i decided im going to start my own arcade...................

[D]

Instead of
1x Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
1x Marvel vs. Capcom
Indeed nobody will play unless they are Marvel caomic book fans and have never played an arcade game. Don't get me srong, I like the games, but they're not really seriously balanced fighting games

get

1x Street Fighter Alpha/Zero 3
1x Street Fighter III, third strike

And also you might get some unknown fighters or expensive ones like:
Fist of the North star.

Why not get SNK NEO GEO represented. MOTW? SSVI?
shmups:
Raiden Fighters JET
Battle Garegga
And a relative new CAVE shmup

I too want to start my own arcade, first in my home then I'm gonna work at an arcade and one day start my own place.

[system11]

evrything from the cabs to even the bemani games (beatmaniaIIDX!!!) will be straight up japanese.

Prosecutedt to the full extent of the JAM.

[cigsthecat]

Raiden Fighters JET

Every arcade in the US has this. Unnecessary.

[Balzac]

Guaranteed Moneymakers:

-DDR Supernova
-In The Groove 2
-Marvel VS Capcom 2
-SF3 Third Strike
-Tekken 5: Dark Ressurection (with PS2 controller ports)
-Neo Geo cabs with any Metal Slug/KOFs/Puzzle Bobble etc
-Pacman/Galaga/any other classic 80's game
-Benami, Benami, Benami

These will be your bread and butter revenue wise. You may not like said games, and I know none of them are shmups. But ultimately, these are (comparitavely) cheap and will keep your arcade from losing money.

Stay the hell away from having more than 1-2 expensive driving games/light gun shooters. Throw in Time Crisis and Initial D, but for the love of god DO NOT fill the place up with games in this genre. They're expensive, a bitch to maintain and take up the same space as 1-2 normal cabs. Older, affordable titles like Gunblade,Crusin USA etc are lacking in the graphics department and newer titles like HOTD4 will set you back quite a bit. Most of these titles are just credit feeders and people tend to catch on to that quickly. If anything, try mixing things up with some Virtua On or perhaps Planet Harriers. Now that was a fun game.

Try getting a Benami that nobody else in the area has. Maybe something like PopNBee.

Definately get some Cave Shooters. Gigawing also seems to do incredibally well for some reason at my local (and only) arcade.

As much as it pains me to say it, stay away from Senko No Ronde unless you have a cab to spare. My arcade had it for barely a month before they had to get rid of it. The reason? Nobody played it. Hell, they were afraid to even approach it. This phenomena also seems to be happening with Rumblefish 2 for some reason. People dislike the unfamiliar.

[Twiddle]

Raiden Fighters JET

Every arcade in the US has this. Unnecessary.

I haven't seen one.

Then again, I haven't seen an arcade that had more than Galaga or the odd Ultracade in shmups.

[cigsthecat]

If they have any shooters it's either RFJ or Strikers 1945 III.

[Dandy J]

Instead of
1x Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
1x Marvel vs. Capcom
Indeed nobody will play unless they are Marvel caomic book fans and have never played an arcade game. Don't get me srong, I like the games, but they're not really seriously balanced fighting games

Or if you want to replace them with something similar, get X-Men vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom 2.

[stuffmonger]

so, is this actually an arcade that you're starting, or make believe? If it's real, where were you thinking?

[mannerbot]

taken from a topic i made on killercabs. this involves more than just shmups, but im posting it here to find out what the long time or new shmup players are playing.

pretend right now, i decided im going to start my own arcade. arcade would be located in SoCal.

[cigsthecat]

Exactly. We're all pretending that he decided to start an arcade.

It's all so exciting.

[stuffmonger]

I want to start an arcade, but the cost of a building is just too high

[Dave_K.]

I want to start an arcade, but the cost of a building is just too high

Yeah, I've half heartly looked into it too. Unless someone in your family already owns the realestate (and doesn't mind taking the loss on opportunity costs) the standard arcade business model doesn't work to even support rent, much less insurance, and employees, ...

Hats off to sven666 for actually pulling it off and starting his arcade. Guess rent is cheaper in Sweden.

[FatCobra]

While your arcade seems to be geared towards shmups, you need to think of how you are going to earn money, because, you know, shmups don't really rake in the cash nowadays. Stick some fighting games and DDR.

If I built an arcade, I would also include a snack bar. Maybe have a console section too. I know a place where you can play whatever you want for a small fee.

[Dave_K.]

Maybe have a console section too. I know a place where you can play whatever you want for a small fee.

