store isn't going to do any business. You've got to have it
now. And you may have to have more than one. You may
even have to have two or three to accommodate the
crowd. So you have no place else to go with that piece
because it has to stay in that stqre. And the only other
thing you're going to be able to do with it is to trade it in.
The only possibility of game rotation that I see today is
in very unique pieces, i.e., a big sitdown flying or driving
game. That is what we used to call a sort of attraction
piece. That's the kind of piece you could put in the front
part of your store to get people in. A piece like that could
be rotated. A good example was Hercules, the big pinball
game. We bought a few of them because they were
profitable, and they were unique. It was an attraction
piece. And you could move that from place to place to
catch people's eyes. You can still rotate equipment like
that. And it is good to have pieces like those, and you can
still rotate a pingame because there is a variety of those,
and so there's still some possibilites for rotation there;
but you're not going to be able to rotate a ho video
game.
The arcade public is very aware of what they warn o
play today. they're very sophisticat ed , more
sophisticated than they were a few years ago when
they'd play almost anything. Today they want o
Berzerk. They want to play Defender. When we first put
in the Atari Football, I saw this phenomenon taking
place. We didn't start buying that gamefor allourstores.
until we saw it was an attraction in itself. Then we started
·buying in duplicates · for some stores. But I remember
being in the office one eneving and getting a call fro
some player who said he was driving around looking for
an Atari Football and wanted to know our nearest store
with one. Of cause, I gave him directions, but i rang a
bell about this coming phenomenon. I'd never seen that
before. That is an example of someone who is selectively
looking for a specific game to play. More and more we
are having that today. People want to play Defender.
They want to play Asteroids. They've got to have that
stuff. And that's what they're going to play. They're going
for that specific reason.
PLAY METER: What are your thoughts ' about
equipment purchasing, as far as the number of games
for QIJai/able space in an arcade?
ISAACSON: The operator, of course, should try to put
in a balance of equipment that will maximize his return
on investment and that will allow him to stay current with
the trend in games. He has to look at his game purchases
as not merely a one-time investment but as a continuing
investment in his product.
I don't really think there are any hard-fast rules an
operator can go by as far as his game purchases, though.
The gcpnes are pretty much limited by the amount of
space he has in his store. Qne of the things I'd like to
point out at Sega Centers, however, was that just
because you have a room of, say, 4000 square feet, that
doesn't mean you have to fill it with 100 games. In some
cases we found rooms with as many as 65 pieces, but
when we analyzed it we found we were only getting an
efficient return to about 40 games and beyond our 40th
game it was a matter of diminishing returns.
When you stop and think that each of those games
requires electricity and maintenance, parts, collections,
and so, on, you realize like we did tl"iat it costs us money
o have those games in the store. Because of this, I know
of some arcade operators in various par~f the country
who are partitioning off parts of the large spaces they're
easing and are not using them. They're paying the rent
TOKENS • TOKE S•TOKENS
(S OCK
FOB ALL MAKES OF GAMES.
TURNSTILES A: VEND
G MACHINES
PRIZE RED EMPTIO ·A: TRADE CHECKS
CASINO SLOT. GAMING COINS
Phone o r 111rite for cotalog & .am pies
'
VAN BROOKOFLEXJNGTON,INC.
P.O. BOX 5044, LEXI GTON, KY. 40555
(606)
16
255-5990
PLAY METER, June 1, 1981