I thought this was an interesting local development, I wonder if it's the start of a new trend. Most of us who remember arcades are probably of drinking age now anyway. It will be interesting to see how it pans out. http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2015/05/29/otr-beercade-to-open-next-week.html
Yeah, that's been happening for a few years now. Chicago alone has 5 beercades. I went to the 16-bit in Cleveland, good place.
My friend and I were thinking about making one, but the property we were interested in was owned by a jackass. The place was somewhat old and run down, but with a bit of fixing up it would have worked great. Unfortunately, the guy was only selling the building for 5 million, and nothing less. That was 5 years ago, he has still yet to sell it. Basically, old restaurant/bar with liquor license. The place was almost falling apart on the inside, the parking lot was crap, etc. But the guy said it included the completely forested, can't develop on this land because of the EPA, area nearby, and thus was worth mroe. He was an absolute tool. Oh, I forgot to mention, he was also constantly in and out of jail due to cocaine possession.
It's cause of the demographic, people who grew up with arcades are of drinking age and they are good way to get people to buy drinks. In my city there are 2 arcade bars.
Starting a small arcade now would be much cheaper than before. If Neo Geo MVS systems are available, at first they could just use multi-carts with many games built in. Another option would be MAME, but I think that these options will only work in small places, it's a good and solid start, but not a real arcade.
Reminds me of the apartment I used to live in. The roof was leaking (in the back, thankfully), and the landlady wouldn't give us a key to the basement (which was a pain whenever we tripped the fuses by doing ridiculous stuff like vacuuming). She's had the place on the market for years and nobody has even rented the apartment since we left 15 months ago.
I've never liked the mix. There's similar ones here in the city I'm in, sadly it's a few LCDs with Xbox 360s with stupid FPSes. Not really an arcade, but mixing drinks with games. I just miss the simple days of an arcade, with candy.
We've got the famous Barcade in my city. But I haven't gone there since it is out of the way for me. I should go there considering they've got the most cabinets I can think of in one place. When I was a kid, there was a pizzeria on the other side of the block I lived on that had all the new mid-range arcade games. Oh such memories.
Supercades are also a thing a now. Like Galloping Ghost in Chicago and the ever present Funspot (which has been around forever and is racist against fighting games)
One in Colombus, Ohio I know of. Dave & Buster's has been doing something similar to this for a while now. I guess people are realizing how lucrative the business can be if done correctly. Alcohol will operate as the natural wallet lubricant.
I think this is at least better than them dying out completely. I am not a fan of the newer age arcades (if you can even call them that) where the point in every game is simply to win tickets to buy overpriced merchandise. Maybe if all of the merchandise was gaming related, then it wouldn't be so bad. I just like to see more games that are actually fun than just ticket printing machines. This 16 bit place on the other hand seems more like a traditional arcade to go with your friends and have fun. The only difference is the alcohol, but it seems like our generation is heavily into the craft beer / wine environments as well. So it probably works pretty well i would imagine.
Arcades as we all remember them do not make money. I've seen about 3-4 people in the UK set up 'classic arcades' only to find that they have to fill the place with gambling machines just to break even. The only repeatedly successful approach I've seen has been where a bunch of collectors have got together and rented storage, which they then open up to the public on weekends, charge a flat fee for entry to recoup some of the rental costs: http://www.arcade-club.com/ There was one guy I saw recently who figured that he'd need something in the region of *1,600 visitors per month*, every month of the year to break even on a pinball museum he was setting up.
Also, these places have been popping up in NJ lately. http://www.yestercades.com/ They are basically arcades that go on a hourly rate rather than paying by coin per play, and they have a bunch of big screen TVs with consoles all over the place. If Arcades are going to survive, it might be through the hourly rates or day passes, and from what I have seen, the Yestercades places are doing pretty well for themselves.
Yestercades do a pretty job at keeping the machines in good working order. Barcade are not as attentive.
Indeed. There was only one system out of order when I went last time. Sadly, it was a Super Smash Bros arcade box.
