They still make arcade gamez in Japan!!

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

I was fuckin' around on You Tube and came across footage from Afterburner Climax, House Of The Dead 4 and Hokuto No Ken (=Fist Of The North Star) goddam I really hope these will be converted 2 either tha 360 or PS3!!!

[Black_Smoke]

yea arcade games are big over in Japan,shit gaming itself is huge over there

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

yea arcade games are big over in Japan,shit gaming itself is huge over there

I just knew U were gonna react 2 this...

But can U believe they're still makin' arcade cabinetz in 2006 I mean look at tha House Of The Dead 4, HD screen and all that shit iz expensive as fuck I'm pretty sure that shit won't be seein' tha day of light outside tha land of tha risin' sun...

I'm a ol' skool gamer myself and this remindz me of tha good ol' timez when arcade gamez used 2 be tha shit cause no conversion on any console or home computer could fuck wit tha original!

Thatz tha only reason I got myself a modded X-Box so I could run MameoX on it...

[BizzyR.I.P.]

Marvel vs. Capcom on arcade=the shit. Yeah arcades are fun. I used to go to school early to go to the liquor store across the street because they had M vs C. That was back in elementary.

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

Marvel vs. Capcom on arcade=the shit. Yeah arcades are fun. I used to go to school early to go to the liquor store across the street because they had M vs C. That was back in elementary.

LOL I use 2 do tha same thang AFTER school...

I got that Marvel vs Capcom that shit iz an assualt on tha sensez, itz fast as fuck and so many thangz happenin' try playin' it while bein' high and drunk...Whoa!!

[Trauma-san]

I work as an Arcade operator and yes, they still make Arcade Games all around the world.  The market is much larger in Japan, it's still seen as a recreation over there.  The industry in America has totally changed, you can no longer attract people to a business with Arcade Games.  You can make SOME money off of them by having them in places people are already going, i.e. a bowling alley, or a movie theatre.  Also, merchandisers like Cranes and things make much, much, much more money than a traditional video game does.  As well, the brand new video games are incredibly expensive... it's nearly impossible to make your money back and turn a profit on one in the States anymore.  You mentioned House of the Dead 4 which is a very good game, but it still doesn't earn much money, and the conversion (just the board and the guns to put in a cabinet  you already have) is 3 or 4 thousand dollars.  The large, nice dedicated cabinet runs 12 grand or so... so if you were going to buy one, how many quarters would it take to pay it off?  Plus, the operator splits the profits in half with the owner of the establishment... so you'd have to make 24 thousand dollars on the one machine before it even broke even.  That's why you never see them in America, it's just not going to make any money.

The only two types of arcade games that will still perform well are driving games and shooting games, because generally you can't play these on your x-box, and would have to play the arcade version to get the arcade experience... but even like I showed above, its' very hard to make money on a shooting game like house of the dead 4 when the cabinet costs 12 grand.  A new driving game like "Need For Speed" or something costs 7 or 8 thousand dollars. 

What my company has had a lot of success doing is buying cranes and putting them in locations.  We can buy a brand new, really nice crane for 1600 bucks and you fill it with basketballs or plush animals or jewelery and make 100 bucks a week off of it.  In a little less than 6 or 7 months, the machine has paid for itself and it's all gravy from there.  We've got machines that have been in locations for 5 or 6 years earning money like that.

Take a game like "Tekken 4".. it came out and was about 5 thousand dollars new.  Put the thing in a bowling alley, it'll make 30 or 40 dollars a week.  That means you net 15 or 20 a week, 52 weeks a year that means that one game might make you a grand back in a year.  It's just bullshit and that's why there's no arcade games around any more.

Pinball machines are even worse.. but the problem with them is different.  Pinballs have hundreds of parts that all fail, so if something breaks, people lose interest in playing the game and getting ripped off.  The operators over the years have been so lazy that they left broke pinballs everywhere to piss people off, and now everybody is leery of playing them, so they don't make any money either.  Pins don't make any money, so ops pull them out of locations, now it's almost impossible to find a pinball machine you can play somewhere... used to be in the 70's and 80's, every bar had 5 or 6 of them.

Oh, we do still make some money on countertop touch-screen type games.  Jukeboxes still do well also.

[Black_Smoke]

I work as an Arcade operator and yes, they still make Arcade Games all around the world.  The market is much larger in Japan, it's still seen as a recreation over there.  The industry in America has totally changed, you can no longer attract people to a business with Arcade Games.  You can make SOME money off of them by having them in places people are already going, i.e. a bowling alley, or a movie theatre.  Also, merchandisers like Cranes and things make much, much, much more money than a traditional video game does.  As well, the brand new video games are incredibly expensive... it's nearly impossible to make your money back and turn a profit on one in the States anymore.  You mentioned House of the Dead 4 which is a very good game, but it still doesn't earn much money, and the conversion (just the board and the guns to put in a cabinet  you already have) is 3 or 4 thousand dollars.  The large, nice dedicated cabinet runs 12 grand or so... so if you were going to buy one, how many quarters would it take to pay it off?  Plus, the operator splits the profits in half with the owner of the establishment... so you'd have to make 24 thousand dollars on the one machine before it even broke even.  That's why you never see them in America, it's just not going to make any money.

