Arcades for Restaurants and Hotels

Just about any hospitality business has a fewbusiness owners just pick this option, however,
coin-op machines lying around. These are notbecause it gets all the details out of their hair. The
gambling devices I'm talking about (which is adownside of using a service vendor for your
whole other story), but electronic gaming devices,games is, you're only getting about 20% of the
commonly known as video games. While theirprofits you could be getting!
inclusion isn't the main feature of your venue,Did you know that you can buy used arcade
you'll notice a few of them lurking in some cornermachines for as little as a mere $25? Auctions all
of nearly every kind of hospitality business.over the place move hundreds of machines per
Managing them is one of those jobs that is usuallyweek, and most of the competition for them is
done by the short-straw drawer. Nobody goeshobbyists. For that price, who cares about
around with the job title "arcade manager" so itmaintenance? Buy it, run it and let it gobble
falls to a side responsibility for the entertainmentquarters for you, then junk it and get another
coordinator, the purchaser, or maybe even theone. Of course, at the rock-bottom $25 price, the
custodians. If it falls to you, you have thegame will usually require some refurbishing and
opportunity to quietly build a little side enterpriserepair. If you have an engineer on staff, they
out of it, given that you know your games.might jump at the opportunity, as many people
Many people tend to trivialize the humble videowith an electronic knack like to work with arcade
game cabinet, but actually they are a quitemachines for the novelty of it. Machines in better
lucrative profit generator for the small floor space.condition can fetch a price into $1000, but by this
The "golden age" of video arcades - roughly 1980time we're talking about a four-player
to 1995 - saw the video game industry rise toenvironment machine like a sit-down racing
the number-two most profitable industry in thesimulator.
United States, second only to the movie industry.The simple stand-up 'upright' cabinet or table-top
Classic video games drew crowds and lines'cocktail' game takes up no more space than a
around the block, and spawned sequels andrefrigerator and can put that odd corner of your
spin-off movies, cartoons and comics, and wholeretail space which you never knew what to do
fiction genres. Arcade games made the fortuneswith to work for you making you money. The
of Atari, Sega, Nintendo, and many other techupright cabinet is the cheapest, with not much
companies that are still powerful today.more to it than a big wooden box, a circuit board,
One consideration is the noise, as well as othera screen, and controls. The cocktail models are
environment concerns. Games are noisy, andthe kind you still find in bars, with a table-oriented
while the manufacturer settings allow you tolayout, very easy for two players to share from
control the volume, a bank of arcade machines iseither side, and with a protective glass cover to
best kept in a separate room to themselves. Thisprevent the obvious hazard of a spilled drink
room should be clean, relatively dust-free, veryruining the machine.
dry, and on the cool side. The internals of videoArcade video games are experiencing a huge
game machines are just like what goes into yournostalgia run that is still mostly untapped. Anybody
computer, with motherboards and chip sets, andwho was a child during the golden age of arcades
they need to stay cool and dry. If the fans insidewill light up on seeing a really popular game from
the cabinet get clogged with dust and dirt, theyhis or her childhood. They are not (and in fact
can cease to function, and then cause a chip tonever were) just for kids. Video games are an
burn up. You would also want some supervision ofentertainment genre that spans all ages and
the area, which can be as simple as having thecultures, as they are innocent, family-friendly fun
security guard poke his nose in on them twice perthat young and old alike from all walks of life can
shift. Like all coin-op vending machines, arcadeenjoy.
games are frequently the target of vandalism andFurthermore, the really popular games from ages
theft.past have a great nostalgic draw. Twenty years
Another concern is the rise of personal laptopago, these games were a dime a dozen, but now
computers and cell phones. Indeed, why botherthey are so rare as to be sorely missed.
selling people games for a quarter per play whenIncreasingly, if the original game machine is simply
they have all the games they want for free onunavailable (there's hundreds in this category), the
their personal electronic devices? This fear isgame can be emulated. There is one project,
actually totally groundless; ask any video gameMAME, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator
enthusiast and they will tell you that even theproject, which is a Free Software project to
simplest game is more fun on an arcade cabinetmaintain a single computer-platform emulator
than it is on a phone or laptop. Portable devicescapable of playing game ROMs. This enables the
have drawbacks for gaming; they have smallrestoration of original games whose owners have
screens, tiny memory, low-quality sound, and thenow gone out of business. These require any
control interface ranges from fiddly to abysmal.computer and monitor built into a cabinet and
Most maintenance is left up to whoever yououtfitted with appropriate controls. The emulating
contracted with to rent the machines, similar tohobbyists have driven down the cost of supplying
the vending machine situation. If your businessarcade classic games down to nearly nothing, and
follows that policy, you will have a serviceensures that our history of electronic
contract, and be responsible for damage, theft,entertainment can be preserved for generations
vandalism, and all sorts of minor annoyances. Mostyet.