Really with a college near by if you can establish a good rep with the college students you wouldnt need the foot traffic. They would flock to the arcades on Fridays and Saturdays. The SF scene may even grow from the exposure. UT and the KNoxville school haave a rep for Zuma fun center in Knoxville and it is atleast 20 mins from campus and every Friday there are students throwing money in their arcade machines and keeps the place running. The DDR competitions are fun to watch.
I would glady go to campus and pass out flyers or something man.
Ah, you guys were at Rivergate in the past. I couldn’t really remember. And yeah, I would imagine the rent being ridiculous in Providence.
Did you guys ever look into Opry Mills when it first opened?
They have Dave and Buster’s there already… it would definitely bring a lot of business to GG, but I bet between that and the rent it would be pretty difficult to do.
I know what they had there, and I hate it. I was just wondering if they looked into it before Dave and Buster’s, or if DaB had “dibs.” lol
Just played a long set with MastaCJ (beastly east coast Marvel player), and it was pandemonium. Dude has the most ridiculous mixups. Hulk broke through and won a few though. Final score was 27-7, his favor.
I call em like I see em, you smell me?
GGs to Tripp and Osh Josh B’Gosh (Registered Trademark of Buford. Co. All Rights Reserved). Sorry Jason. I was signing off right as you invited me.
Re: KoF XIII - I’m boycotting that shit till they put my girl Vanessa back in. I mean I’ll fuck wit it because it looks cool, but I won’t REALLY be fuccen wit it. Vanessa is easily one of SNK’s sickest designs.
I keep praying that I’m going to get to use Iori, Ash, Vanessa again. God I love that team so much.
GGs to Chris, Josh, and Dreamtr.
Trippfan: I guarantee you those kids are not what makes that place money. Arcades don’t make money from regulars. They make money from foot traffic and we don’t have the demographics even with college kids to do it. Rivergate was a good idea because of all the gaming stuff in the surrounding area, but even with THAT they aren’t coming as much BECAUSE we are missing the mall traffic.
Look at it this way. DDR is what, 50 cents a pop and 3 songs max if you are good? That game if played ALL day would make $30 a day and you know people aren’t playing that game on the weekdays. If the game was played all day all the time (and I mean all day) you see about $200 a week from it. Considering DDR is not at its peak and you have to invest in a $25,000 new machine to make $300 a week off of it, the only way games are making money are intangibles.
Believe me, if arcades were viable, they WOULD be popping up everywhere. Because I am more of a collector, we can make money off my machines if they are free storage but make no mistake, I’m not in this for the money, but LOSING money is something Rivergate is going. Hickory Hollow doesn’t “lose” money because the games are part of my collection, but Rivergate isn’t even paying the bills at this point and that’s not good.
Astaroth: Rent at Opry Mills would be $4500-5000 a month, so that’s a no go. Also, I moved here from California, Opry Mills was already open when I arrived (2007). Tilt was still around but that was the last “mall” arcade left here besides Cyberstation. Bowling Green has an Aladdin’s Castle, but it’s just us now…
Oh, ggs to Trippfan too
Thats cool. I was just stating what i see. I honestly do not know two shits about running an arcade. I just know that Zuma has alot of traffic and they do well for themselves as of right now. I was just throwing out my theory. I understand what you said and i see what you mean.
Ya, I know they are making their money off everything else, not the arcade. That’s way too hard these days. It’s why our console game sales section carries the place…
Thats cool. Like is said i have no idea how this business runs. I just like the atmosphere of an arcade.
Yo MidTN nigras - have we thought enough ahead to weekly gathering this week? Day? Location?
Personally Saturday would work better for me as I MAY have plans Friday after work, but shit’s up in the air right now. I’m down for whatever though.
LOL!! Shame on you!! That poor customer is sitting and waiting DVRless. Get back to work! Hahaha! Surprisingly when we got home the wires are still on the ground but they are still hooked up to the pole and the cable and internet works fine. I don’t care how long it takes them to come now. 
On another note I LOVE my truck! It is one bad ass truck. :tup:
Just got l4d2 on steam, need people to play it with, lookin at you chris
Hit Eric up for that GRam. I can give you his number.
I think one of the big things that hurt Retro’s was its lack of focus. It felt like a place trying to do shit like birthday parties for kids, but all the machines were of games that kids wouldnt really go for. I went there ONCE but because of the lack of decent games I never went back. I mean, I love me some old games, but only for so long. In the long run it takes competition for me to keep coming back to a place, and Retro’s didnt have any kind of fighting games except the original SFII and I think Tekken 3.
I think if there were an arcade in the same place Retro’s was, that had some modern games (and that means fighting, rhythm, and obscure shit), that stayed open late, that had a decent size lan/console/wi-fi area, it would make a KILLING. Theres actually a couple restaurants in that strip now, where as before there wasnt really any so that would help it too.
Of course Im not asking you guys to move here since I know that’s really too far, but I just wanted to point out that Retro’s going out of business was more likely its own fault rather than just bad location or the fact that arcades dont do as well as they used to.
I think overall arcades would benefit from changing their business model to better accommodate the times we live in. That Insert Coin(s) place is a good example even though it seems like a kind of sell out to have to do something like that. Basically if you arent using foot traffic from the surrounding area, there has to be more of a reason to go there than to just play video games. You have to make people want to go there to either A. hang out/socialize or B. get drunk/eat food.
one place to play games, get drunk, meet people(hopefully women), eat food, party etc
call me a sell out