This violates the copyright of console games, but like import PCB games I doubt anyone is going to sue unless you are making millions.

[sven666]

Hats off to sven666 for actually pulling it off and starting his arcade. Guess rent is cheaper in Sweden.

guess again

but hey, heres hoping rents cheaper in london

and for the thread starter, im not sure wether your arcade dreams are imaginary or not (i dont know where the hell "socal" is either ) but the best of luck to you mate follow your dreams but dont mug yourself is my only advice.

[iatneH]

Yes, honestly you will need racers and bemani to keep a little bit of money coming in.

Shooters just aren't popular enough to make money. Even fighters (if you choose good ones) have a few fans, but the only times I've seen anyone other than myself play a shooter is when they were waiting for a Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune cab to open up, and I bet they wouldn't have played if the shooter wasn't set on Free Play.
Maybe keep a small number of cabs for shooters, like one game each from Cave/Raizing/Psikyo/Seibu and rotate the games for other things every once in a while. For having a big number of shooter cabs, the space and power would be better spent on something else.

You absolutely must have the newest GuitarFreaks & DrumMania (because many other arcades in SoCal have them - you want people to come to YOUR arcade), and a DDR/In The Groove/Pump It Up. These are the music games that bring in the money. A Pop'n Music and IIDX would be nice, but the cabs are incredibly expensive and difficult to break even.

Might want to think about running one or two pinball machines for the older folks also - make sure they are well-maintained..

[mirkvid]

you should name your arcade "Gunners Heaven"
but you'll probably just get a lot of redneck gun freeks coming in and getting pissed....unless you have a big buck hunter cab near the door!

[Edge]

Gunners Heaven is already a name for a game, also known as Rapid Reload.

And I agree that an arcade mainly about shmups don't make any sense as a business model. But I think Takumi was mentioning before that he want to cover DDR, fighters and racing games (Initial D). The shmups are just a nice bonus. As far as I understood the thread...

[gameoverDude]

Shmup prices should be no more than $0.50, especially for harder ones like Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection could be a good moneymaker even on ONE quarter per play- some players will lose in less than 10 seconds, while good Time Attack players can beat the game in 2'30"00 or even less. Get a Virtua Fighter 5 later on as well.

Magneto in X-Men COTA is a bastard- not quite as hard as in the Sega Saturn one, but still very tough. That could keep credits going in PDQ. It may not be a bad choice with the 3rd X-Men movie currently in theaters.

I'd get a standard size Out Run 2 SP twin cabinet. Make room for a Time Crisis 4 50" twin cabinet also. This game you would probably want to set at $1.00 to start/$0.50 to continue. TC4 will make a better choice than HotD4, IMO.

One classic game to get is Missile Command, especially the ultra-rare cockpit version if you can find it.

[stuffmonger]

Shmup prices should be no more than $0.50, especially for harder ones like Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou. Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection could be a good moneymaker even on ONE quarter per play- some players will lose in less than 10 seconds, while good Time Attack players can beat the game in 2'30"00 or even less. Get a Virtua Fighter 5 later on as well.

Magneto in X-Men COTA is a bastard- not quite as hard as in the Sega Saturn one, but still very tough. That could keep credits going in PDQ. It may not be a bad choice with the 3rd X-Men movie currently in theaters.

I'd get a standard size Out Run 2 SP twin cabinet. Make room for a Time Crisis 4 50" twin cabinet also. This game you would probably want to set at $1.00 to start/$0.50 to continue. TC4 will make a better choice than HotD4, IMO.

One classic game to get is Missile Command, especially the ultra-rare cockpit version if you can find it.

Who would want to play X-men cota? Xmen vs Street fighter is so much better.

[bpe]

I'm not sure if it's been mentioned, but here's something important : make sure all cabs are set to more or less the same volume. There's nothing worse for your concentration than somebody starting a game on the cab next to you and the thing blasts 2 or 3 times louder than whatever you're doing now.

Also, kill the sound on idle PCBs, especially if they violate rule 1. I'm playing Mushi way too close to some stupid tennis game that keeps screaming at nobody in particular if noone is playing.. after 60 minutes of that (2 mushi games going OK) you're ready to punch someone's lights out. Say, the owner's. Grrr..

[segasonicfan]

I'm moving to Socal in the fall...if you get some more Shmups in I'll definitely be a constant customer Hint:

Guwange
Batrider
Espgaluga
Espgaluga II
Gunforce
etc...

-Segasonicfan