Would a classic video game arcade be viable in Sheffield?

[RootsBooster 24]

In continental Europe, this used to be standard in the heydays of arcade (80s) with travelling fairs, wherein you'd have 1 or 2 artics with the latest and greatest cabs and drop-down sides.

 

But that was brand new cabs with extremely fast turnover and payback periods (what with constant re-siting and rarity of 'behemoth' units like deluxe outruns & space harriers and whatnot, which such travelling operators were the only ones to have and afford) so the eye-watering maintenance overheads were peanuts (arcade cabs are like old fridges, they really don't like to be moved around).

 

Doing that today, with (what are now-) 30 to 40 years old electronics that break down just because you're looking at them funny...

 

As for the business case, I think I already commented about a similar thread in the business section? If vintage arcade cabs was to be the only USP/pull factor, you'd be onto a loser, I wouldn't give it 6 months. If they were only scheduled to be part of the USP/pull factor, however, then yes by all means. Just don't expect to make money from them, better off budgeting them into your business plan as a marketing cost.

 

I can't emphasise enough how unreliable they've become after a few decades and how much maintenance they take. Parts are getting rarer than hen's teeth for many of them, CRTs most of all. Of course, you can always teach yourself electronics, soldering and many more useful skills to bring such costs down...but then that's time you'd not be spending doing other stuff to promote/run the place.

 

BWOB, I'm an arcade collector, have been frequenting the forum mentioned in the comments of that Youtube'd Look North feature for years, and known Andy who runs it (reputationally only) for as long, including all the backstory to his cabs, the place, the club, etc. I wouldn't site my cabs anywhere for love or money in this day and age, I don't know many collectors who would either.

I've always wondered if any arcades out there ever (illegally) use mame cabinets dressed up as the real deal, is this something you've ever come across or heard of happening?

[L00b 441]

I've always wondered if any arcades out there ever (illegally) use mame cabinets dressed up as the real deal, is this something you've ever come across or heard of happening?

To begin with, there's barely any arcades left (that I'm aware of) which site 'proper' arcade cabinets of the sort you can play at Andy's place.

 

By 'proper', I mean that in opposition to bandits, penny pushers and that sort of stuff (to be found in most surviving arcades), and in opposition to experiential cabinets (monster big with eye-watering price tags), which are rare as hen's teeth (e.g. the latest

, £28k, AFAIK there's only 1 or 2 sited in the whole of the UK).

 

After that, there is the seemingly flourishing market for 'repro' cabs capitalising on the retro sentiment of 40-somethings with disposable income, many (most?) of which are frequently made of poor quality materials with emulation (MAME or others) internals. See e.g. this from none other than Argos. Here is a dissection thread about these: keep the cab shell, scrub the rest.

 

For a grand (), I'd sooner buy myself a vgc OutRun upright or a vgc Sega Rally twin...or another mint MVS Lordsvale, a few PC bits and MAME it myself, with approx £700 spare change

 

There are countless others still shoddier/gaudier on eBay at any given time by enterprising sellers, asking upwards of £600 for a MDF bartop with an 15" LCD and a low spec PC running MAME, a raspberry pie running Retropie or the like which probably cost under £70 in materials and components.

 

Amongst collectors, "MAM'ing a cab" is anathema for most...though it is slowly and surely becoming unavoidable for certain dedicated cabs, the PCBs for which have now disappeared altogether and/or are known to be highly temperamental and hard to fix. E.g. the original Star Wars vector cabs which you mentioned earlier? PCBs in those are a 'mare to keep running. And don't mention the vector CRTs in those as well, they're even worse/more temperamental and rarer than hen's teeth nowadays (even in US), so that's another which can "justify" MAME (because a normal CRT must be used in replacement for an vector CRT). Bear in mind that's about vintage cabs now in private ownership and (usually infrequent) use, without any of the wear, tear and abuse of public use, so I'll let you imagine if they were sited in an arcade/location.