The only two types of arcade games that will still perform well are driving games and shooting games, because generally you can't play these on your x-box, and would have to play the arcade version to get the arcade experience... but even like I showed above, its' very hard to make money on a shooting game like house of the dead 4 when the cabinet costs 12 grand.  A new driving game like "Need For Speed" or something costs 7 or 8 thousand dollars. 

What my company has had a lot of success doing is buying cranes and putting them in locations.  We can buy a brand new, really nice crane for 1600 bucks and you fill it with basketballs or plush animals or jewelery and make 100 bucks a week off of it.  In a little less than 6 or 7 months, the machine has paid for itself and it's all gravy from there.  We've got machines that have been in locations for 5 or 6 years earning money like that.

Take a game like "Tekken 4".. it came out and was about 5 thousand dollars new.  Put the thing in a bowling alley, it'll make 30 or 40 dollars a week.  That means you net 15 or 20 a week, 52 weeks a year that means that one game might make you a grand back in a year.  It's just bullshit and that's why there's no arcade games around any more.

Pinball machines are even worse.. but the problem with them is different.  Pinballs have hundreds of parts that all fail, so if something breaks, people lose interest in playing the game and getting ripped off.  The operators over the years have been so lazy that they left broke pinballs everywhere to piss people off, and now everybody is leery of playing them, so they don't make any money either.  Pins don't make any money, so ops pull them out of locations, now it's almost impossible to find a pinball machine you can play somewhere... used to be in the 70's and 80's, every bar had 5 or 6 of them.

Oh, we do still make some money on countertop touch-screen type games.  Jukeboxes still do well also.

nice read

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

I work as an Arcade operator and yes, they still make Arcade Games all around the world.  The market is much larger in Japan, it's still seen as a recreation over there.  The industry in America has totally changed, you can no longer attract people to a business with Arcade Games.  You can make SOME money off of them by having them in places people are already going, i.e. a bowling alley, or a movie theatre.  Also, merchandisers like Cranes and things make much, much, much more money than a traditional video game does.  As well, the brand new video games are incredibly expensive... it's nearly impossible to make your money back and turn a profit on one in the States anymore.  You mentioned House of the Dead 4 which is a very good game, but it still doesn't earn much money, and the conversion (just the board and the guns to put in a cabinet  you already have) is 3 or 4 thousand dollars.  The large, nice dedicated cabinet runs 12 grand or so... so if you were going to buy one, how many quarters would it take to pay it off?  Plus, the operator splits the profits in half with the owner of the establishment... so you'd have to make 24 thousand dollars on the one machine before it even broke even.  That's why you never see them in America, it's just not going to make any money.

The only two types of arcade games that will still perform well are driving games and shooting games, because generally you can't play these on your x-box, and would have to play the arcade version to get the arcade experience... but even like I showed above, its' very hard to make money on a shooting game like house of the dead 4 when the cabinet costs 12 grand.  A new driving game like "Need For Speed" or something costs 7 or 8 thousand dollars. 

What my company has had a lot of success doing is buying cranes and putting them in locations.  We can buy a brand new, really nice crane for 1600 bucks and you fill it with basketballs or plush animals or jewelery and make 100 bucks a week off of it.  In a little less than 6 or 7 months, the machine has paid for itself and it's all gravy from there.  We've got machines that have been in locations for 5 or 6 years earning money like that.

Take a game like "Tekken 4".. it came out and was about 5 thousand dollars new.  Put the thing in a bowling alley, it'll make 30 or 40 dollars a week.  That means you net 15 or 20 a week, 52 weeks a year that means that one game might make you a grand back in a year.  It's just bullshit and that's why there's no arcade games around any more.

Pinball machines are even worse.. but the problem with them is different.  Pinballs have hundreds of parts that all fail, so if something breaks, people lose interest in playing the game and getting ripped off.  The operators over the years have been so lazy that they left broke pinballs everywhere to piss people off, and now everybody is leery of playing them, so they don't make any money either.  Pins don't make any money, so ops pull them out of locations, now it's almost impossible to find a pinball machine you can play somewhere... used to be in the 70's and 80's, every bar had 5 or 6 of them.

