I dunno, I suppose my lineup would look something like this . . .
http://www.arcadeufo.com/arcade.php
Really interesting to see the ideas that came up! Our thought processes are similar, but here’s the real skinny–
Classic Games (Pac-man/Donkey Kong generation)
These make no money whatsoever. As has been discovered, the only viable way to survive on a “classic arcade” is to sell beer so that the oldies can drink it up and relive the good ole’ days. These people will talk about how much they will visit your arcade if you get X game, play it one or two times, then never come back. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this, as long as classic games aren’t your primary source of revenue.
Classic games unfortunately include any really fun beat-em-ups from the 90’s, like TMNT, X-Men, AvP. Also includes any Street Fighter games in the Alpha series or earlier (including ST) and any Mortal Kombat game. Nobody will play these in your arcade.
Successful examples:
Light-gun games
These are always a “win” because foot traffic to your arcade will know how to play. They require only surface level knowledge of the game, but a skilled player can progress quite far on one credit. ANY Time Crisis or House of the Dead will still do well as long as maintenance is done. Force Feedback is important. Everyone loves the “clack” sound when you fire a Time Crisis gun!
Driving games
Again, another “win” because everyone knows how to drive a car (and the kids that can’t wish they could). The hardcore titles such as Wangan Midnight and Initial D reward repeat players with car upgrades, and players can gradually improve scores.
Initial D4’s performance has been disappointing all over the scene compared to the new Wangan Midnight series, however (which is too bad, because Initial D ruled up to version 3). ID4 was so disappointing that Namco decided not to release an English version of ID5. Wangan Midnight is still going strong, and Maximum Tune 3DX Plus is getting an International release in March.
Music Games
DDR is of course still successful in American arcades although it is relatively dead in Asia. The US version of DDR X was predictably disappointing, and most arcades are still doing well with In the Groove 2, DDR Extreme, or DDR Supernova 2. Pump it Up also has strong audiences in some arcades.
Games like Pop’n Music and IIDX of course have some universal appeal. Pop’n does well in some locations, but IIDX has generally failed horribly in all regions besides California. I like IIDX a lot, and would probably get it anyway if there was only a little more space in my arcade.
Guitar Freaks/Drummania/Keyboardmania/ParaPara: Too expensive, niche, not worth it. Avoid.
DJ Max Technika is freakin’ awesome. The music is fantastic, the game has universal appeal, and it might be the first online-networked music game in the United States (not counting Konami’s $50/month E-Amuse which I think 2 machines in the whole country use). Definitely worth it.
Guitar Hero Arcade looks lame, but it does seem to get play at the arcades that have purchased.
Puzzle Games
This is one of the most important and often overlooked genres.
Tetris: the Grandmaster is a must-have. The game is fun as hell, the versus matches are hilarious, and it’s a great game to play with the significant other or on a date. It has the hardcore elements yet is simple enough that anyone can play.
Puzzle Fighter, as has been mentioned, also does quite well. It’s cute, simple to play, and everyone remembers it. It’s also a fun go-to game when the hardcore players are feeling casual. Recommended.
Puyo-Puyo is another game that is said to get play. We’re getting Puyo Puyo Fever soon so we’ll see how that goes.
Magical Drop 3 is fantastic and has a permanent home in my Neo cab.
Gundam
We are the only arcade in the United States that imported a full Gundam Destiny: Rengou vs Zaft 2 setup (afaik), and the scene for it developed very quickly. The insanely priced Gundam vs Gundam N.E.X.T. was way out of our price range, but Stride Gum helped make that plausable.
This game does absolutely have universal appeal, and any mech lovers will quickly see the merits of this series. Rengou vs Zaft 2 is still a great game and very reasonably priced, so I’d recommend that as a “test the waters” title to see if something like N.E.X.T. would be a reasonable investment.
Fighters
MVC2 is one of the worse performers, so we often rotate it out. Tatsunoko vs Capcom consistently gets more play than MVC2. I think part of the reason is because my city never had a strong MVC2 arcade community, even when the game was new.
Tekken 6 still does OK, but has fallen off a bit since the console release. Still recommended.
Street Fighter 4 is still popular, and (for us) actually paid off eventually despite the ridiculous initial investment. The Super SF4 news, if true, is really going to stink. Obviously, we’re still really hoping for an arcade version.
3rd Strike is still popular. Never getting rid of this game.
Blazblue was a good purchase considering the price they charged was reasonable compared to Tekken and SF4. We’ve got a good scene for it, and Continuum Shift revived interest for a lot of people as we all know Calamity Trigger has pretty blatant balance issues.
Neo Geo
Though technically not Neo-Geo, we had Metal Slug 6 in a standalone cabinet for a while and it always got some play, just not a ton.
On our dedicated Neo cab, we always keep Twinkle Star Sprites and Magical Drop 3 along with a couple of random titles. Garou, KOF98, KOF2K2, Blazing Star, Karnov’s Revenge, Waku Waku 7, basically all your old favorites get rotated out now and then and just changing the titles seems to keep it popular enough.
It’s not a requirement, but with a good rotation, a Neo can work.
Shmups
It’s almost as if this genre is designed to not make money. Think about it–a skilled player is going to last at least 15 mins on a single play, which is 3 or 4 times longer than the average on other titles. You really have to hope that your titles will appeal to the casual crowd so that it survives. Shmups are among the lowest earning titles for us, but I keep them out of personal interest and we try to purchase at least one new (used) title per year.
Quick Summary if you didn’t read all of this
SF4/BB/Tekken/3rd Strike/Puzzle/Light gun/Racing - Good
Classics/Mortal Kombat/Super Turbo/90’s beat em ups & fighters - Very unpopular
I do give several titles that I personally enjoy floor time even if they don’t make money; they just don’t stay there forever.