I am thinking of opening a small side business

The idea is this, I read this in an article somewhere, can’t remember where, and I tried it in 99-00 school year. This couple in Texas had set up this console arcade store where they would charge kids for playing on their systems and made it a business. My sister works for the school system here and they offer me to have a display for a middle school party, so I did because the local rental stores complained about games stolen, damaged or systems broken. Back then I only had a Saturn, Playstation, N64, SNES, Genesis, etc… Anyway the kids played games because they didn’t have what I had, and they could play with their friends and show off too. It was cool, and I was able to supervise my stuff. I talked to my wife, and she thinks it might be a good side business. Setup 10-15 different televisions all running several Nintendos Genesis, Super NES, Saturns, Playstations, N64, and Dreamcast. (That’s what I have, besides my Gamecube) Charge by the half hour to an hour. Have people play games they grew up playing or check out some games they never even heard of. (Our local arcade is below average) If business picks up, add a Gamecube, Playstation 2, and XBOX. I would have it in our local mall, for safety reasons, and its probably cheaper than renting a different place. I’m thinking of putting everything behind walls besides the controllers and have a different games playing at different times. Walmart has a couple of displays, but the controllers are broke and kids are always there playing for like hours when it is up and running. I just want the opinion of people and see if would work, and get some ideas as well. Thanks.
 
Sounds like a good idea! (wish someone round my way thought of that!)

Perhaps you could also stock some games and consoles if it goes well....
 
yea you would have to lock everything up because you would get raided
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Sounds like a great idea though
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You could have competitions and advertise for the best and you would get some nice crowds showing off their skill to followers who walked by in the mall.

Keep us updated if you do :devil
 
Yeah, make sure you supervise your stuff well! I had a bunch of kids over from school one time (two of them I don't like at all, they were just tagging along with the ones that I DO like, didn't know they were here, until they were in the damn house
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<_< ) and one of the kids I don't like, first stole one of my DC games, then two months later, he shows up again and steals BOTH of my VMUs! ARGH!!! (And I was supervising my stuff the best I could BOTH times) Luckily I got that 4x one from DNguyen about a week or two after it happened. And re-bought NBA Showtime, along with about 10 other NEW DC games last week. So no worries.

BTW, sounds like a good idea. Make the Saturn the main highlight of the night.. or something of that nature. Afterall, it IS the greatest console ever!
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Hey, i live in texas, there is an arcade here that does that. Maybe thats the one. They have a whole bunch of tvs set up. You can bring your own memory card and controller or rent one from them. THen you can play bye the hour, get a month membership, or some other option. They had a Halo tournament and winner got 100 bucks, i was going to enter but i don't like public stuff. I get shy
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Its like 5 bucks an hour to play. To expensive for me. I would rather buy the game and play it as much as i want.
 
I have tons of games, so that wouldn’t be such a big problem, I do think that having a variety is what is going to help, not having the newest is always good, but with time who knows, if and when I do this, it’ll be kind of cool.

Classic systems is my main goal, but I won't turn away the new ones.

Yeah 5 bucks is too steep, SegaSquad, I’m shooting more like 3 bucks an hour, and discounts for more. I am planning this out carefully, I would go to one if there was one close by.
 
Aren't there some license issues doing that. I mean its quite similar to buying a consumer movie and having people pay admission to come watch it, and charging another group to watch again, etc. Video Games are a consumer product and I'm quite sure they have it all over the copyright areas of the manuals that there is to be no profit without license from the company. Anyway, sounds cool, but you might investigate the legality. Buying an arcade machine is buying a license to make money off of it, buying consumer games and consoles is different.
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Aren't there some license issues doing that. I mean its quite similar to buying a consumer movie and having people pay admission to come watch it, and charging another group to watch again, etc. Video Games are a consumer product and I'm quite sure they have it all over the copyright areas of the manuals that there is to be no profit without license from the company. Anyway, sounds cool, but you might investigate the legality. Buying an arcade machine is buying a license to make money off of it, buying consumer games and consoles is different.

That type of disclaimer text is quite often full of crap. You're better off getting the opinion of a copyright lawyer and/or reading Title 17 yourself. Corporate lawyers are accountable to their bosses, not Congress; when it comes to consumer-targeted text they'll write all kinds of BS that looks good whether or not it's an accurate representation of the law.
 
I called my attorney and he is going to check on that. He left me with the feeling that its like a local rental store where they charge people for using their games and equipment and not paying royalties to any of the companies. They legally own all the games and systems. I'm going to check on that.
 
Local game store near me already does this (except it's all current systems; GC, Xbox, PS2). There's a couple of DCs that rarely get played.

He said it works out very well because - surprise - he turns around and sells them games and memory cards and controllers etc. It doesn't make up the majority of his income, (the actual fees for playing) but anything helps.
 
well I am on a limited time schedule so I could only read the first 2-3 posts. If sumone already posted this, just remember that great minds think alike. An easy way to make fatty bank would to hold tournaments of oldschool games (like NBA jam, MK, Street Fighter, etc.) and newschool games (Halo, Madden games, Mario Party, etc.) This would draw in regulars and a lot of the older crowd (dont have to worry about stuff bein broke as much) Well that's my 2cp and I am out, later kids.
 
you could setup some awesome multitap and link cable stuff.

offer people things they dont get at home.

get some of these 8 player games going on a really big screen.
 
Realistically speaking I don't think that the NBA Jam old school tournies would work. (you're talking about catering to a niche of well.. largely 20-30something geeks)..

However if you somehow found a way to throw drunk sorority girls in the mix.. you might be onto something.
 
Originally posted by chainsmoker@Jun 20, 2003 @ 03:01 PM

However if you somehow found a way to mix drunk sorority girls in the mix.. you might be onto something.

Sounds like he needs some Bemani games then
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