I Need Help And Advice

Hey all

As the topic suggests, I need some advice but not the help part yet.

In the next year or three, I'm looking at quitting the casino business and running my own little business. I'm looking at leasing an entertainment venue and owning an entertainment/arcade business. It seems like a long shot but its always been my dream to own my own arcade since I was a a lil boy. Anyone remember the old Downtown with the rollerskating rink? It was way way back but something I'll never ever forget. I originally wanted to lease the venue formerly known as Tilt but thats gone now; and it wont happen as they've divided that place up. I'd love to build one in the city coz theres definitely a market for it there...primarily school kids and uni students.

I've been a chef and managed a few restaurants for my dad, but owning and managing an entertainment/arcade business is a whole new ball game.

Theres so many questions to ask but I dont even know where to start. My biggest question would be is how to do it all on the cheap?? I'm gonna go back to Uni but not do my Psychology degree...gonna give Marketing/Management a try! This will help wont it?? I'm so unsure of this but its worth a punt i reckon.

Any feed back would be appreciated.

Buy pokies, and a coffee machine.... you'll be loaded in 12 months, then build your arcade in town

No way man...pokies are EVIL!!! I lost $800 the other night syndicating with people from work.

i rest my case

get an alcohol licencing and market it to ravers in the morning, i know flashy lights fluffy toys and alcohol is all i need after a big night out raving, plus being an RP i'd be more than happy to run the bar

Oldskoolie has a point there!

Pokies should still have no place in what punkPEN's hoping for,
hey asianphunkpenomina, to you mind if i call you punkPEN i
find it catchy?

ergh...I was thinking more a venue thats suitable to families and the like. Not a full-on place that sells alcohol and such. Remember Tilt, Downtown, Timezone...those sorta places with the prize games and arcades and pool tables and air hockey.

Only thing that is putting me off is the size of the venue, its location, renovation costs (if any), the lease and the agreements that go with it, the running and start-up costs. Then comes the getting all the arcades and stuff, hiring of staff (or I could just get a work experience student each week)....and the big one...FINDING A VENUE!!!



LOL!!! yeah...thats cool bro...asianfunkphenomena is a mouthful I'd have to admit

the other alternatives are:
Sang
Funka - but thats what Queen of Whatever calls me, so you gotta ask her 1st b4 using it
Funkboy
or Sexy

ooh ooh...a new thread maybe?!

follow your heart and do what you feel like you want to do not others

ask gabbie, Fallen Angel G about running an arcade in the city. somthing aboutnoise limits and also city planning shit..

dont think they can be done in the city anymore..


but would love to see your dream come true. as i got nothing but fond memories as a kid in those sortys of places!

AIRHOCKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cris P and i played air hockey for 12 hrs at a Timezone lock in a few years back.... That was a WANGING good time !

When i was in Sydney thay arcades every where. Even darling harbour had one and thay where always packed. Admititly it was a fri night and sat night and sunday but never the less there was a hell alot of people in there. To come to think of it is there any arcades left in Adelaide? I no theres a couple of machines at Cinemas but theres not actual arcades, is there?

ahh those were the days. the sweat, the knuckle pain, and muscles i didnt know i had. yes yes i love air hockey.

Sang if you do open a place ill be there. Location would be a problem yeah. would have to be in the city though. elsewhere is pretty much covered. theres bound to be some derelict warehouses about the place though. you could always light a fire in Earth. but it wasnt my idea ok?

have you thought of getting a business partner - that would help in terms of doing it cheaper and means that you don't have to be there minding the place 24 x 7 when you get it up and running... I'm sure there would be allot of other people interested... so many boys have this dream!!! LOL.... I'd be starting out by sourcing venues (or what you think you need if not an actual venue), put together a list of things you need to put in there, eg: machines, lighting, refreshment stand, cashier booths etc and start getting prices. There are shops around that lease out and sell arcade games aren't there? If you don't have a problem approaching a stranger for advice talk them about their views, they'd probably have a wealth of excperience and insider type knowledge that'd be hard to find elsewhere. Talk to Gabbie and get her take on it, even just go into one of the arcade places and see if the manager would be willing to chat to you about it more, even ask if you can do some work experience in their back office to get a gist of the way they run day to day.

