GhostLord00

The door fee fixed so many issues. The concept called for the arcade to have a lot of rare games and get people to try them. On a pay per play system, its sometimes tough to get people to risk money on new things. This way people could try everything without that worry. If they don't like a game, they can just walk away.

It would allow players to play games for score in a better way as well. We also wanted our players to be here for a long time to really feel they got their moneys worth.
Players can finally get to play all the way through games like Terminator 2 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and not have it cost them $15 on its own. On a business level, Brookfield only allowed 6 coin operated machines to be in a location. Also as the games aren't coin operated the per machine tax is avoided. On a maintenance level it complete gets rid of coin jams and you don't have to collect the coins. You don't have to deal with frustrated people saying a machine ate their quarter. When people are frustrated with games for that reason often they will take it out on the machine which can lead to more repairs that are needed.
It reduces the chance of people just loitering about too. Its been a complete positive thing for us and I honestly couldn't imagine going pay per play in today scene.
We are very open with our numbers to people trying to open new arcades. Please contact me privately and we will help however we can!

Thank you! I've lived in Brookfield my whole life and the town was very open to work with us. Several towns that are close by were opposed to having an arcade open in them.
Our main arcade is 7,500 square feet...at the time it seemed it would take forever to fill the building. We are looking into adding a 2nd floor which would allow us to have close to 1,300 games. So while we are out of space currently we have options to continue to grow and make the location work for us.

Absolutely! Alcohol is not something that will ever happen at the Galloping Ghost Arcade. Its crazy profitable but it does change the atmosphere. There are of course bar-cades that do really well. For me its really the difference of is it a bar with a few arcade games (which back in the day was EVERY bar), that cashing in on the arcade gaming hype and then there are arcades that happen to serve alcohol.
Hopefully more arcades will continue to open that focus on being great arcades and nothing more.

Opening a good arcade really takes research. We've helped 9 arcades open since we opened and are currently helping 14. Some will be amazing places and others we hope the best for them. We went to 80+ locations (arcades, pool halls, theaters, roller rinks and really any place that had arcade games) BEFORE the business model was written. We walked away with a huge amount of notes of "this works" and "this doesn't" and a list of what we thought needed to be better. There is so much data out there now and we are always willing to help any new location open and share what made our place work. We encourage places to come hang out here for days...talk to our players and see why they are travelling from all over the world to come play here. Recognize that so much has been attempted and its to the point where a really safe business model can be put in to place.
Maintenance is also key. You have to make sure you can keep all your games running. Its one of the biggest elements that made arcades fail in the past. You can't have a ton of games down. You have to be able to get into the community and track down parts and have an ways to fix games that there simply aren't parts for anymore.

There have been several difficult games to get running but its really been a huge part of the fun for me (and Brandon and Seth). We love the challenge of fixing stuff. We have yet to run in to the game so far that we couldn't get running, but some do take time. We are to the point where we have to 3D print rare parts that we might need but again that is really one of the fun parts. Having to innovate and create new ways to keep the games working. The biggest challenge now is dealing with the massive number of games.