 

I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a sited cab running MAME (sited = available for use by public against payment), but in this day and age it would not surprise me at all, if only for purposes of reliability and ease of maintenance. The legality of it is questionable of course (it would likely be characterised copyright infringement at least, unless the cab owner or operator own the original PCB of each emulated game - and a broken PCB should do the trick just the same as a working one).

 

But considering it's likely "one unit per squillions of square miles" (rather than the "2 or 3 units in every chip shop" of the 70s/80s) and it would be a civil law (copyright) issue...I doubt Konami and others are going to lose any sleep over it

Edited November 10, 2015 by L00b

[alchresearch 214]

I think its a great idea, just not in Sheffield where they view parting with money for anything with suspicion. Tap into the hipster community in somewhere like Manchester's Northern Quarter.

[RootsBooster 24]

To begin with, there's barely any arcades left (that I'm aware of) which site 'proper' arcade cabinets of the sort you can play at Andy's place.

 

By 'proper', I mean that in opposition to bandits, penny pushers and that sort of stuff (to be found in most surviving arcades), and in opposition to experiential cabinets (monster big with eye-watering price tags), which are rare as hen's teeth (e.g. the latest

, £28k, AFAIK there's only 1 or 2 sited in the whole of the UK).

 

After that, there is the seemingly flourishing market for 'repro' cabs capitalising on the retro sentiment of 40-somethings with disposable income, many (most?) of which are frequently made of poor quality materials with emulation (MAME or others) internals. See e.g. this from none other than Argos. Here is a dissection thread about these: keep the cab shell, scrub the rest.

 

For a grand (), I'd sooner buy myself a vgc OutRun upright or a vgc Sega Rally twin...or another mint MVS Lordsvale, a few PC bits and MAME it myself, with approx £700 spare change

 

There are countless others still shoddier/gaudier on eBay at any given time by enterprising sellers, asking upwards of £600 for a MDF bartop with an 15" LCD and a low spec PC running MAME, a raspberry pie running Retropie or the like which probably cost under £70 in materials and components.

 

Amongst collectors, "MAM'ing a cab" is anathema for most...though it is slowly and surely becoming unavoidable for certain dedicated cabs, the PCBs for which have now disappeared altogether and/or are known to be highly temperamental and hard to fix. E.g. the original Star Wars vector cabs which you mentioned earlier? PCBs in those are a 'mare to keep running. And don't mention the vector CRTs in those as well, they're even worse/more temperamental and rarer than hen's teeth nowadays (even in US), so that's another which can "justify" MAME (because a normal CRT must be used in replacement for an vector CRT). Bear in mind that's about vintage cabs now in private ownership and (usually infrequent) use, without any of the wear, tear and abuse of public use, so I'll let you imagine if they were sited in an arcade/location.

 

I don't think I've ever seen or heard of a sited cab running MAME (sited = available for use by public against payment), but in this day and age it would not surprise me at all, if only for purposes of reliability and ease of maintenance. The legality of it is questionable of course (it would likely be characterised copyright infringement at least, unless the cab owner or operator own the original PCB of each emulated game - and a broken PCB should do the trick just the same as a working one).

 

But considering it's likely "one unit per squillions of square miles" (rather than the "2 or 3 units in every chip shop" of the 70s/80s) and it would be a civil law (copyright) issue...I doubt Konami and others are going to lose any sleep over it

 

That Argos thing looks hideous

[Ravenger 10]

Since we've been talking about Mame cabs, this is my Mame cab:

 

Mame Cab Pic

 

It was built by a manufacturer of fruit machines from the original Jamma cabinet plans. Way better quality than many of the over-priced pre-built Mame cabs, and much cheaper.

 

I added a PC inside (originally had a jamma multi-game board), and replaced the joysticks and buttons with higher quality versions, and acrylic button labels for the coin and admin buttons.

 

Unfortunately had to go with an LCD monitor instead of a CRT - for weight, cost and maintenance issues.

