Arcade Swiping and Pricing

[BLUEVOODU]

It's been an interesting evolution over the years.  Arcade machines have moved away from accepting cash / coin in them to 100% swipes with a credit type system.  As mentioned in the Claw Games topic, it really seems you are separated faster and faster from your money in these games lol 

I've not been a huge fan of the swipe system as I feel it really does take your money faster.  It used to be you could drop $10 at certain arcades, get 80 tokens and play for an hour or two... depending on the game.  IE games like Daytona USA took many more tokens.  Something back in the day with Afterburner (which was a favorite back in the later 80s).  I played Super Mario Bros... and many others back in the earlier 80s, plus found arcades that kept up 70's arcade hologram style arcade games.  A lot of this doesn't seem to exist anymore.

I've been through many eras of arcade games.  Right now, arcades are hard to find and when you do, the credits just don't seem to last... or I die too fast now LOL    I think the systems where they started accepting dollars into arcade games really started off the increased pricing... which then progressed as they went to the credit based swipes. 

There are still a couple decent arcades around here, but most of what they house are the carnival games.  I mean, shooting hoops is still somewhat fun when you're playing with other people lol.  However, the chance games are not as much.

What are your thoughts on the Arcade swiping and pricing?  If you're able to find an arcade, what do you still enjoy?  What do you miss?  Thoughts... comments... POST IT UP!

[targetrasp]

seems like the quarter crunchers aren't profitable anymore. Parts are scarce, people that work on them are scarce, and inflation has just generally outpaced their revenue stream.

Places that still have lots of the more traditional machines have become more bar than arcade. They use the machines as part of the atmosphere and the machines are almost certainly a loss leader. I'm sure a proprietor with a bit of electrical knowledge can use YouTube for help fixing things themselves and farm secondhand options for parts to offset some of the loss, but I'll bet anything its still a loss. Alcohol is typically marked up 5x if you're drinking the good stuff, 3x - 4x for beer and wine.

The more standard arcades have used the near-gambling type machines for decades but now seem to almost solely rely on the crane and ticket dispensing type of games. I'm sure these are much more profitable especially with the inflated prices, short play durations, as well as the house wins type of ticket payouts.