If I were in your shoes, I'd open an arcade somewhere easily accessible by both 405 and I-5 - Lynnwood or thereabouts. If you make it "fair" for both freeways, more people are liable to come play. Funtasia is near there, though, and regardless of whatever state of disrepair the machines might be in, it's still competition.

Personally, I'd love to play Taiko, and would pay to play IIDX occasionally as well, but, as someone who's seen lots of arcades come and go, I have to be realistic and say that with the exception of dance games, there's really not much money to be made in Bemani. If you're planning on starting something, you need to go in with the full knowledge that it may well fail, especially in this economy and if you're talking about a less populated part of the Seattle area as a location. Console gaming has made arcades much less popular and without proper other sources of funding (bar, restaurant, bowling alley) attached, an arcade is a risky endeavor.

If you're interested in talking some more, I've done a lot of thinking about such things and would be happy to share some ideas over aim or something - the screen name is HoneyPunched.

I am many, MANY years off from having enough finances to put something like this together. I'm just an arcade aficionado with some crazy dreams of someday running my own arcade.

As something fun for my brain to chew on, I wanted to ask this community (because this is one of the few forums I frequent) what they'd like out of an arcade in this area. Basically I'd like to know what games people would be willing to go to arcade to pay and play.

The only "arcade" we have up here is Fantasia, and it's crap. In fact, I just went there yesterday and I was appalled at the condition of every game I played. I didn't play a single game without something not working right. And the prices weren't exactly cheap either. Their DDR Extreme costs a buck for 3 songs and it is the worst machine I've ever played on that was actually turned on.

Get lots of ticket redemption games. That will keep your arcade in business. If you have enough redemption games you can probably make up for lost money caused by rhythm games.  Do you have a business plan or any sort of formal plan for this? or is this a little too early to wonder about that. The fact that this would be north of Seattle alienates a ton of potential players. Good luck if you're actually going to do this, I'd really like to see a player-owned arcade succeed.

Finances aren't necessarily as much of an issue as you'd think - if you have a solid business plan, investors may be willing to participate. The last thing you want to do is spend your own personal money on an arcade-type business venture. If the business end fails you don't want to damage your own personal savings. I've worked for "sinking ship" companies before; it's not pretty when you get your own personal money involved and then things go south.

I didn't mean to be presumptuous - it's just that I, too, would love to see a player run arcade succeed. I would agree that putting an arcade north of Seattle does alienate a certain contingent of players, but those guys would go to ACME anyway, and you may be able to get an entirely new group of players, namely those from Snohomish county. Everett is a huge city, not to mention how many "japanophile" type kids I used to see hanging around Alderwood when I lived up there... those guys would play anything with kanji/kana written on it. Basically what I'm saying is, if you're going to do this, don't concern yourselves with the needs of Tacoma players, think about the people right around you.

That's why I posted this here. I was hoping to hear what some people might like to see game-wise in this area. I know Acme owns the South Seattle area, but the north is seriously lacking an arcade with any kind of quality-control.

Thanks for the additional advice regarding finances. I'll see where my life takes me in the next few years. It's always something I've wanted to do. Any advice on how or where to look for investors for something like an arcade?

Although there ARE companies that specifically fund start-ups, arcades aren't really their cup of tea, so what you're probably going to want to do is write up a business plan and look for private money. The good thing about the Seattle area is that, with Microsoft and Amazon headquartered here, and a fairly large Google branch as well, plus numerous smaller companies, there are a lot of nerdy people with money around. Unfortunately, as I've never started a business, I don't have any particularly helpful SPECIFIC suggestions, but what I would say is there are tons of books on writing a business plan and if you do this and have it ready, you can keep it on you in case a situation arises where someone might like to see it.

One thing I will say: You might want to spring for the business license BEFORE taking any investor money. Basically, if you have to file for bankruptcy, what WILL happen is you're going to have to sell all of your games. What you can AVOID is going into personal debt. And definitely wait until you're in a place in life where you can survive on little to no income - do NOT expect something like this to be super profitable, at least right away.

I would recommend you grab a cup of coffee with Bill Masterman and get his input in a one-on-one setting.

I'm still years out from even beginning any kind of venture like this. I mostly made this thread for fun. I know what games I love to see at an arcade, but I'm an old school gamer at heart and mu opinions are not universal. I was wanting to know what kinds of things other people would love to see at an arcade, and what they feel they'd be willing to PAY to play at an arcade.

I can say that I'd love to have a Street Fighter IV cab that I could play, but I doubt I'd drop more than a few bucks in it a month at best. The duality between what players WANT and what they're willing to PAY for interests me greatly.

