I miss the days when PCinemas wasn’t a a pile of dicks. Also when they had a functional para para machine and I was the only one that played it seriously 
To everyone who doesn’t check the Bama thread, we’ve got three tournaments in August, back to back to back.
One in Montgomery, next weekend (Aug. 13).
I’ve heard some ATLiens will be attending the Bama Monthly (Aug. 20).
We also have a tourney in Tuscaloosa (Aug. 27).
If anyone’s interested, I could get more info besides dates and cities.
I’ve also got a Player Data Spreadsheet going, if you guys like knowing WHO plays WHAT characters/team WHERE. Each sheet will be a different game, so you guys like information (and using it), PM me your info (or Message me on FB, I just asked to join the group) in the following format:
Player Handle - Character(Main),(Secondary) - Location
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Midtown Atlanta would be the best place to open your establishment seeing that there’s everything to do there (GA Dome, Phillips Arena, CNN Center, The Varsity, GA Tech, etc etc etc.) Also, since it has the bar aspect, like Battle and Brew, you’d have to make it at least 18+, which may or may not hurt your demographics.
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Game selection would be up to you, but if you got some SSFIV:AE cabs, you’d be in business. I don’t think there are any AE Cabs in the whole state of Georgia. You could also do like a Korean PC-bang setup (PC-Room) in which you have a few nice gaming pcs and charge by the hour. You could also have some consoles and TV’s setup the same way. (by the hour) There’s this place called Elite Zone which has nothing by consoles and LCD’s with gaming headsets, and a selection of high end pcs and they are ALWAYS packed. This along with the bar/food part would be your main source of income.
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Music… really in my opinion, it’d just be annoying with all the cabinets, pc’s, and consoles going on.
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Atlanta culture… most people are nice, but like everywhere else, people can tend to be assholes or just have no respect for you or your business. Don’t be afraid to stand up and kick someone out if you don’t like the way they’re acting. Expect some drunkenness and some fighting. It’s to be expected when you mix alcohol and competition.
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You’d do very well as long as it isn’t just a stand alone arcade. Like I said, the bar/food would bring in the most revenue, then the console/pc stations would be next. Advertising is KEY. If you don’t advertise, you might as well be saying “I don’t want to stay in business.”
I really hope you decide to follow through with this. I’d like to see a revival in the arcade scene as well.
1)You and I have similar ideas. You should take note on what Battle and Brew does. I don’t know the full of their business model, but they’ve been around for a few years so I guess they’re doing alright. I’d like to open up an arcade/video game lounge/hookah bar myself. Venue size is important. Pricing is also crucial to have as many people may be dissuaded by cost-of-venue vs. cost-at-home as far as video games go.
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Current titles are a must. From what I hear somethings are uber expensive like a Tekken Tag 2 cab is supposed to retail @ $16000… That’s just what I heard. I go to school @ UNC Charlotte and there’s an old arcade in a mall her that actually sells their cabs. I was tempted to invest in MVC2, Soul Calibur 2, and Gauntlet cabinets… And it would’ve run me less than 2000… Which is pretty fucking amazing… Also, diversity is useful. Sniper Scope is always a good game. Fighting games are a must, a custom cabinet with dozens of games could also replace the work of many as well. Man… Thinks about old SNK machines
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Here in Atlanta, well… Anything that’s been played on the radio in the past 3 months but feel free to spice things up with dubstep or (personal fave) any free album adult swim lets you digitally download.
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Kind folk all around Atlanta really. You’ll come across a hard nose or 2 but people hear are generally some of the nicest people you’ll come across
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Location… Is important. And location in Atlanta is difficult to choose. Considering Atlanta’s core and it’s hub suburbs, I’d say look at these areas to open up shop:
Midtown, Virginia Highlands, Marietta, Sandy Springs, NE Atlanta. Those are the denser spots in Atlanta and businesses in the area do better than most business outside the 285 perimeter. I’m a mass transit, subway loving whore so I’ve got a grievance against Atlanta’s sprawl. Notice that places with high density have arcades that still do well versus low density cities. NYC, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Philly. It’s a trend but Atlanta has a strong core from Marietta to Stone Mountain.
Battle and Brew does well. They also promote. Atlanta has a lot of universities around and students and younger folks will probably boast a lot of early clientele, specifically GTech, the AUC, GA State, hell, Emory. Something I’ve noticed about most new lounge-type spots opening up, invite friends to just sit around and populate the space. There’s nothing more unappealing than going into a night spot that’s uninhabited.
