Game on

[richard_chadd]

What is the current status of rav's retrokade idea? Is
it officially dead now?

www.retrokade.com

i remember a while ago that he posted a message saying
that most of his machines were up for sale.

a great shame if it is, considering the vast list of
machines he had. would have been great if he could
have found a venue that allowed public access.

-r

--- Dugan <rtypedelta@yahoo.com> wrote:

> A retro arcade in London would be fantastic. A mix
> of
> machines up to R-type era would be top (many years
> ago
> I came across a tiny arcade in Italy, Tonale - which
> in one small room had R-type, Blacktiger, pacland,
> pacmania, rampage, indiana jones etc all packed in
> together - fantastic).
>
> The trocadero by piccadily is a sprawling mess, and
> all the small arcades dotted about in london just
> have
> cruddy driving/ lightgun cabs.
>
>

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[arcadeheavenuk]

There isn't one because it wouldn't make any money. Videos cost a lot
of money to buy and keep going, and dont take a lot in. eg a game of
pacman may last 5 minutes and cost 30p (and will be unplayed for most
of the day), the laws may have changed since I sold up, but 30p was
the most you could charge for a video game without getting into tax
and vat issues (except from projection games which are exempt), OR a
fruit machine which eats 30p in a second and numpties will feed it
till they are skint.

We had fruit machines that paid for themselves in a DAY, none of the
video games we had ever paid for themselves (on plays).

The arcades that do still have videos in do so as loss leaders to get
people through the door, and to play there fruit machines.

Several people have tried, including me, to start up a retro arcade
but the money soon runs out.

Rent, business rates, insurance, wages etc etc soon add up, We needed
to make 30k profit just to break even. In london you would have to
multiply this by at least 5.

So unless you have a few million in your back pocket you can afford
to loose its a non starter.

 

[jasona9393]

Such a pity, it'd be bloody wonderful to have an 80s arcade somewhere,
just for the fun and love of doing it.

What do yo do at UBS Andrew?

_____

From: arcadeheavenuk [mailto:andrew.baker@ubs.com]
Sent: 30 October 2006 12:43
To: uk-vac@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [uk-vac] Re: Game On

There isn't one because it wouldn't make any money. Videos cost a lot
of money to buy and keep going, and dont take a lot in. eg a game of
pacman may last 5 minutes and cost 30p (and will be unplayed for most
of the day), the laws may have changed since I sold up, but 30p was
the most you could charge for a video game without getting into tax
and vat issues (except from projection games which are exempt), OR a
fruit machine which eats 30p in a second and numpties will feed it
till they are skint.

We had fruit machines that paid for themselves in a DAY, none of the
video games we had ever paid for themselves (on plays).

The arcades that do still have videos in do so as loss leaders to get
people through the door, and to play there fruit machines.

Several people have tried, including me, to start up a retro arcade
but the money soon runs out.

Rent, business rates, insurance, wages etc etc soon add up, We needed
to make 30k profit just to break even. In london you would have to
multiply this by at least 5.

So unless you have a few million in your back pocket you can afford
to loose its a non starter.

 

[arcadeheavenuk]

would rather not say on a public forum, didn't realise my email address showed up either grrrr