[999tigger 10]

Since we've been talking about Mame cabs, this is my Mame cab:

 

Mame Cab Pic

 

It was built by a manufacturer of fruit machines from the original Jamma cabinet plans. Way better quality than many of the over-priced pre-built Mame cabs, and much cheaper.

 

I added a PC inside (originally had a jamma multi-game board), and replaced the joysticks and buttons with higher quality versions, and acrylic button labels for the coin and admin buttons.

 

Unfortunately had to go with an LCD monitor instead of a CRT - for weight, cost and maintenance issues.

 

 

That looks great. how much did it cost you exc the pc?

[Ravenger 10]

That looks great. how much did it cost you exc the pc?

 

£800 delivered. I've probably spent another £200 converting it to PC.

 

I've seen identical looking ones on sale for over £2000

 

It's really solidly built out of thick heavy duty melanine faced chipboard. It's even got rollers on the back so you can tilt it and wheel it around.

 

I'm not sure the company is making them anymore however

 

The PC was originally built using spare components from an old PC build so didn't cost me anything other than the time to put it all together, wire it up, and setup the custom UI and other software. I was great fun and very rewarding. Much easier to wire one of these up than I thought it would be.

[Adamike 10]

Me and my brother would definitely go somewhere like this! Neither of us play video games anymore but we were obsessed back in the 80's and early 90's and modern day arcades are a masive disappointment due to the lack of the classic joystick and platform games.

 

If you do it please consider double dragon 3, WWF, TMNT, POW, street smart, Pit fighter!

[*_ash_* 88]

Me and my brother would definitely go somewhere like this! Neither of us play video games anymore but we were obsessed back in the 80's and early 90's and modern day arcades are a masive disappointment due to the lack of the classic joystick and platform games.

 

If you do it please consider double dragon 3, WWF, TMNT, POW, street smart, Pit fighter!

 

I remember double dragon (not sure about 3 though ), they had this at Dave Chandlers video library. I spent a lot of money on that

[JFKvsNixon 11]

I remember playing Street Fighter constantly, and because nobody else could do the "Psycho Fire", "Dragon Punch" or "Hurricane Kick" as often as I could, I was pretty much unbeatable.

 

I used to get some really bad blisters though, and kept on having to change the way I held the joystick. I know what it sounds like but no!

[*_ash_* 88]

I remember playing Street Fighter constantly, and because nobody else could do the "Psycho Fire", "Dragon Punch" or "Hurricane Kick" as often as I could, I was pretty much unbeatable.

 

I used to get some really bad blisters though, and kept on having to change the way I held the joystick. I know what it sounds like but no!

 

You're never quite as good though using 2nd choice. Try playing Daley Thompson's on the Spectrum using your middle fingers trying to run, when the index fingers are knackered!

(which keys were always knackered on spectrums when they had that game? was it z and x? or o and p?)

[DnAuK 10]

I think its a great idea, just not in Sheffield where they view parting with money for anything with suspicion. Tap into the hipster community in somewhere like Manchester's Northern Quarter.

 

That maybe the nail on the head moment. At Leeds International Beer Festival they have an arcade room with about a dozen retro machines all on free-play. As such it's usually rammed with queues to play. But remember this only happens for 3 days a year...

 

I certainly don't think it's a bad idea but you'd have to judge your market and what you want out of it. If you simply want an all day, one off charge arcade that others have mentioned then I agree you'll need a hefty investment. If you go for Andy C's idea of a 'Picture House Social' kind of venue with good drinks and snacks then that could work on a reasonable budget.

 

Pricing will be important, tho. Charge too much, no-one will play and you lose your USP. Charge too little, people will spend all the time playing the games and not buying your other products. Might be a bit trial and error to strike the right balance. However, if you were to get some decent games in, charge me 50p a game (or 3 credits for a quid), the same as the average jukebox, say, I think I would frequent it.