And most importantly, put together a sound business plan with steps on what you want to do, when you want to achieve it by, costs, requirements etc... that way if you have to look at financing you're ready for the banks or lenders!

Oh, just remembered that morph has a few arcade games at his place so might be able to point you in the direction of who to talk to in terms of the actual machines???

I swear everyone was staring at us

Yeah...at the moment location is the big problem as well as finding a place that is suitable and big enough. I might have to scrap the whole rollerskating rink idea tho and just go with the video games, pool tables and air hockey. Might have to give the whole redemption games a miss too.


I was going to get a business partner but he (my dad) didnt like it. The man is very difficult to work with and actually put me down in terms of the type of business I want to start.

I did know a few of the owners of Tilt and Timezone Meridian. The guy who ran Tilt worked at the casino and also owns half of the Berkely. I've looked at the suppliers for the games....its pretty much everything else. Theres so much to learn; but at least theres plenty of time for that.

Thanx all. So far, I know what I want and that I can get some slave labour outta you lot or I'll just employ a different work experience student each week.

Any more ideas just post the here please

3 Words...

SUPER! MARIO! KART!

Really?! I didnt know they had Super Mario Kart as an arcade.

I've got Super Mario Kart for my Gamecube.

Yeah man, Super Mario Kart is awesome! I'm anthems Undisputed King of SMK! Anybody wanna step up and challenge???

now theres an idea.

fill the place with oldschool games. would bring a lot of geeks out of the woodwork. youd have to market it as that though.

oldschool arcade etc.

mate if you open an arcade i'll b their 4 sure. hell i got one in my lounge. the thing a lot of arcade places forget is the old skool games... all you see now is those machines that pump out tickets and prizes, and shooting games. keep old skool games goin man. Mortal Kombat and street fighter, pac man, daytona, air hockey, DDR. have a few glass table top machines, all great games. new games r great but ppl love the retro machines just as much.

F*CK!!

thats insane!! sorry im a bit excited right now.

would be the way to go i reckon. like you said people forget about the oldschool games but as far as gameplay goes they shit all over the newschool.

i agree totally chris. graphics may not b as good but game play is where its at. could even have lock in nights with a DJ in the place..

now were talking!!

you'd just about be able to set up you own JP

yeah its slowly gettin that way. i got no room 4 any more but i know if i had the chance 2 buy more i will.. lol

3 words... Its Your Piquet

its your 2 player 32 card, card game?

pi·quet also pic·quet

A card game for two people, played with a deck from which all cards below the seven, aces being high, are omitted.

a card game for two players using a reduced pack of 32 cards




ok.......

an arcade would b a great venture, probably something i'd enjoy myself, but its got 2 b better than everyone else. old games, new games, some food and drink. multi play PC games with internet maybe (depends if thats what u want 2 do) a DJ on special nights. always good music playing, good atmosphere. pictures of sonic and mario and street fighter all over the place.. lol

Hahahahahahaha i bet you were!

QUOTE(SUPERSHOOTER @ Jun 16 2006, 12:25 PM)
3 Words...

SUPER! MARIO! KART!





SNES!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Old school video games are the only ones i really like to play, mario kart is like awesome...!

YAY!!! I found a venue but I'm not too sure bout it coz theres no "For Lease/for Sale" signs on it. If I found the right investors, I could build a multi story entertainment venue. Rollerskating rink (now thats old skool), bumper cars and plenty of room for a DJ console.

ooooohhh...I'm all giddy just thinking about it. I'll let ya know more until I find out more info from the Adelaide City Council and Gabi regarding these restriction and zoning laws.

I've considered the whole LAN gaming set-up as well, but having some high-end PC's could cost heaps.

Anywho...I'm preparing a business plan (well...I will soon) to proposition a few people.

Old skool games are a good idea but wouldnt the maintenance costs be extravagant compared to the new games. I'd definitely put some old games like Street Fighter II (anyone remember Guiles Superthrow?), Galaga, 4 player games, etc there.

i'll work for ya funka dont no how much work would get done with all the talkin i would do hehehe but if i can help out in any way let me no

indeed old games have better "game play"

but Ithink an important issue is "location location location"

it depends on the old games u have man. a street fighter game board is fairly cheap and so it Mortal Kombat. but an original Pacman could be quite expensive. i'v been 2 arcade auctions and some stuff goes pretty cheap.. but then some stuff really suprised me... all this talk about arcade machines makes me wanna go fire up the ones in the lounge...


i think the best street fighter is Marvel V street fighter....... love that game.. i'd love 2 work in a good arcade. surrounded by all those machines, the sound they all make @ the same time 2 make that cool arcade venue sound....... shit yeah. we need a good arcade in adelaide... the only thing that puts a downer on things, and the reason i didnt place my machines in shops is those little punks that think its funny 2 pull of any original art work that may be on the cabinet, bend and smash anything remotely loose on the thing...... i hate that so much..

