Severe lack of arcades

[rsoko1]

Hey everyone. My friend and I are trying to get an arcade opened up in our town, Tulsa, Oklahoma. There aren't any here. And the ones that used to be here all kind of sucked. We've already put in over $15,000.00 towards this goal. And we've made a website to show people our idea and to give them a safe and easy way to donate towards our startup goal. We'd love to hear your input. What games would you put in your dream arcade? What you leave out? And most importantly, what would it take to get you to travel to Tulsa Oklahoma to come and play there? Here's the site url: www.level1tulsa.com Thanks everybody!

[ILLiterate]

That is awesome

A lot of your money should come from the DDR/Stepmania/ITG kids, as well as a compeditive 2D fighting scene. For casual people, Tekken is a money maker, as are Gun Con games

MvC2 is probably the most popular 2D fighter, I'd say start with that and build to CvS2 and 3s. If you can/want to you can go for Arcana Hearts, Melty Blood and Guilty Gear XX AC

Good luck

[rsoko1]

Funny you should mention MvC2. That was actually one of the first fighters we acquired. There's a whole blog entry about how we restored it. I think it looks great. And we've already got a Capcom vs SNK2, a whole slew of Neo-Geo fighters and we recently got our hands on Melty Blood. I love that game.

[Ralphis]

If you want to pull in more than typical internet japanese wannabes I would, personally, re-evaluate anime movie night. If you want to pull in revenue you're going to probably need a wider range of customers and most teenagers find anime "gay".

This is purely a business opinion of course and you'll see fit to operate your establishment however you'd like.

Also, light gun games are always good times.

[Azul v2]

The reason you don't see them anymore is because you can't make any money off of them. Not only that but with the rise of 3D graphics in consoles and computers most kids would rather stay at home and play their halo's and whatnot. $15,000 gets you what, 11 arcade games? Plus you figure in rent and electricity, and, well, you are doomed, unless you are a millionaire opening up arcades for fun.

Pretty much the only way to balance it out so you aren't taking losses every month is to add in about 10 pool tables and offer alcoholic beverages or a bar.

[Airwalker]

Yeah, you basically need a side business to stay afloat, like pizza-parties with mascots for kids. But I bet that's not the demographic you're aiming at--what were you thinking, 14-21 year olds?

You'd probably need to find a new scheme. I've only seen pizza-party places for sub-12 year olds, and a combination of a bar/arcade for over 21.

I think your idea is great--there's always a need for a places to hang out for people. Your main concern should be making a solid business model. It should be more than just a place you would hang out--it should be a place everybody would hang out. And more importantly, rake in the dollars.

[kamoh]

What you might want to consider is monthly memberships, along with a side business. People are also more likely to feel belonging in a place that seems homey and comfortable, so yeah, a couch or something might not be a terrible idea.

It's completely possible that you could have Xbox, PS3, and Wii stuff going as well, because even though you want to open a real arcade, you've got to understand that console games are the new reality. It's tough, but that's all I'm saying - just want you to think a little.

[Bigfoot]

If you can find a dedicated In The Groove 2 cabinet(not an upgrade kit), then get that. Otherwise get at least a DDR Extreme machine.

[supremespleen]

Best of luck to ya'

[Hyperion5182]

Latest version of soul calibur is a good idea. Initial D's latest version as well. Arcades all over the country are just vanishing. Its sad. There are arcade games that will never see consoles that just OWN

[Bigfoot]

Get one of those cabinets that has like pacman/galaga/etc all in one too.

[Brushfire]

If you happen to come across about $60000 in the near future, I recommend Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield.

[KyleJCrb]

You can't go wrong with some Daytona.

[Brushfire]

OOooo OOoooo OOOooooooo!!!!

After Burner Climax!!!!

[Final Guard]

All I would like to say is: F-ZERO AX.

[Brushfire]

As fun as F-Zero is, its no Mario Kart. I never saw Cap'n Falcoln throw a red shell at 2500 km/h before.

[Dhsu]

If you can/want to you can go for Arcana Hearts, Melty Blood and Guilty Gear XX AC

Except shipping + importing costs would be insane.

Then again, you could be like those bootleg places in Taiwan that just hook up regular PS2s and PCs to arcade cabinets and load them up with dozens of fighters. They'll never be able to tell the difference.

That said, it would've been cool if you had done this while I was still in college...I'd definitely drive 30-45 minutes for a decent arcade. More if it was turned into a meetup. In particular I would've liked to see a Drummania/Keyboardmania/Beatmania multi-session setup, as well as Para Para and Taiko Drum Master. Maybe Pop 'n' Music as well. But I think that for money-makers, DDR/ITG and gun games are gonna be your best bet.

[Arek the Absolute]

Funny you should mention MvC2. That was actually one of the first fighters we acquired. There's a whole blog entry about how we restored it. I think it looks great. And we've already got a Capcom vs SNK2, a whole slew of Neo-Geo fighters and we recently got our hands on Melty Blood. I love that game.

daz sum quality gamez u got there

No, seriously. I loves me some SNK.

