Things are certainly different these days. The coin-op game business has changed significantly in the past several years. With video game designers stampeding into the PC and game console manufacturers’ arms, there are significantly fewer video game products available for the family entertainment center and arcade business—is anyone running plain vanilla arcades anymore?

Thankfully, there are some innovative products from both larger and smaller companies that can help to entertain the remaining clientele in our centers. There are still players out there, but it is an ever-increasing challenge to find products for customers to play at our locations and not in their own homes.
Recent additions to the “games you can play at home” list include dance machines (a la DDR), and boxing with an opponent on your television set (just like MoCap Boxing). In fact, it’s a good bet that if the game is played on a monitor, it can be recreated for home use. So the buyer must beware of the risks involved in purchasing video products today as the window of opportunity gets smaller and technology bursts into the consumer market more convincingly.

Many of the products that will entertain your customers are redemption games. The nice thing about redemption is that the prizes drive the business, and redemption games tend to increase loyalty from the guests—they earn more tickets as they get better at each game.

The following are the most interesting games to me—the ones that will fit my locations best. These are games for larger operations but certainly can be used at smaller sites. It depends on the level of risk that an operator is willing to take and the amount of effort that he or she is willing to put into marketing and operating each product.

This Year’s Most Interesting Games
The best value on the market today is the Carnival King from Incredible Technologies. This game kit features great graphics, great game play, and a timeless theme—sharpshooting in a friendly carnival setting. My only concern is that it seems a natural candidate for the home market.

The king of monster games right now is the Derby Owners Club from Sega. This is a racehorse breeding and training simulation game with a hefty price tag, but it is doing impressive business in many of the large entertainment centers, as well as smaller venues.

A complicated game with a lot of depth, it is a perfect extension game that helps to bridge the gap that so many players complain about with most video products. The object is to breed, train, and race horses, narrowing down the genetically best animals to breed again.

Obviously, it takes a lot of time and money to play, and many players are going outside the game to create web sites about the horses and strategy to help other players achieve higher scores. Because players are so into the game, they seem to be staying in facilities for longer periods of time, based on reports from sites that operate this eight-player game.

Another big-ticket piece, Tsunami’s Tsumo motion simulator, is a one-player game (soon to be linkable) that uses home-style software in a player-selectable, multi-choice format adapted to coin-op play. This again allows our current players to get the depth of play that they are used to from PC and home console software.

Redemption, Anyone?
For redemption equipment, Benchmark’s Gold Zone and Wheel Deal are great
revenue-earning games. With multiple player windows, they are not cheap, but there are smaller versions available. The Wheel Deal game playfields are changeable, so that even in a local market, an interested operator can extend the life of this piece.

Baytek’s Popcorn is a cute children’s redemption piece. Although the skill level is perpetually easy, it turns out that it is perfect for this game’s target audience. Children catch “popcorn” in a scoop and get tickets as a reward. Simple, clean fun, and easy to understand; Popcorn is perfect for children’s centers.

Last but not least is the Elvis Redemption Pusher from Coastal, an impressive major multi-player coin pusher done in the classic style. Not an inexpensive game, but pushers usually have a long shelf life, and with Elvis as the theme it seems to be a very good investment if it can be legally operated in your location.

Other games at the show had merit as well. The best way to determine which products have value for your operation is to play them yourself. Visit your local distributors and check out what’s new. I sense a wave of change,
so be prepared!