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Movie Theater wants a pinball and arcade game...which ones?


RikaKazak

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So a movie theater account I have wants a pinball and arcade game (already do cotton candy, keymaster, and a plush crane there)....question is, which machines?

I have NO idea on the pinball (never even done pinball before)....the arcade game I was leaning towards a big buck hunter, golden tee, or maybe a MAME?  Advice would be appreciated :D:D:D

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1 hour ago, RikaKazak said:

So a movie theater account I have wants a pinball and arcade game (already do cotton candy, keymaster, and a plush crane there)....question is, which machines?

I have NO idea on the pinball (never even done pinball before)....the arcade game I was leaning towards a big buck hunter, golden tee, or maybe a MAME?  Advice would be appreciated :D:D:D

There is a reason you don't see pinball machines around any more....they don't make much money. I've been out of the amusement game for a couple years now but even back then I would occasionally get nostalgic customers asking for pinball and I would always steer them away from it. Maybe Buck Hunter but I wouldn't think Golden Tee would be successful in a movie theater these days. Honestly I would try to expand on redemption games because in between movies people go after quicker impulse games.  Maybe add a gravel crane or some other specialty crane? Again...I am not active in amusements anymore so some of the other guys may have a better feel for what's going on in the market today.

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Buck Hunter might do ok, but you will need the newest one. You will then have to deal with broken guns from them being dropped, etc.

Your best bet would be the following:

Sitdown driving games, air hockey, prize redemption, candy cranes, duck cranes, etc..

People will not have the time to play a game of Golden Tee and Mame is no where being legal to put out on location and make money.

let me know if you need any other info, I used to have 8 theatre locations.

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I think you can do buck hunter if you wanted to, but yeah you should get the HD one with the flat screen. MAME is a big no for operating commercially. Pinball, I would get a movie themed game by Stern, there are a lot of them.

I would agree with candy crane if they will let you.

What kind of cotton candy machine do you have? Is it the Intermatic?

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Thanks for the input guys, appreciate it!

I’ll see if I can get my hands on a big buck hunter.  I’m in Idaho so I’d assume it “might” do ok. 

The cotton candy machine is the vendever one, not intermattic. 

I’m more doing this to keep the account owner happy and keep the account exclusive then I am trying to make money on these filler machines. Theater owner said no to a candy crane, no to a toy rack, and no to a knobby ball crane. 

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Definitely try to please the account if you can... but it's gotta be within reason. A movie theater location if it's busy enough would warrant almost any kind of machine purchase. It doesn't surprise me they don't want a candy crane or stuff that will make kids get hyped up. Also it's competition for their own candy sales. Balls will make kids run around and possibly get injured, at least that's what location owners think.

Maintaining the pin is a problem, if you have no real idea about them... and you don't have a good pin buddy... But they can earn, don't let these guys fool you.

I would also steer away from redemption games. If you have them you should offer 3+ different games to give ticket winning variety. And then you need a counter with attendant or an automatic prize vending solution, which is expensive and needs maintenance. Stocking the prizes, tickets, and all the associated stuff is just not worth it for 1-3 machines imo. It starts to make sense if you have 10+ redemption machines in one location.

Prize merchandisers I think is another really great option. You mentioned you have a keymaster already so that's good. Maybe a barber cut or even a classic stacker in good condition would earn well. I don't know about the latest generation of stuff, but there's probably good things out there.

A pair of nice drivers would really be a solid investment I think. You wouldn't need to stock any product and you just collect... Something like 2 Cruis'n Blasts, Super Bikes 3, Mario Kart GP DX... 

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Just to clarify....when I suggested redemption games I meant instant redemption such as cranes, Barber Cut, Sports Arena, Key Master, Stacker, etc.... Not the ticket spitters. We always just referred to them as redemption games. I agree though, ticket redemption games would not be feasible in this type of a situation.  

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19 hours ago, gumball guy said:

Just to clarify....when I suggested redemption games I meant instant redemption such as cranes, Barber Cut, Sports Arena, Key Master, Stacker, etc.... Not the ticket spitters. We always just referred to them as redemption games. I agree though, ticket redemption games would not be feasible in this type of a situation.  

yes, I think that many people in the industry just group all the prize games together as redemption, but I believe the ticket based games are the actual cause for the category name. You would "redeem" your tickets for a prize. I usually call machines like barber cut, keymaster, stacker, etc. "Prize Merchandisers." As they are more of a vending machine that may or may not pay out. I guess a crane game would also be a prize merchandiser, but I just put cranes into their own category?

There will always be crossover... so it's hard to really define some pieces of equipment..

 

Let us know what you end up doing @RikaKazak. I am interested in hearing how your movie theater loc does.

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If it was up to me, I'd do, Keymaster, balloon buster, barber cut, stacker, cotton candy machine, small plush crane, small/medium prize crane, and a large plush crane.  But it's not up to me, so I'll do the best I can with what I'm allowed.....

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