[DJ Mighty]

i agree with bringing in 360 and Wii. But its more then just bringing that in. You have to make people want to play it there other than at home. So you would have to invest in a huge screen, throw some couches and nice chairs around it. Also, in my opinion, HALO 3 Tournaments. With the game being so biig you would be insane not to hold those. Working out prizes is easy but that should help bring people in. You can do that for many games, Mario Party, DDR, MVC2, etc. Throw a reasonable fee in there and that should help make some $$. I think you can do well doing that.The furniture and TVs would be costly but i think its a good investment. Of course figuring out WoW tourns would be good but that might be hard to pull off.

[Alpine Flame]

Get a few of these. More bang for your buck.

http://www.dreamauthentics.com/index.html

Also, Get a few Wii and Xbox 360 consoles with large Tvs.

Monthly Membership is good. Also, If you have wireless, thats good stuff.

You can run a starbucks type thing, last time I checked; that was good to do for all age groups. Also, you can have a projector on a large wall for movies.

That would be awesomeness.

[Penfold]

Hey everyone. My friend and I are trying to get an arcade opened up in our town, Tulsa, Oklahoma. There aren't any here. And the ones that used to be here all kind of sucked. We've already put in over $15,000.00 towards this goal. And we've made a website to show people our idea and to give them a safe and easy way to donate towards our startup goal. We'd love to hear your input. What games would you put in your dream arcade? What you leave out? And most importantly, what would it take to get you to travel to Tulsa Oklahoma to come and play there? Here's the site url: www.level1tulsa.com Thanks everybody!

I gotta say, I'm a little confused. You put $15,000 in already (I would say prematurely, no offense), and then it sounds like you aren't trying to secure investment through conventional means (or at least you haven't mentioned it). From the language used on the site, I'm not even sure if you have a business plan written out yet (depsite one of you having a business degree), so I'm getting the impression from this that you went into this venture half-cocked. You clearly have a vision for you business, and that's absolutely essential if you're going to get this off the ground, but now you need to take that and translate it to a formal business plan so you can secure real investment (since you simply won't raise the kind of funds you'll need through paypal donations). A good read I can recommend to get at least some ideas for the marketing side of things is Guerilla Marketing. You may also consider doing some revisions to your website in the event potential investors go there to find out more about you (even if you just add a "For Investors" tab on the site). While I'd say adding signficant information related to your business plan would be a very good idea, revising the language of what you already have to convey a "We know what we're talking about" sense would be smart. If a potential investor stumbles across your site as it is now, they will probably have a similar feeling to my initial reaction (which is bad; if you can't prove yourself to have a handle on what you're getting into, you won't get solid investment). So, again, if you don't have one yet, write out a formal business plan since that is vital. If you have one already, show potential investors what you have, and utilize your site to do so as well. Best of luck!

[Fritz the Cat]

I don't know if it would be worth it. The arcade is effectively dead.

[Dhsu]

Haha, I just found out I knew these guys in college.

So yeah, that's pretty cool. Best of luck, you two.

[whatfruit]

I know these are rarer then chocloate milk Frappes but

Dungeons and Dragons and the Tower of Doom with four player support is fucking Legendary. an arcade near me used to have this at 20p a credit me and my mates used to fucking rinse cash in that game.

Did anyone ever play mad Dog. the old western game were you played through a story with live action people.

Are you trying to like a Kwarks. These are gaming cafes in England that are a small chain I woukld recmoned looking them up. They serve alcholic beveages and food. Oragnise lan parties, tournaments , and are generally good places to hang out.

heres a lonk if your intrested

http://www.quarks.co.uk/

the one in guildford is the one i use it has a hole upstairs bit you cant see in the picture where they host clan matches and teams. I used to be part of their crimson skies clan on the old Xbox.

[Ultranoir]

Dungeons and Dragons and the Tower of Doom with four player support is fucking Legendary. an arcade near me used to have this at 20p a credit me and my mates used to fucking rinse cash in that game.

I've only ever played that game on an arcade emulator, but it's amazing. Did you know that they made a sequel, called D&D: Shadows Over Mystara? It's actually ten times better than ToD, which is impressive in it's own right. They added more characters and equipment and stuff.

I agree in every respect to Penfold's post In addition, renting out the space to parties and junk would be one of the better things you can do, especially for a business like that. Have some kid-oriented games and whatnot lined up.

Also, someone mentioned the anime and advertising thing? They're completely right. Don't isolate a group. Lord knows I got turned off because of the presence of Inuyasha on the main page, and like the previous poster who addressed this said, some teenagers hate anime in general with a passion. You want to appeal to today's generation, and the entire generation. Sure the anime nights are a good idea, but keeping them low-key is better, alongside word-of-mouth. Advertising the place as urban or futuristic has always worked for a lot of products and places, and here it wouldn't do too bad. Penfold mentioned guerrilla marketing - what better way to market to an urban area than getting an artist to spray-paint your logo? I'll let you mess with the legal stuff, I've no idea on much of guerrilla marketing stuff.

Good luck with it. Take every idea into account, and think of the outcomes and possibilities. As a fellow entrepreneur (I plan on opening a hobby store when I get out of school), I wish you well!