Play Meter

PLA Y METER: What do we need in terms of space
requirements?
SEDLAK: Again, in our operation we try to have
both an arcade and a miniature golf course. So we
look for a store from about 2500 to 3000 sq. ft. which
i probably a little bigger than the average arcade,
but we expend about 800 square feet on the golf
course.
PLA Y METER: So that leaves you roughly about
2000 sq.ft. for an arcade.
SEDLAK:Right.
PLA Y METER: How many machines, and of what
type are we going to put in there, and how much is
that going to cost us?
SEDLAK: With that space, we're looking to put in
25 to 30 machines total. But, if for example, I decide
to put 30 machines in there, I won't open the store
with 30 machines. What I'll do is open the store
with about 70 to 75 per cent of that number of
machines. Then as I find out what sort of games the
kids in that area are interested in, I'll add more of
the type that seems to appeal to them. In one of our
arcades, pin ball is very, very heavy, so I've
installed a lot of pinball machines; in another place
pinball is popular but not so popular-they go more
towards video games-so I have more video games
in that location than in the other.
PLAY METER: Of the machines you begin with,
what would you consider basic?
SEDLAK: One basic machine for an arcade is an
air·hockey table. I always get one air-hockey table.
I also get pinball machines, and I figure one-third of
my games will be pinballs. So if I have 21, seven of
those will be pinball. We also have a jukebox in each
of our places. As far as TV games are concerned, I
definitely want a driving game, so I get one of the
many TV driving games on the market, and
probably two. Shooting games are very popular, so
I usually try to have a couple of shooting games.
Other than that it gets into an assortment of arcade
pieces.
PLA Y METER: Do you buy these games or do you
lease them?
SEDLAK: We try to buy the games though right
now I do have a few games on a lease arrangement.
But we prefer to buy the games.
PLAY METER: Do you tend to buy new equipment
or used equipment?
SEDLAK: We try to buy as much used as we can. If
a game comes out and proves to be good, then we
may go out and pick it up new. We try as best we
can though to pick up used equipment, but that's
been very difficult lately- especially on pinballs
because of legalization in Canada and all that. But
most of the ga'mes in the arcade are used
equipment.
PLA Y METER: Where do you find your used
equipment generally?
SEDLAK: All over the place. Since we first started
buying, we've gotten equipment from Massa-
chusetts, from local distributors here in New York
state. We've gotten them from down in New
Orleans, and from out in Michigan. We look in the
trade journals, find ads for people selling used
games, find out what games they're offering and at
what prices and go on from there.
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PLA Y METER: How long can a standard pinball,
for example, stay in an arcade location?
SEDLAK: It depend on the machine, of course,
I've got a couple game that just refuse to die. I
have a Gottlieb that for one reason or another the
kid ju t love to play. I've had it sitting in the same
place for quite a long time- by quite a long time, I
mean over a year- and they just keep playing it.
Other games they'll play for three months maybe,
and then income will really start to drag, and I'll
switch them to another arcade. On the average
though, I'd ay, it's probably about five or six
month.
PLAY METER: And it would be pretty much the
arne tory for video?
SEDLAK:Well, the popular video games will last
for a long time. The first real video game I ever
bought was Atari's Gran Trak 20, and it's been two
years now and it' till one of the top games in the
store. The only thing we've done to it is every now
and then changed the track on it, which is a built-in
option on the game anyway. But it varies. Tank, for
example, seemed to have a cycle. After about six or
seven months, a little longer than a pinball, it
started to die out. As I mentioned: I don t rush out
and buy a new game unless I find out that it's a
pretty good game.
PLA Y METER: What do you do with a machine
after it's outlived its usefulness for you?
SEDLAK: What we have done in the past is to sell
it on the home market- these are pinball games I'm
talking about. Other games we have traded back
into the distributor, but the best money comes if we
can sell them to the home market.
PLAY METER: You don't think then that selling
pin balls on the home market is going to hurt
business in your arcades?
SEDLAK: No, I don't. I think it's something that's
going to happen whether I do it or not.
Manufacturers are now building pin balls strictly for
the home. In the games that I've sold the kids, after
an initial surge of a couple of weeks where they're
home playing the pinball game all the time, they're
back in the arcades playing with their friends,
showing them how good they've gotten playing at
home.
PLAY METER: Service. Who does most of the
servicing on your machines?
SEDLAK: My partner and I do all of our repairs.
PLAY METER: This includes the video games?
SEDLAK: Yes it ,does. Bill has a degree in electrical
engineering so he's very familiar with solid-state
and can diagnose what's going wrong on circuit
boards. He can usually pinpoint pretty closely what
the problem is; then we just call up the distributor
and get the parts.
PLAY METER: We've got everything just about
set up: we've found our location; we've leased the
location; we've made it ready; we've put in
machines, and we've hired somebody to supervise
the activity. Now comes the problem of image:
what sort of image do you try to project for your
arcades?
SEDLAK: We try to project a family image. As I
said we try to get a broad complement of
machines- shuffle alley, pinballs, foosball tables,
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