:-)

Argh. Ok, here's the thing.

You can't open an ARCADE in town because of the zoning laws (don't ask me what they are, go to the zoning law place and ask THEM, lol) you'd have to open like a LAN place and then have arcade games up the back.

And as for having retro games, uber g33ks can just download the ROMs and spend their hard earned $$ on more hard drive space, they don't need to go to the arcade.

Super Mario Kart (Arcade Edition) cost $35k and that was just for ONE machine. You would need the biggest mofo bank loan that you can imagine.

Yes, it's a great idea, but it's not very simple and not very easy and I'll talk to you more about it later. I'd come work for you but I don't think you could afford what I'm getting paid now

G.

I always knew the whole arcade entertainment business was expensive and i'd already planned for that. Plus, I dont have to buy the machines, I've talked to a few people and they say I can get a few machines on a 'lease and share profits' scheme.

Maybe I can build a few arcade cabinets or buy a few empty ones and just put in all my emus and roms in there....and charge people to play them.

And who says i cant afford you Gabbie. I can pay you $1 more than what you're getting now and you get plenty of cuddles and stuff. There are niche benefits working for me

I think I could do LAN or just a cafe/snackbar with lots of arcades out back. I'm thinking big here.

I looked around town and there is hardly any good places that have decent arcade games. Aussie Pizza House on Hindley, Hindmarsh Square Cinemas and Uni Bar are pretty much it.



I'd employ you straight away as long as you can talk them into spending heaps of money. But can you wait up to 3 years as I'm currently in the ideas stage and developing a business plan.

YAY!!!! I'm gonna own an arcade.

This is a cool idea good luck!

thanks man

i hope you're feeling much better now.

Yeah I'm cool dude didn't get to meet you at Decadance though

next time definitely plus I was in a grumpy mood for a bit so i wouldnt want to meet me . I'm still peeved at someone tho.

No worries, the whole business of buying their drinks and them not looking remotely like they were having fun?

Didnt bother me so much bout the drinks and the ticket. He just hyped himself so much bout it and bugged the hell outta me to take him, then pissed me off bout how crap it is. It wasnt crap...I had fun.........eventually.

I found out that it'd cost me anywhere from 800k to close to a mil to start off the business. All I have to do now is convince my folks to lend me $500,000 to start and it'll be good.

I had a conversation with my dad earlier....he'd give me the money if I gave him back 77% of the profits. Fk that!!! My reply to him..."cant you just sell some of your rental properties and give me the money?".

So from this day forward, I'll be whoring myself to live my dream. Rates are at $100 an hour - discounts for Anthemites and RA'ers

Lol... We'll see about that! In all seriousness I'm doing my management course as we speak (will be completed in 5 months or something) and I'd be more than happy to talk this thru with you whenever, just not on the internet cuz it's going to require way too much bloody typing!

Let me know when City Council get back to you and we'll start chatting.

G.

Definitely. It is too much typing but I'm definitely gonna go thru with this even if it means I'll eventually go bankrupt.

G. What are you doing tonight?

Ugh. Lots of nothing but I've been at work all day Please don't make me talk about work Lol.

My next day off is Tuesday. We can talk then, lol.

G.

LOL!!! I love talking about work..........negatively.

Tuesdays are family days for me. But I'll be up north for that to see good ol mummy and daddy. Msg me...I finally got credit. YAY!!!

Not really, now that Macs have Intels, you can boot into Windoze...god forbid...while only paying $2K for an iMac that's ready to rock n roll!

But who wants to play on a Mac?

Ewwww....

G.

Oi, when you can beat me at Super Mario Kart, then I'll listen

I think I'd rather pay $2k for an AMD dual core with a basic 6600GT instead . It'll be better coz I know nothing bout Apple except that they make ipods.