 I was playing games on the big computers when I was in school and then summers I was working in the arcades and so I really understood the economics of the coin-operated game business and Pong wasn't very good as a one-player game and so we were unable to license it that simple and so I said I know this thing will make money let's give it a go and we'll do it ourselves the unit was making so much more money than any other coin-op machine that I knew that it was gonna have it be a huge hit I just know if you're looking for teenagers in Mount Prospect Illinois you're likely to find them at Mother's pinball arcade they're part of a growing group of video and estimate Americans spent up to eight billion dollars on video games last year 1981 Americans popped in between five and nine billion dollars worth of quarters and tokens into the slots of arcade video games that's more money than the total combined budget cities of Chicago Boston Washington Dallas and Cincinnati last year these around the country are passing laws banning the video games from their town some areas have even passed laws restricting the use of the games but will this popularity last is the question while the makers of video games are gambling that it will my name my name is Lonny Sobel and I'm the the manager here at Chinatown Fair I've been in a half a dozen different businesses mostly related to the to the game industry you know almost all arcades 95% of them have gone out of business over the years this arcade closed up two years ago and and we reopened it because you know we made a lot of changes it's very hard just to do what I'm doing which is just have a dedicated arcade with nothing really to go with it no food no drinks it's really just pure pinball and arcade machines so I'm kind of in a dilemma because I have a regular full-time job this is done as kind of a side job for me and it doesn't make any money really to be able to support my myself or my family as a occupation there are only so many video games out there that people you know want to play in the arcade and show off their skills and the industry has basically kind of changed in the sense that it's moved towards more games where they can win prizes so when trying to have our closed it was very much a fighting game arcade and then when trying to have our reopened as a new arcade it very much adopted the more the family fun center type of arcade and it's not relying on fighting games or dance games is it's relying on redemption games Dave and Buster's type of games and that seems to be the only type of arcade that is making money right now kids have been conditioned over the last 10 15 maybe even 20 years to expect that out of an arcade when they come in here and they don't see these machines spitting out tickets a lot of kids don't understand that because that's all they've ever seen a machine do is spit out tickets I am Benjamin Thoburn I am the I guess purchasing manager here at coin up warehouse I primarily go out and find the stuff buy the stuff do a lot of the deliveries pickups and some of the repairs on a lot of the machines we sell antique arcade equipment jukeboxes antique signs anything I find cool the business itself is not very strong so it's actually a great time for me to buy because a lot of people are in the business are tired of having equipment sitting in their warehouses so it's actually the best it's ever been for me for buying and yet there's still plenty of demand for people who want this stuff in their homes majority of the stuff we actually sell to collectors and other dealers that they've been looking for Mortal Kombat for years and they've used to play it as a kid or you know they played miss pac-man in the local bar so they want one if a guy walks in that's my age he wants Pac-Man or Galaga somebody walks in that's 25 or 30 they want NBA Jam or Simpsons or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which to me are not that interesting but it's interesting that people buy what they remember there's actually been a pretty big revival lately of putting the older classic games back in bars and restaurants and barcade has been a real good customer for us that they're doing they're basing their bar around the classic games our kind of core audience is like early 30s mid 30s people who at least remember the games and maybe they were too young to play them but maybe they played them at home the games are all priced at their original price which is 25 cents and our drinks are six seven eight nine twelve dollars so the money we're making is definitely coming from the bar the economic model for it is tough because you can't charge too much because your audience that you're that's gonna be playing for the most part are adults that remember paying a certain amount of money a couple of things have happened the arcade business got very expensive you know you go to an arcade now it's not a quarter it's 50 cents a buck for three minutes that's really really expensive play and that's the problem you know my goal for opening this business was just to make it sustain itself basically people play a lot more at home than they than they do in the in the arc in the arcades my kids will you know have already on the iPad spend 30 40 dollars buying almost every game that that has come out I mean they can play pac-man and Donkey Kong on their PlayStation or Xbox but it's nice to play it in you know an authentic cabinet and get the experience like they remember having when they were playing it back in the early 80s in an arcade I loved going to time out in Springfield Mall every Sunday and I'd spend 20 bucks putting it into asteroids and the early black-and-white games with what they were when I was a kid but I don't see it coming back for with the current type of machines that they have I think it's pretty much over well I think the arcade is never gonna be what it was I don't think the arcade will ever be completely dead it's just gonna keep changing I've been to things where there's a whole amphitheater full of people watching other people play video games you know some of the Starcraft conventions and things like that these are people where all of a sudden it's like a professional sporting event I think that there will be much more of that in the future you know kids need a place to go and hang out something where they can do something you know constructive or entertaining and I think that the culture has lost something by by losing these what I'd call loosely formed club houses I think that there's a very big opportunity in creating a new kind of arcade new kind of experience it's maybe not your definition of an arcade but it will give the arcade kind of experience to players in the future