Well, that’s just my 2 cents on the subject. I’ve actually started some business plans for my own place and I’m not gonna lie… It’s expensive. Good luck to yours though and if you happen to get a Tekken Tag 2 cabinet, I will be your most loyal customer for LIFE.
do NOT get an AE cab. Anything that can run on a current gen console is a huge waste of money. Things that run on older consoles, ps2, dc, etc, are less of a waste to be honest. They’re also cheaper.
im in snellville right by you, what games do you play? i’m mostly on that AE but i will play anything… except smash bros 
also on the Arcade thing blowin the thread up, i dido what ben said. if i own the came on console id be less likely to go burn $ on.
games where there is less of a consol scene are what id wana see… also capcom fighting jam and jackie chan fists of fire
I have MvC3, BlazBlue CS, SSF4AE, Soul Calibur 4, Tekken 6, and some version of Virtua Fighter 5. I am rusty as hell at all of them cause I have been out of the scene for a long time.
Regarding arcades:
My opinion comes from having worked in a traditional arcade, planning the video gaming content for Anime Weekend Atlanta for the past 5 or so years, and from trying to make connections with arcades to promote both of our organizations.
- Right off the bat, it’s really, really hard to get people to want to go out for something they can get at home. Back in the day you had to go to arcades to play Champion Edition because Turbo hadn’t hit the SNES yet, and even then, getting a joystick for an SNES was a pain in the ass. These days, I don’t even necessarily want to play on an arcade setup. I have my stick, I can play on a console for the same experience.
So, what you do is you offer something you can’t get at home, which is A) lagless competition, and B) not having to clean up afterwards. That is the basic model of a place like Battle and Brew or even Dave and Buster’s. You can enhance the appeal of that by finding more things that players can’t get at home.
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Fighting games are good. That’s a given. When it comes to pure entertainment, Rock Band and other performance-based video games are also great. I personally really enjoy a high-end karaoke system, but maybe that’s just me. The way you pick what games you’ll have, it seems to me, should be based on how it is you intend to make your money. I’ll elaborate more on 5.
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Personally I hate pervasive music in whatever space I’m in, but whatever.
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Atlanta loves drinking and relatively cheap food. Brick Store Pub, Taqueria Del Sol, and a bunch of other places like that flourish because they have their niche in the cheap food + drinking spectrum. Brick Store Pub made its name by being the only place where you can go to have a meal and have something like 12 belgian trappist ales on tap, and Taqueria Del Sol is the place to go when you want to eat a boojee taco with a pitcher of margaritas over stainless steel countertops. Ru San’s serves crappy sushi, but it’s the most well-known sushi place in east atlanta because they make an atmosphere with the “Welcome to Moe’s!”-style greetings to customers, the sake bombs, and all that. If it was me, I’d aim for good, cheap food, a good variety of drinks (with some good ones on tap) and a friendly atmosphere.
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The types of games you use, and the format those games use depends on the way in which you intend to make money. If you plan to make money by selling food and drinks, the games are really just a cost of doing business. If you plan to make money by charging for time, the games are still just a cost of doing business. Pool halls do that. In this way, games are an enabler. Bowling alleys use multiple models, by letting you get charged for games played, or by letting you rent an alley for a set amount of time. The bowling itself is simply the means of holding your customers there.
The thing you use to hold customers is also going to be the thing that sells food and drinks. Karaoke bars operate on that exact method. In a karaoke bar, you can call for food or drinks to be delivered, or to extend your rental of the room. You generally charge per person instead of per room, so the charges go up very quickly. More people means they are also likely to order more food/drinks, and forget about the money because they’re just having a good time. The only additional cost to you in this situation is extra cleanup time. The karaoke machine takes exactly the same amount of use.
At some point you’re just going to have to choose where you really want to make money. I understand that you’ll be making money on both sides, getting money for playing the games and also for selling refreshments, but which angle you intend to push is important, as they will determine the kinds of games you should se up, and how to charge for them. I think that it will be helpful in modeling your business when you consider how similar the business is to pool halls, bowling alleys, and karaoke clubs. Each one makes money based on time spent using the entertainment alongside concession sales.
Unless you can determine a way to ensure that patrons continue to spend money as they spend more time using the entertainment (coin-op and D&B-style arcades do this), I think you’ll be force to charge by the hour. The difficulty in charging on a pay-per-play instead of pay-per-hour basis is that it doesn’t support console gaming. I’ll let you do the math on what it means to use arcade cabinets instead of consoles, which can do the same job, and usually better.
Oh, and as a side note on kinds of games- We have no serious Beatmania IIDX setups in the Atlanta area, as far as I know. I’d go to play that.
You all do realize the downtown atlanta area closes at about 6pm.
The Bar & Grill spots that are open til about 10 or 11pm are locations up peachtree and have been around for a decade or better.
The Bar aspect would be nice but renting locations in the city are extremely high and the main reason anything with a restaurant attached to it last less then 6 months.
Liquor licensing in the city is horrible as well.
