Video games in grocery stores

The other day I was recalling the sweet memory of pounding away at Asteroid while Mom shopped for groceries at Krogers. This memory led to a few others–playing Joust and a few other games in Marsh, slapping down quarters to play Ms. Pacman and Galaga at the laundramat (I didn’t do laundry there–my friend and I went just because there were video games there!). Arcades were novel, but noisy–I enjoyed the supermarket atmosphere.

Then I realized–I haven’t seen a video game in a grocery store in ages. Is it just not done anymore? I can understand with some of the more elaborate games, but not all of them have to be so ridiculously extravagant. Why not have one in your local Albertson’s?


Teaching: The ultimate birth control method.

Laura’s Stuff and Things

I don’t remember ever seeing video games in grocery stores. However, while we’re on the subject, it’s been the longest time since I’ve seen one in a convenience store, or anywhere else except an arcade (except for one in a pizza place, but that one was oooooold.)


Eschew Obfuscation

I’m not a video game historian or anything, but I have the impression that they pretty much died out in public places (except for movie theater lobbies and the video arcade at the mall) when Atari, Nintendo, Sega, etc. came in. Why stand there, feeding quarters into a machine, when you can do it at home for free?

Just a WAG.


“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

Now I feel old. “Tell us how it was in the old days, Grampa…”

Not long ago I ran across a copy of “Pong”, on some CD-ROM or other, and showed it off proudly to a 12-year-old boy. “See? This was state-of-the-art when it came out.” He maintained a respectful silence for a couple seconds, then said, “Well, I have to go outside now.” I think he thought I was pulling his leg.

:rolleyes:

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen

They cost something in the neighborhood of $30,000 a pop, for one. Assuming it’s an average machine that’s 50 cents a play (some are 75 or a dollar now), it would take 60,000 plays for the store to break even.

Not exactly economicaly sound.

And who’s going to come to play one machine? So to actually get enough people to play them, you’d need several to draw people to them. At that point you might as well open up an arcade, 'cause that’s what you’d be competing with.

When Asteroids was king, the whole concept was rather novel. Store owners were riding a fad.

Now, it’s a bona-fide industry. Having a 5 year old game is one one heavy and expensive paper-weight. If you want people to play your machines, you need to have up to date ones. More money, less profit. Again, you might as well open up an arcade if you’re going to take into acount all this stuff.

So grocery stores are safer sticking to groceries.


Kupek’s Den

Grocery stores probably make more money without arcade games, even if they were free (for the store). Instead of hanging out at the video game, they are tagging along with their parents, nagging them to buy extra stuff! :slight_smile:

Arjuna34

Um…$30,000 a pop? Not quite. This link-- http://www.arcadeshop.com/games.htm --has some of the classics (Galaga, Ms. PacMan, Centipede), fully restored, for sale at $1,895. This link: http://www.carobinson.com/used/video2.htm has a list of various games with their price, including some of the more recent games. The most expensive game is NAMCO Alpine Racer Delux, at $6,695. I believe this is the game where the player stands on a snowboard or skis to manipulate his video counterpart in the race–a large, expenisve, complicated, and recent game. FWIW, There are several other sites offering coin-op arcade games for sale; it’s easy to do a search and locate them.

Modern games are more pricey, but $5,000 is the average price, not $30,000. I’m curious to know where you saw them offered at that price? What the flip kind of game was it? It must be a helluva ride.


Teaching: The ultimate birth control method.

Laura’s Stuff and Things

Those were links to places that sell used games. Very big difference.

Arcade game prices follow a U curve. The most recent ones (I’m talking a month old here) and the oldest (the classics) are the most expensive. Things inbetween bottom out at some average age, then start going back up.

It’s been a while since I read that article in Electronic Gaming Monthly on arcade games, and how much they cost (among other things), but I guarentee that your new games will cost more than $5,000. A sit down one will cost updwards of $10,000, I believe.

When Ruffian asked why grocery stores don’t have videogames anymore, I interperted that as meaning why they don’t carry current arcade games, i.e., why didn’t they continue doing what they did way back when. Current and popular games, made by the likes of Sega, Midway or Capcom are the big draws, and are what I think of when someone says “arcade games.”

Anyway, my figure of $30,000 was way off, but the point still stands: They wouldn’t make a profit. For them to have the most current games, they’d need to buy the machines every three months or so.


Kupek’s Den

I would just like to say that almost all the grocery stores in my area do still have video games and so do several of the smaller convenience stores.


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A Jesusfied sig: Next time I covet thine opinion, I’ll ask for it!

kupek:

When your local convenience store or supermarket has a video game in it, the owners have not bought it. They allow it to sit there to draw customers. The game rental company collects the money it makes. On top of that, the store doesn’t pay to rent it; if anything, the game company pays the store back for the electricity!

