Play Meter

but would rather operate with smaller numbers of games
than occupy all the space with a whole lot of games.
1981
'Arcade operators in vctrious
parts of the country partition off
part of the large spaces they lease
and are not using them. They're
paying the rent but would rather
operate with smaller numbers of
games than occupy all the space
with ci whole lot of games.'
What a year
for
Game-A-Tron's
Video Games!
•
I think it depends on the traffic at the location. And
then, of course, there are some places where I have room
for only 40 games and wished I had roomfor 50 or SS.It all
depends on the traffic flow. So you have to consider two
things: the size constraints of the store as to how many
pieces you can get into the store, and then you have to
consider how many pieces the store warrants.
There's only so much money around a given location,
and I do not believe that in today's climate of games,
people will pay to play ju~t anything. That was the case a
few years ago.lf they couldn't get onto Space Wars, they
would just as soon play a Stunt Cycle. But today people
are more selective about what they're going to play.
That's why we're seeing banks of the same game, banks
of Berzerk, banks of Asteroids. That's what the public
wants to play. And I don't think they're playing Stunt
Cycle.
Also, there's something else to consider about having
filler games on your floor. It's going to break down, and
that's·not good. You just can't put a big sticker on the
game that says "Out of Order" and be done with it. You
have to get it off the floor and into the back room because
by keeping pieces like that on the floor you're going to
hurt your image.
So you have to look for the happy medium. A place
that has too few games looks vacant and uninviting. And
a place . that has too many games looks Growded,
especially if there aren't that many people playing. So
you have to look at your location and the configuration of
your store to decide what is best for you. There are all
sorts of shapes for stores-long narrow stores, like .
bowling alleys, and so on. One thing we did before we put
any games in our stores was use paper doll models of the
games, based on their approximate sizes. We'd take a
drawing to scale of the floor of our location, then vte' d
take the dolls and arrange our store before we ever put a
game in so we would know what it was going to look like
beforehand. You have to keep in mind what your store is
going to look like.
PLAY METER: What are you looking for as far as traffic
flow?
ISAACSON: In the front of the store, you're looking to
attract people in. The store itself is the attraction; so it
has to be visible for what it is. I once turned down a
location in a mall that had a five-foot-wide entranceway
that was forty feet long leading back to 3,000 square foot
center. It was long tunnel, a very narrow hallway, and
you had to know there was a huge cavernous game room
inside or else you wouldn't have ventured in. So I didn't
take the location. One of our competitors took it, and I'm
sure he's doing very well with it since there are only so
many malls and so many opportunities, but that's how
Watch for these releases:
*SPACE BUGGER
TM
-FEBRUARY
;:
*BLACK HOLE™
-JUNE
* COSMICKAZE™
-OCTOBER
All games developed and
manufactured by Game-A-Tron
in the good old U.S.A.
~
Copyrights and patents
pending
Game-A- Tron will take all legal action
necessary to protect its proprietary rights.
Cs;R
CiAME·A·TRDN
(A public company)
931 W. Main St.
New Britain, CT 06051
Tel.: (203)223-2760
PLAY METER, June 1, 1981
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