy within the last year and that was probably a "new deal" that they have put together. They went for a full year without doing any amusement auctions (that I am aware of), and that is not normal by any means.

Lee
 
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As for Richie's situation, I am really not all that surprised. And I had absolutely NO IDEA that his operation was anything but a classic style video arcade. That's what the sign on the building says, right?

His front window says otherwise (borrowed from the "Richie Knucklez or BUST" thread):
attachment.php


"Arcade game and pinball sales, service and rental"
 
I know it's not the same, but you guys who live near and frequent Richie Knucklez Arcade should definitely check out High Scores Arcade in Burlington. Open Friday nights and Saturdays, wonderful place run by two great people, the machines are in awesome shape too. Games are all 25 or 50 cents too, no overhead charge. Definitely a place to visit if you're in the NJ area.

http://www.highscoresarcade.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/highscoresnj
 
Even though the third quarter was rough, and I admittedly made some poor biz decisions. The idea to (take an open ended break) was not based on finances. In fact December broke all six prior year's sales records.

The decision is family and health related. I am suddenly really into martial arts and UFC style striking and defense. Due to drinking and substantial abuse,
I ballooned up over 220lbs. in 2011 and I need to get my health and migraines in check.

But the main reason is I want to focus more on my daughters, arcade games are fun, but after my dear friend Mike's Loss something snapped inside me.
It all fell back into proper perspective.

I will still have the showroom and restore games, but no more parties, nor open arcade nights.
Strictly sales by appointment only.
I am also in search of a decent bass player in the Nj area for my new band.
Rockin the classics

rk
 
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