I've actually found the games I'm most willing to pay to play are silly things like Bust A Move and Tetris, where you could easily play them at home, but they're here now, inexpensive, and look like fun. It depends on the age group targeted, too. An arcade with retro games capitalizes on nostalgia which gets older players' attention - and older players generally have more stable jobs and therefore more money than a sixteen year old who lives with their mom.

Suko, whether you were doing it tomorrow or years out from now, I just respect Bill greatly and think he could help give you a good perspective.  In fact, I myself would love to have coffee with Bill one-on-one.

Myself, I live in Kent currently so an arcade in North Seattle would not appeal to me as long as Acme and Narrows are continually given the Masterman love.  However if it became a "hangout" for the Bemani crowd and that Bemani crowd liked to session on Drummania/Guitarfreaks then I would probably make the trip.

I would PAY for the latest mixes of Drummania and Guitarfreaks, both in funding for the machines themselves, and also for the mileage to where they may be, and also to probably put $10 or more in them several times a week.  I also have a few session friends who would love to carpool with me and contribute normal doses of monies themselves.

Other than that, I could really care less what an arcade has, myself.  DDR is ho-hum, Beatmania is neat to watch but I have little interest in playing it.

I do touch the PopN once in a while though.

I would also that you should place the arcade in an area next to some sort of fast food/cheap food place.  A place that would get visitor traffic that isn't just from people in the arcade community.  With stuff like DDR and such, it would be wise to place the games like that in the front as well.  I hate going to arcades where DDR is in the back, I actually like drawing crowds and such.

It would also be wise to hold regular tournaments to keep locals interested.

As for games, just make sure to have a good mix of old and new.  I would suggest having the multi-game boards like you've mentioned to just have more of a selection.  I also think it would be cool to have some japanese style candy cabinets for a few of the games, since other arcades, unless you go upto Canada, around here just have American style cabinets.

As for BEMANI games, I'd just shopping around once you decide to do this.  I'm sure in a few years, some of the games/hardware will be a lot cheaper.

I've heard about arcades in Olympia here too, that you have to pay a fee for each redemption game in the arcade, so space means a lot.  I think in Olympia its about 40-80 bucks a game, don't quote me on that though.  You should probably talk to another arcade owner in the area about taxes/business fees before you even start this venture.

Having titles that people would recognize and WANT to play would be your primary concern as far as games go.  I'm going to post a list of games that I would pay to play at an arcade and the price per game I'd be willing to pay for them after traveling 250ish miles.  These figures would assume that I have at least $50 a month in discretionary income (which, at this time, I do not), and that I'd be visiting every 3 to 6 weeks with friends via carpool.

DDR Extreme - $.50/3 songs or $.75/3 songs w/ double premium
DDR Max, Max2, 5th Mix, 4th Mix - $1.00/3 songs if in good condition
DDR SuperNOVA, SN2 - $.50/4 songs
ITG2 r21 - $1.00/3 songs, pref. w/ double premium
DanceManiax (any version) - $.50/game, assuming Marathon Mode is available and set to at least 10 songs.
Keyboardmania - $.25/game
Panic Park - $1.00/game, $.50 rematch
Bubble Bobble - $1.00/game (you probably wouldn't make much money at this price; I'd be willing to pay this much because I'd get 35-70 minutes of gameplay per dollar)
Joust - $.25/game, 3-5 lives, extra life per 14,000 or 15,000

Non-video games I'd be interested in:
Air Hockey - $1.00/game (50 cents each)
Billiards - $2.00/hour
PACHINKO - I WOULD PLAY THE F*** OUT OF THIS, EVEN IF IT MEANS I HAVE TO WALK HOME.


There are other games I would play occasionally, but those are the ones that would actually draw me there.  If the ITG2 and DMX are maintained flawlessly, that alone would be enough to draw me.  Again though, this would be assuming I have some discretionary income to throw around.  Also, I'd likely just go to Acme unless there was some additional pull, since it's quite a bit closer.

I've seen successful arcades attached to three types of businesses:
-bars
-bowling alleys
-movie theatres

I'd really like to see a successful, player-owned-and-run, well-kept arcade attached to a sandwich deli and/or cafe sort of establishment.  Being able to eat a nice healthy, filling veggie sub between games would be a huge draw for me--had I not spent $20 on Subway at Sakuracon on top of $56 on transportation, I would have definitely considered the whole trip to be worth my time and money, even considering my current financial status.

if you want money then get guitar hero arcade

I don't see a lot of long-term potential in the Guitar Hero series.  It's already losing popularity rapidly.