Fighting games won’t make you money, take it from the guy who started tournaments in the city and attempted to buy out the virtual reality room in underground before it’s closure.
DDR
Cruising U.S.A. (Racing)
Shooters like Aliens v.s. Predators/TIme Crisis are the ways to go in regards to building the arcade.
Sit down poker missions and $1.00 games, Pool tables, Fooseball etc
The state of georgia in regards to the fighting game community will not/cannot make you any money it’s just the reality of the situation.
We are way to spread out all over the state, no one will/can consistently travel 2+ hours no matter how fine the atmosphere will be and the johnny come lately will become constants only if your food an liquor are cheap.
I’ve ran 8 kitchens in my life time and I’ve opened & managed 4.
Reasons why Mazzy’s Bar & Grill was a premiere Bar & Grill was because…well… I was there lol
No for real though, there highest dish was $9.99
$1.00 tall beer nights
Variety of T.V.'s
Fun loving people, Cheap, Great location etc-etc
I’m in Snellville too mannnn, we should hook it up sometime.
wizzle, what system do you guys use? is tekken welcome??
This guy knows. This kind of establishment is really about making lots and lots of revenue. You want to be running at capacity constantly, because games run themselves and cost the same amount to have around no matter how many people you’ve got there. The way to have more people is to have it be affordable. If I found a place where I could play laser tag for cheap, I would do that, but the shit is just too damn expensive and that’s why laser tag didn’t survive.
On top of that, playing games by yourself is boring. I will stick around and talk and play games for hours if I have people to talk to, but without other people there, I don’t give a shit about it. So you have to have low prices just to get people in the door so more people will be willing to go. It’s like a club. No one cares about a club that no one goes to.
Also, cheap beer is a marketing technique that works twice. Price it low enough that people get buzzed, because if you’re a little bit drunk your wallet gets looser.
live at Battle & Brew
Shout outs to everybody I met and caught up with at Battle and Brew, it was nice to see some old faces and see new ones.
I’ll definitely be swinging by there for marvel tournies with Mr. Peter Parker, that venue is sweet.
beeneeweeness sorry to not respond earlier but I was planning on going - I am probably going to bunk with some friends in philly though so that’s why I wasn’t in a hurry to hit you up since I wouldn’t be able to help with travel arrangements. I was also planning on flying.
edit: also, lol @ getting wins tonight. “you don’t even play this game!” It’s true.
"ben you need a homing button"
also true.
@signalnoise and Substantial,
if ya’ll want we can set up a time to get some games in, i’ll PM ya’ll lata and we can set it up.
Here are the results for last night’s SSF4 tournament:
1st: FR Firemage(Druseph)
2nd: CJ Truth Senior(Redd)
3rd: Joel Rosario
Hey guys. I live in Graniteville, SC now and I’m close enough to drive to Augusta easily. Wondering if there is anywhere to gather or play in that area. I play MvC3 and MK9.
@green mario: well working at my office/store front in downtown or the midtown area its got lots of places where you can set up a bar/games. its going to be expensive so be ready but the cabs, consoles and anything else that other places fail to up keep, I can repair and maintain for you at a honest respected price. I repair all electronics but focus on smartphones right now but came from an arcade machine background. if you have more questions let me know
p.s I am in the process of moving from my current location to either another in atlanta…maybe atlantic station…not sure yet though or moving closer to gwinnett place mall area fyi
gg’s everyone yesterday and it was hell of cool seeing everyone!
Top 8 footage from Thursday’s BnB
What’s up guys? My name’s Russ. I’ve been playing fighting games most of my life, and in-depth for about the past 6 years. And I’ve lived in GA all my life.
I mainly spend most of my time in the training room because my friends aren’t very good at FG’s, but I’ve recently started looking harder for the FGC in GA. I was at Battle n Brew this Thursday. I didn’t participate in the AE tourney, I was there to just meet some fighters. I sure did, and I had a sick time.
I spent most of my time playing MvC3 with a group of guys. I was mainly using a team of Wesker/Dorm/Doom with the occasional Joe/Wesker/Doom. One of the guys was a guy named “Eddie” who many were saying was the best player in GA. I don’t know how true that is, but he for sure had a sick Mags. I don’t even remember the rest of his team because I don’t think I got to see them, haha. If you recognize me, sorry I didn’t get anyone else’s name. But I’ll for sure be there again for the Marvel tourney at the end of the month.
I live in the Metro ATL area, and I’m looking to find even more fighters. I’m mainly wanting to play MvC3, but I also want to grind out some Guile in AE.
Also Substantial, were you that sick Spidey in the red and yellow outfit at Battle n Brew? I saw some of your play and it was awesome, and I heard some guys talking about your Spidey while I was outside.