no side scrollers?
i always though turtles in time, simpsons, sunset riders, xmen, etc made good money?
Where’s Blades of [media=youtube]J-f3R8YJq4o"[/media]?
And
Hit the [media=youtube]JQWA88Y11X4&feature=related"[/media]?
I’m not too sure, since the arcade that I use to go that has the game isn’t doing so well, business wise, I think. That place has the Simpsons game, and I don’t remember it getting much play outside of some children playing it, during the day.
Yes, these games made great money when they were released in 1991-1992. Turns out that was nearly 20 years ago.
I would Have the 2 Mvc2 machines running, A 3rd strike cabinet and probably run alot of SF4. Monetizing off of SF4 console either charge via 5 bucks a head/wristband or Make it Free with a Donation box. Seeing as how your going to run your arcade like a business we’d have to start low first… get players to come then you’ll see some scrilla.
Good to see another arcade operator popping his head in and sharing insight.
A lot of these dream arcade ideas seem nice at first, but really won’t do much to generate business unless you already have the customers to do it. Most of the casuals wouldn’t come to an arcade if it was stuffed with niche genre games that only a few faithful would play. I attempted to get an arcade like this funded, but in the end, it was the boring old money makers that I ended up getting and are still making great earnings. I realize this is a totally hypothetical topic, but its worth shining some light on the subject if somebody actually wants to start an arcade.
So, I’ll split this up into two sections: games that make mad money, and games that would be a dream.
Money Makers
Skee-Ball: Nothing says “I’m an arcade, come play!” like skee-ball machines. I know a lot of you guys probably would want to stay away from redemption, but skee-ball and its earnings might make you want to change your mind. There are multiple companies that make different models of machines, such as ICE (who make Ice Ball) and Skee-Ball Inc (who make Skee-Ball X-Treme, Alley Hoops, Skat Cats, Skee-Ball Classic, etc). Traditional games are make more money than the target based games because they’re harder, and people want the challenge.
Stacker (or Giant Stacker): Self-redemption games are huge. They make money so easily, all you have to do is keep up and buy prizes for the damn thing. Stacker, Light House, and the giant versions of each are almost a staple of a successful arcade now a days.
Dance Dance Revolution: In the States and some parts of Asia, DDR is the king of the dance games. In Mexico, South America, and Korea, its Pump it Up. Both games offer high earnings and are pretty much guaranteed to be a showcase game of any arcade. The only caveat of having one of these machines with high traffic is frequent maintenance. I know on my machine, I have to do maintenance on the pads at least once a week.
Dragon Punch (or another similar punching game): My arcade got one of these machines not too long ago and its been getting played like crazy. It isn’t even set up for tickets! This is the perfect machine for the guy who wants to show off to his friends or his girlfriend when they’re out. It pretty much screams machismo.
Air Hockey: Do I really need to explain myself for this one?
ANY recent racing or shooting game: A mentor of mine once said to me “People only want to do three things when they come to an arcade. They want to drive cars, they want to shoot things, and they want to play with balls.” I covered skee-ball up there, this just covers the last two. 
Pinball: Pinball has a fanatical following. If you have tables, the players will come. Especially if you have good tables, then the players will tell other players and your pinball scene will get huge. Trust me…
Dream games (that probably will earn)
beatmania IIDX: My arcade has one of these things. The machine may only see a few hardcore players a week, but they pump money into it like its the only game in the arcade. Also, the cabinet is gorgeous and virtually maintenance free. The only issue with the machine is that the cabinet itself and the parts are extremely expensive. The special Sanwa buttons run an upwards of $20 a piece with the LED light fixture attached, which is expensive when the game has 14 buttons.
Tekken 6: BR: Tekken has always been an arcade favorite with casuals. They hit buttons and things actually happen! I would have said any recent fighter, because of HD graphics and gorgeous cabinets, but Tekken is an established name with a rabid fanbase that is much more accessible to beginners than BlazBlue or Street Fighter IV (at least on the surface.)
Derby Owners Club: My arcade does not have one of these things simply due to size restrictions, but I would have one in a heartbeat if I could. People go crazy for this game and I have no idea why. I’ve seen fans bring note pads and take down notes on the horses they see. They spend time organizing their small binders of cards and choose which one to race according to the other players. I just don’t get why it makes so much money, but it does.
Cycraft: I got to play on one of these games in Arizona. Holy crap, this is the most fun I’ve ever had with a racing game in my entire life. You could get away with charging $3 a game and people would still line up. The only issue is that I’ve heard its a nightmare to keep these things working. You also need a large amount of space, as they can swing around quite a lot during games of Inital D.
Dream Games (that probably won’t earn) (no explanations here)
- Sunsetriders
- Project Justice
- Tokyo Wars
- Pop 'N Music
- Crisis Zone (heck, the entire crisis series)
- Magical Sword
- Vampire Savior
- Spider-Man (4 players, Sega)
- Any and all of the Thunder games (Arctic, Hydro, Offroad)
- SF Rush 2049
- NFL Blitz and NBA Showtime
- NBA Jam: Tournament Edition
- Shmups (yes, sorry, they don’t really make money unless you have the fanbase)
This is all just from personal experience. There are plenty of other games I would add to the list somewhere if I had more experience around them (like Giant Tetris, which will be huge in both size and earnings.)
First, the usual suspects.
Street Fighter IV
Marvel Vs. Capcom 2
Street Fighter III: Third Strike
Super Street Fighter II: Turbo HD Remix
Guilty Gear Accent Core
BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger
Tekken 6
Soul Calibur IV
A few harder-to-find cabinets that would include
Project Justice
Gouro: Mark of the Wolves
Vampire: Night Warriors
Samurai Showdown
And just about every other Neo Geo game our there.
And just for the hell of it I’d throw in some machines that stored a bunch of old classics that would include…
Tower of Druaga
Donkey Kong
Pacman
Robotron
Paperboy
Super Mario Bros.
Mario Bros.
And then I’d have a bunch of shmups. Most notably Ikuruga.
A cab for Final Fight would be cool.
I’d like to own a pizza shop next to it.
Gotta have that fresh pizza smell in the air!
1 of the latest DDR machines
1 Raiden 2 cab
2 Cabinets for:
Marvel
Challenge Cabs for:
3rd Strike
Super Turbo
CvS2
Darkstalkers 2
SF Alpha 2
1 Cab for:
SSF4 with bat and ball tops!
Arcana Heart 3
Blazblue 2
Kof 13 (i’m ignoring 12, and thinking about the future!)
Meltyblood
Rumblefish 2!!!
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
4 Fast & the Furious cabs.
casual people stay on those shits all day.
I would not get SF4 unless it was free.
Fuck paying $10k for that bullshit.
SSF4 better not have hidden characters. That shit aint cool.
Imagine you see an advertisement for a new bar in town. The ad says “$5 cover, all-you-can-drink booze every night! donations accepted”. You go there, get intoxicated and have a great time with your buddies. Would you donate anything, not counting tips to your bartender?
After a month (there’s a huge crowd by this point), the bar starts charging $4 or $5 per drink like a normal bar to make up for the huge sinkhole of debt they created. Do you think most of the “crowd they’ve established” will still go to that bar?
You can’t create a premise of rock-bottom pricing and then raise the prices to normal after you’ve established a crowd; that’s a recipe for mutiny. The way you start low is by advertising, hosting events, and/or offering special pricing during non-peak hours.
The above scenario is unfortunately why two of the US’s greatest arcades failed.
So basically you want to make gobs of money off the most popular game in American arcades without paying the company a dime for a license to earn said money. Awesome dood! Did you pirate SF4 for your X-Box too?