No kidding. They did the 2005-2009 DDR thing and released too many games too quickly. If you want to keep a series alive, you can't spam it. You have to push a great title out enough to keep the fans interested, but give them enough time to thoroughly enjoy each game for all it has to offer.

Back on topic: Do any of you play fighting games? I so, what are some of the staple fighting games you'd like to see at an arcade?

GH has the biggest music gaming fan base. Releasing many different games caters to different facets of that diverse crowd.  Even though it wasn't a great game, Aerosmith was a step in the right direction. That's exactly how to milk a fanbase in as many ways as possible. It's not like an Aerosmith fan would actually be adverse to buying the game if they were already into GH. The funny thing is, even though This wasn't the most popular game, Aerosmith made more money of GHA then any single one of their albums. Does that coincide with your trend of too GH losing popularity?

Can you give me empirical evidence to support GH's declince? I am aware that WT's DLC is doing worse than the other releases in terms of downloaded songs, but I really don't see this supporting the overall decline of the game when there are still millions upon millions of copies sold of the actual game.

I had something to say to this (including data to back it up) but I'm not going to take this thread down that path.

So, any other suggestions from some gamers out there? I figured you bemaniacs played more than just DDR all day!?

Its not really just Guitar Hero that is on a decline, its the whole music game genre...

http://weblogs.variety.com/the_cut_scene/2009/05/music-games-off-36-this-year-ea-expects-rock-band-revenue-down-400-million.html

I blame it on oversaturating the market.  I'm sure next year we'll just see more staple music games and not a jillion guitar related or band related games.

As far as fighters go, the only one I'd consider putting any more than a dollar or two in would be Yi Ar Kung Fu, and that would just be until I manage to max out the score.  Other than that, the only other fighting game I've found myself enjoying enough to pay money for was the Soul Calibur series.  They have that at Ground Kontrol and at Tilt! though and I've never played it at either; I just play the console versions.  I don't know what's popular at arcades, but I'd recommend getting a few consoles and a few ASC's and just running tournaments with those.  Fighter Tournaments would probably be your best source of income, since they'd bring lots of people into the arcade, and you can probably get away with charging 20-30 per cent of the pot for the space and systems.  I've never been to a big one (I usually book it when the big fighter tourneys start up at cons...it gets too crowded for me), and I've never run one, so I don't really know anything about them.  If it's something you want to look into further, BBH and Iori would probably be good resources on the subject; I think Schlagwerk too but I'm not sure if he goes to tournaments.

I always attributed it to the 1998-2002 (1st Mix - 5th Mix) where there were multiple DDR versions coming out in a single year.  Then they had to revive the series with MAX, but at least they slowed down to one new mix per year.. well, 'cept obviously between EXTREME and SuperNOVA in the AC, but the home versions kept coming at 1 per year
Pretty much this.  There's too many "rock guitar" music games on the market and it's like since Activision was handily delt its own ass by Rock Band, they've decided to kill the entire market by oversaturation. On the other hand Rock Band 2 is pretty much the end all game for a while but is still making a mint off of DLC
Now there is a rise in different kinds of music/rhythm based games. It's the Bemani ripoffs that aren't looking too hot (like the upcoming glut of DJ games)

Before music games, as a kid I loved the multi-link racing games!
Virtual-On, and other specialty games like the Star Wars pod racer are fun because the controllers are unique and it makes the game feel like you're actually participating, instead of moving a joystick back and forth.

Then I got into DDR...  then I became one of the people who would go to the arcade just for music games. There was an arcade in the Everett Mall years ago, back before they did the huge remodel. The only two games I played were the Max 2/Extreme, and the Ultracade. I tried a few games of MvC2, but found it confusing (plus I sucked).

Arcades need to have games that allow people to have fun together.
OH, don't forget skeeball, and basketball hop-a-shots!
Competition among players and games that groups of people can do at once not only generate the money, but it makes it fun so people will return and bring people back next time.

Why hello there ;P

Before I got into music game, I was big into light gun shooters.  Some of the best ones are pretty old now and should be cheaper.. Time Crisis 2, 3, House of the Dead 2, Area 51 (the original was the best), Police Trainer

Virtual would be the very first game I'd put into any arcade (after ITG or DDR).

Except I would kill for Virtual On II: Onotario Tangram. The gameplay in VO:OT was lightyears beyond the original VO (even if the graphics weren't all that different).

The gameplay style of the two games are different, too.  But you should look again at those graphics.. they are quite different indeed