Play Meter

important the store front image is to me. When I was with
Sega Centers, we would make extensive use of mirrors,
appealing colors, and very modern and appealing signs
to attact the eye of the customer going by.
Now, as far as merchandising the equipment that goes
inside, I think you'd want to put your best shot forward.
So you'd want to display your best pieces up front, and
that will attract them in. One of the reasons for banking
like six Asteroids is because it has an appeal. It's a unique
merchandising display.
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PLAY METER: Should you, then, as a matter of rule put
your hottest games right up front?
ISAACSO N: I think you have to be careful not to put all
your hot games up front in one area of the store because
you want the traffic to flow all through the store. We used
o put all our pingames in the back and the videos up
£ron because the pin player would find those games and
fil er back there, and the video players would stay more
or less up"front.
PIA Y METER: What are your thoughts about cocktail
"d eos as far as their place in arcades?
ISAACSON: We had an operating theory that we would
no have cocktail videos because it would allow people to
· down. What we wanted to avoid was people coming in
and sitting down in chairs and throwing their bags on the
oor and loitering, because then th~ arcade may become
a hangout. So we always wanted people to stay on their
eet and keep moving. But what we did was take the
cocktail tables, build them up on pedestal§, .and make
them stand-arounds. We liked it as a unique approach to
games. We could stand it up in the middle of the store
and not have to line it up against the wall like the other
·eces, and of course, it made it easier for us to get hot
games that we couldn't normally get in their upright
models.
ow some operators, I understand, are using cocktail
ta es in their arcades for players to sit around, and
ey're being well-accepted. It just goes back to your
personal operating philosophy and· how you want to
manage your traffic.
PLAY METER: At one of your seminars at the
Amusement Operators Expo this year, you warned
operators that, as far as the new games being marketed
oday, "We may be looking down the barrel of a bunch of
Chryslers." What did you mean by that?
SAACSON: I am very concerned by the tremendous
·
of new equipment right now. From what I have
'From what I've beel[l able to
determine, the number of games
being produced domestically is
hree times what it was a year ago
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been ab e to determine, the number of games being pro-
duced domestically is three times what it was just a year
ago, and that's not counting the imported games that are
coming in by the boatloads. There is a screaming
demand for equipment right now from the operating
segment, and we distributors are not able to fill that
demand; and the manufacturers, to meet that demand,
are gearing up to produce even more. But, what I'm con-
cerned about is that at some point the market is going to
absorb all those pieces; and the reason l feel that,is
PLAY METER, June 1, 1981