My WAG as to why you see it less often is simply because the proliferation of home gaming systems and PC’s has led to a decline in willingness to pay for games outside of the home. (Like Notthemama said.)

I love video games…and I generally won’t play the ones I see in the stores any more. Most of them are sports sims, which I don’t like. Plus, I’ve got a great collection of games at home, for my computer, my SNES, and my Playstation.

I used to spend $5 to $10 on games when I went out shopping.

Lynn

Asteroids has come and gone, but my grocery store still carries my favorite quarter-wasting activity; the gumball machine that offers a whoopie cushion, rubik’s cube, or rubber vomit but only gives a plastic pinky ring with a spider on it.

I’ve been playing the same machine for years and I still get a charge out of turning the chrome knob and hearing the secret surprise rattle into place behind the little door. Each time I’m sure it’s the rubber vomit. It never is but I don’t mind.

I know I could buy rubber vomit at the mall for a couple of bucks but it seems wrong somehow, rubber vomit must be fairly won and the little spider rings look nice on my dashboard.


My local arcade has mostly high end, new tech machines. One is a multi player, sit-in racing sim that up to five can play at once. the screen spans across the entire length of the “cockpits” (about 10-12 feet). The entire thing takes up most of one wall. I see no problem with this thing costing tens of thousands of dollars. It costs $1.00 a play and the kids are always waiting in line to get in it. Another game there is the M-4. The M-4 is an enclosed flight simulator with an intricate hydrolic (sp) system that rocks the entire unit to coordinate with the players flight responses. This one is $5.00 a play. there is also a galaga machine. I play the latter.

I can’t speak for your respective parts of the country, but in San Diego, the two Wal-marts in my area both have 5 video games each. And every 7-11 I’ve been to in recent memory still has them.

As was already mentioned though, the stores would rather have little Timmy/ Suzy ride with Mom and Dad down the aisles demanding all kinds of sweets and other crap in the grocery store, rather than blowing money on a game.

Plus, I think the nature of the games themselves have changed. Once apon a time when there were games like Galaga and Asteroids, a good player could play for hours on a quarter with no end in sight, and it didn’t take ALL that much skill to become good. Plus they were novel and cool. Now the games come in two varieties: 1) players play each other in which case…someone loses quickly and must re-insert their quarter to play again (heavy turnover), or with games that you are good enough to play on for a while…well, you just ‘reach the end’. And, of course, every modern coinop game has five joysticks, 12 buttons, and three knobs to control everything from the sweat glands to the hair style of the on-screen charater. Thus insuring that it will take a good LOOOOONG while (and plenty of quarters) for you to get the hang of it. I think most people play it a few times, and give up in disgust and decide to wait for it to be released on Sega or N64.

This talk puts me in mind of the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Visited there during a conference I attended last year. The boardwalk arcade has to be seen to be believed. Every game of lore, and I mean every game, was there. I was popping quarters left and right… Galaxian… Atari’s Star Wars… Marble Madness… 1942… Centipede… Joust… Pac Man and Ms Pacman… even a b&w Asteroids!

I didn’t think I could possibly be any happier until I heard the low, rhythmic beats coming from the next row over. I followed the familier sounds to the source… a bona fide, fully restored, all working, complete with original cabinet and artwork Space Invaders. I kid you not! I wasted a few more coins and relived those golden moments of my misspent youth. sigh

And just for the record… SI is one hell of a tough game! Also, for the record, much as I enjoy my PC games (never owned a console game, save for my old Atari 2600), nothing beats inserting a coin and taking the machine as far as you can. Putting something on the line, even something as meager as a quarter, adds an extra element you can’t get at home.

Yep, there are a few in the Wal-Mart, but if you want REAL ARCADE Games, go to an arcade. I was in one in Springfield (IL) last weekend and it had this awesome game of street luge where you actually had to rock back and forth in the seat and push little pedals for brakes. It was 50 cents per play, but if you’re good, two quarters can last you a while. Same with Pinball. I think dwtno was right in that when you pay, you play harder because you can’t just push reset and start over. Anyway, sort of a hijack I guess, but I did put the thing about the Wal-Mart in the beginning.


Well, either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge or you are not aware of the power of the presence of a pool table in your community. Ya’ got trouble my friends! -
Prof. Harold Hill
Gary Conservatory
Gold Medal Class
'05

To answer an earlier question, I think Virtua Fighter 3 went for either $20,000 or $30,000 when it first came out, but this was way more than most arcade games were going for at the time. The reason it was so expensive was that it was using Sega’s then new Model 3 board, which displayed graphics that were miles ahead of anything available at the time. VF3 came out in 1996, and it was only with the release of Soul Calibur last year for the Dreamcast that a fighting game finally managed to look better than VF3.


Mr. Armageddon
“Just when you thought you had all the answers, I went and changed the questions!”–Roddy Piper