Play Meter

lhq al(' , lhe), lhink lh(: " re lhere to ride the rid sand
nOl go into the penn)' arcade .
"Even if we'd do repair for free, if an operator ha a game
do lUll for two weeks, it will cost him more than any repair costs,
0, that' really why we want the di tribu/or",and the operator
to hal'e a repair capability, "
K nowing oj III jarsig"t d reputation we a ked him
what It JelllheJutureholdsJor th eilldu try " eho to
reuolutioniz ,
PLAY METER: Do 'ou think we' e s ratched the
surface as ar as th e game go?
B
H ELL: Yes , we ' ve s rat h ed the surface , but,
gee , there ' !,> !'>o much left LO do t hal it s tagger the
imaginal ion ,
Y u see , we ' re ju t e ing a situa tion where th
oin
rna hine industry isju t s t arling LO scr , t h th surface
of what I' d all marginal ac eptabi lit ' ,Ther are till
many, man ' people who equa t coin rna hin s of an '
form Wilh gamblin , n awful lot of p ople look at it a
an uns vory awful 101 of what I' d ca ll bad imag ,
BUI it ' s lurning , hanging, la ti ti c that we ' e done
how that presently , less than two per en t of th e
country ' :, populatii n represents c in machine r venu ,
That ' s a lmost insignificant. Thatm ans our players are
a v('('), small :,egment of th e population,
PLAY METER: That' an interesting way of looking
at it ,
BU H NELL: 0 , \-"hat we're tri ving for i LO jump
thaI to four per elll ,
hen we ge l four per em
ontribuling 90 I er cenl of th e revenue , we' e d ublcd
lhl' !'>i71' of llll' coin machine industry ,
PLAY METER: H ow d yo u do th at?
BU HELL: \ ell. il ' :, almost happening b ' it elf.
There are heginning to be more coin rna hines in lh e
mainstream of life , There are an awfu l lot of peopl who
have ne\'er gone into a heer bar in th eir live . , nen:!'
gone lO a bowling alley in lh e ir Ii e and probabl ' ne er
\"ill go 10 eilher of those pia es in their lives , nd man '
of lhem are nowhere near an amu ' m nt park an I if
14
BUI whal do we do ? W put lhem in hotel lobbie ,
i\ l aybe lhal ' S another ,01 per ent , irporl , too , bUl
lhere are still many people who don ' l go 10 hOlel. and
don ' l n) , peopJco who are nOl makin over 10 ,000 a
~ ear famil) income , They have money LO go LO movie ,
hUl the) don ' t do much more ,
ThaI's where the lIew . small r gional games enter
p ia
a pan , The bigge t prob lem th r i who i our
ompetilion , \i here are lh'y I nding lh ir lei ure
dollars ' You ' re ompelin again!'> l lhe small re lauranl .
hal1lhuper joilll. dri, 'e , in pia e or mo\'i" hue ,
PLAY METER: Il ow does an ar ade go ab ut
competing agains l a well. dri e in r s t aurant or movie
house ?
B
H ELL: Lel's lake ano lh er look at the oin
ma hines in a lypi al 30 ' piece ar ade , You ' ll find ,
u uall , lhat there is a lre m e ndo u amount of assets
lhal are idle ' I go d deal of lhe lime , our a, elS in a
good loralion are ma) be alive 10 per cent of th e l ime ,
o okay, J ohnny ' s laking his girl OU I for a date and h
an M' e he can lLlke her LO lhe movies and pend five
hurb , W·II. ill lhe lypical quan r ar ade , fi
buck
i!'>n ' t going 10 la!'>l very long and J ohhny want to be
ab le LO ntertain hi
oung lady for three or four hours ,
on l(' new m'rchan(lIslI1
m 1I10ds are needed,
pos~ihl>, w.,ing lokens or P< ', on ' , price or someLhing
like that , so thaI J ohnn ' an SI end three hour of
a tion ' packed fun in the game center and p nd on ly
five hucks , If you work lhrough th e math mati , 'ou ' ll
find there ' !,> plent) of ma hines there : il' ju t how do
you figure OUI how to unnel him to different ma hine '
so lhal lhere aren ' l long lin es hehind anyone gam,
i\ layhe you give him 100 tokens for fi e bu ks or thr e
hucks and!'> hedulc how man ' token it will tak to pia
l'('nain machine:, based n demand . In other word ,
perhaps it t ake fi
token to playa Tank . but only
ol1e to piLI)' a Pong ,
PLA Y METER: II of what 'ou said seem to make
M'I1St' ,
B
H
LL: This wa} J ohnn ' an see that if he
s»el1d~ his tokens slingily , he can maybe pend five
h()ur~ in there and you're ju t as happ ' be aus he ' s
playing machine!'> that would have been idle an 'wa}' ,
Plu!'> , 1I0W ~()U cLln com» Ie ,
PLAY METER: Il ave you tried that yet ?
B
H ELL: We have a pilol program in the work
righ t now , h ' the Id idea of management promotion ;
how do you gen rate traffic , Perhaps, we hav th be t
»o!'>!'>ibilitie!'> because we don ' t ha\'l' to give pizza awa '
10 get people into our joint. We an Tive a fe\\' games
LI\\ ay ,
When you think aboul tht, lypi al amO\ln t of
promotion that go
into ni k I and dime item for
... LlIe lhat don ' l haH' ncar lite margin that oin machine
do , iI ' s LI !'>ill lh at our operalors aren' l g lling of their
a!'> ... alld running it likt, a ~ophi~licated bu ines ,
Thl' biggeM prolJlem we have is the fact thaI iI ' s b en
a good induSlr) ror so long lhal we haven ' l had to work
10 make a huck .
PLA Y M TER : ThaI se'ms to be what happened
wilh the b oming id 0 0 ktail table mark I and th e
wa b lue, u d -s ho m n jumped into it. Whal ar
o ur fe ling about th tabl s and abou t th mark l ing