'The pinball percentage is our signal to see
jf the game is in good operating condition'
plays. And, like I said, we average somewhere
between 9 and 12 cents per game. Now after the
first few weeks the game is out, we take a reading
of what a game's particular percentage is. Let's say ,
for instance, we find that game averages 11 cents
per play for us. That becomes our barometer for
that game. Suppose it was doing good at 11 cents,
then suddenly it jumps to 12112 cents, a change like
that signifies that something is wrong with the
game. It's like having a red warning light coming on
in your car which tells you that something's
wrong- now maybe you're out of coolant, or your
fan belt's broken, or something else, but that red
light is the signal. Well , this percentage is our
signal to see if the game is in good operating
condition . Now, if the game makes a jump like that
to, say, 12112 cents per play, we'll send someone out
to check the game because we'll know that
something is wrong with it. Maybe the players
don't even know the game isn't functioning
properly, but we know from this fluctuation. What
it shows is that one of the features on the game isn't
functioning properly and that the players are losing
some of the points which would have awarded them
that free game. It's like missing the last rung in a
ladder, if it's not there, they can't reach that award.
We've found that many times in the pinballs,
especially with the DC bumpers and the faster
action, that the action is happening so fast that the
players themselves don't even know they're not
getting all their points. So we can use the computer
and using that percentage, we can tell if the game is
in trouble because of a swing in the percentages. If
the per-play drops to, say, 9 1 12 from an average of
11, then that indicates that someone has found a
way to beat the machine, whether that be by hitting
the front door of the game or something else. But
we have more problems with high average play
than we do with that because if just one feature is
bad , then it can do the player out of his free play.
PLAY METER: How can you tell what the average
should be?
JOHNSON: When we're analyzing our Williams
World Cups, for instance, the screen will show us
all those games on the screen. And it will rank them
Mali
The Henry W. T. Mali & Co. Inc.
'lSI Park Ave . South
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12121 475 4000
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76
according to which ones are doing the most and
which ones are doing the least dollars per day. And
in the next column it will show what the per-play
average is and then what the previous per-play
average was . It's very easy to see from there what
the average should be for a particular game. I
should add here , by the way, that for some time in
Calgary we operated with add-a-balls, and we
relied on t his method so much that we even put in
meters to show us how many extra balls were being
given. And in that way we were able to tell how
well the game was working, even without free play.
PLA Y METER: Do you make allowances for older
games by lowering the percentages?
JOHNSON: Yes, as I said, normally we're happy
with between 9 and 12 cents per play, but if we see
that an older game is doing well at , say, 8 1 12 cents,
we don't argue with success. We'll be happy to have
t hese games giving us between 8 and 10, instead of
between 9 and 12 because they need it to compete
against all the other new games that are out there.
Now maybe one of these games looks as if it's
earning respectably at 11 cents per game, but then
maybe you'll notice that in other locations that same
model is earning more at 9 cents, this indicates that
the game would probably do better with a more
liberal free -play percentage.
PLA Y METER: What is your pricing on pool
tables?
JOHNSON: We have about 150 pool tables, and
we're on fifty -cent play on all of them. From the
time we put in those tables about seven or eight
years ago, we were on fifty -cent play . But you must
bear in mind that we had to do that because when
we cross that border between the states and
Canada, we have to pay all the duties and excise
taxes on the new equipment; so we had to recoup it
some way. Another reason we're at fifty -cent play
is that if we put in a four -by -eight table, the normal
bar has to give up 22 seats; so we had to show the
t,ar owners that the table would return him a good
r'ercentage of commission, that he would make
more money by using that space for a pool table
than by having his 22 seats there .
Billiard Cloth
tyl
20-Plain,
tyle 920-Backed
Fabric developed pecifically for
coin-operated table
Available through your di tributor.
PLAY METER , December, 1978