Oh, we do still make some money on countertop touch-screen type games.  Jukeboxes still do well also.

nice read

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

Yea...I never really thought of it, but arcades and arcade games have seemed to disappear. I remember I used to see pinball machines everywhere. Now, I can't even remember the last time I saw one...

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I work as an Arcade operator and yes, they still make Arcade Games all around the world.  The market is much larger in Japan, it's still seen as a recreation over there.  The industry in America has totally changed, you can no longer attract people to a business with Arcade Games.  You can make SOME money off of them by having them in places people are already going, i.e. a bowling alley, or a movie theatre.  Also, merchandisers like Cranes and things make much, much, much more money than a traditional video game does.  As well, the brand new video games are incredibly expensive... it's nearly impossible to make your money back and turn a profit on one in the States anymore.  You mentioned House of the Dead 4 which is a very good game, but it still doesn't earn much money, and the conversion (just the board and the guns to put in a cabinet  you already have) is 3 or 4 thousand dollars.  The large, nice dedicated cabinet runs 12 grand or so... so if you were going to buy one, how many quarters would it take to pay it off?  Plus, the operator splits the profits in half with the owner of the establishment... so you'd have to make 24 thousand dollars on the one machine before it even broke even.  That's why you never see them in America, it's just not going to make any money.

The only two types of arcade games that will still perform well are driving games and shooting games, because generally you can't play these on your x-box, and would have to play the arcade version to get the arcade experience... but even like I showed above, its' very hard to make money on a shooting game like house of the dead 4 when the cabinet costs 12 grand.  A new driving game like "Need For Speed" or something costs 7 or 8 thousand dollars. 

What my company has had a lot of success doing is buying cranes and putting them in locations.  We can buy a brand new, really nice crane for 1600 bucks and you fill it with basketballs or plush animals or jewelery and make 100 bucks a week off of it.  In a little less than 6 or 7 months, the machine has paid for itself and it's all gravy from there.  We've got machines that have been in locations for 5 or 6 years earning money like that.

Take a game like "Tekken 4".. it came out and was about 5 thousand dollars new.  Put the thing in a bowling alley, it'll make 30 or 40 dollars a week.  That means you net 15 or 20 a week, 52 weeks a year that means that one game might make you a grand back in a year.  It's just bullshit and that's why there's no arcade games around any more.

Pinball machines are even worse.. but the problem with them is different.  Pinballs have hundreds of parts that all fail, so if something breaks, people lose interest in playing the game and getting ripped off.  The operators over the years have been so lazy that they left broke pinballs everywhere to piss people off, and now everybody is leery of playing them, so they don't make any money either.  Pins don't make any money, so ops pull them out of locations, now it's almost impossible to find a pinball machine you can play somewhere... used to be in the 70's and 80's, every bar had 5 or 6 of them.

Oh, we do still make some money on countertop touch-screen type games.  Jukeboxes still do well also.

Nice info there. How much do like second hand old arcade cabinets like the original Daytona USA cost, because usually you see more people playing on those (especially the multiplayer cabinets) than you do on the newer driving games.

[The Watcher]

i waste so much money playing arcade games its not even funny

[The "Untouchable" DJR]

i waste so much money playing arcade games its not even funny

All tha money I spent on Capcom'z Final Fight I coulda BOUGHT tha arcade machine...

[Trauma-san]

You can get used games on ebay for a hundred bucks and up, depends on the game.  Daytona is probably worth 8 or 9 hundred bucks.  Back in the early 80's, arcade games were about 3 grand new.  The price went up slightly, and by the early 90's when Daytona came out, most games were 4 thousand dollars.

Daytona was the first real deal driving game.. games like Hard Drivin' and stuff had been out, but nothing as complex and realistic as Daytona.  When Daytona was introduced, it dropped in at 12 thousand dollars for 1 machine.  Originally, operators were really reluctant to buy any because it was 3 times what everything else cost... but a few bought it, and it made a fucking fortune.  Daytona would make like a grand a week in almost any location you put it in... so then everybody bought them and there was a huge boom in the early 90's ushered in by Street Fighter II, Mortal Kombat, and Daytona... kind of the arcade's last hurrah. Everything was making big money, and even though Pins were dying, Steve Richie (the King of pinball) released "The Addams Family" which was the most successful pin ever.  By the late 90's, everything was dead because Playstations and Nintendo 64's and things could pretty much replicate the arcade experience at home for the first time.

[RXL]

What's an arcade operator? Do you work in an arcade or do you own one?

[Trauma-san]

Nobody hardly owns arcades anymore... but there are still people who operate arcade games in locations.  Even the arcades in the malls and things are closing down.  I work for a company that places machines in skating rinks, bowling centers, barbershops, department stores, bars, etc.  I sell and service the accounts, go by weekly or bi-monthly or whatever and collect the money, fix the machines, and look for new locations.