Bill Brasky Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Does anyone have the old prices(not list prices, what they actually sold for) of what classic arcade machines cost new? Scramble, Pac Man, Galaxian, Wiz of Wor etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcadebasement Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 In the early 80s (in the UK) I was looking to buy a used Space invaders cab. From memory, I could've got one for £800, with the new price being around 3 grand. A search on google's groups from 1981 to 1983 reveals that the arcade game Dragon's Lair cost $4K so the figures from memory seem about right (electronics often go dollar for pound, so you can ignore the US/UK exchange rate in this case). So I would say the costs are more or less the same as today for the same games. Anything up to a grand for used and 3-4 grand for new. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 Bernie's Amusements in Fairfax told me about the good old days once... He used to go to a distributor in PA and buy a semi-load of Pac/Ms. Pac's and pay 2800 each. He would flip them on the way home to other vendors for 3500 and end up with a few freebies when he got them home. Mind you he had been a vendor for almost 25 years in 1980....connections made the world go arond when this stuff blew up. He still had Pongs he would take to kiddie parties along with moon bounces until just a few years ago. Only guy I ever worked for that had no idea what he actually owned. C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CARTRIDGE STEALER Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 I always wondered that as well........... I mean, I didnt think they went for more than $1000 because I just didnt know what the turnaround was for a profit, even though I worked in an arcade for a bit. I remember seeing video arcade games being tossed to the garbage back in the day. those were the days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cassidy Nolen Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 You used to have a profit structure that the machine should pay for itself in 10 months (ie: if it was a 3K piece, it needed to make 300 your end each month. That would be 600 gross if you assume a 50-50 split which was industry standard for operators. Companies like Time Out usually owned the machines outright or made payments to the big distributors). A Pac or Galaga could easily make 600 a month gross back then. Thats 20 bucks a day per machine. Easy to do. You'd probably make more a few days a week than the others. The problem with that model today is two fold; one the machines are WAY too expensive for what they are (IE: a Force 2006 Diamond runs what, 7500 bucks) and two; they are outdated so quickly you have to pay for upgrades. Its literally impossible for the little dealers to stay afloat with the cost of new equipment. The big guys can buy it new, operate it at the premium locations for the year its current then maybe six months after that at a second level stop, then resell it at auction for some of the profits back. Upgrade kits are the real value now, but you have to have the locations that support it. Even the upgrades are expensive. Trivia; Pac buckets only held about 350-400 before they would break off. Ms. Pac has the carriage bolts through to hold the bucket on and was a bigger catch can. It would hold 7-800 before you had problems I have even see the bottoms of them so full of quarters they shorted out the isolation transformer I remember seeing video arcade games being tossed to the garbage back in the day. those were the days! I do too Man if I had a time machine and a pick up truck... C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brasky Posted October 16, 2006 Author Share Posted October 16, 2006 I understand that operators have to make a profit but I remember how shortly after Dragon's Lair came out, they bumped all games up to .50 cents a play. It might've made sense for DL since it probably cost more than other machines and was high maintenence. They were making money when it was .25 a play and the cost of the machines didn't double. It seemed like a dumb and greedy move to me. When it went up to .50 a game for all games, I stopped playing arcade games entirely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcadebasement Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 In the UK in 1982 the Royal Mint actually introduced a completely new coin for arcades - the 20 pence piece. There was no coin between 10p and 50p and it was felt that people wouldn't pay 50p for arcade games (yet). So out came the 20 and all of a sudden lots of games were 20p. Later on, when people began accepting that paying 50p per game was normal, the mint stopped producing the pound note replacing that with a coin and as if by magic the more popular games (and pool tables and slot machine 'fruities') jumped from 50p to a quid. There's now a two pound coin too! It's hard to imagine any industry these days having such a dominating force on the format that money is made for an entire country. 20p coin Pound coin Two pound coin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brasky Posted October 16, 2006 Author Share Posted October 16, 2006 It wasn't bad enough that the price of playing a game doubled, most games, especially SEGA's, introduced timers to all their games. As if they weren't hard enough already, you had to play against a clock you could barely beat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paranoid Posted October 16, 2006 Share Posted October 16, 2006 In the UK in 1982 the Royal Mint actually introduced a completely new coin for arcades - the 20 pence piece. There was no coin between 10p and 50p and it was felt that people wouldn't pay 50p for arcade games (yet). So out came the 20 and all of a sudden lots of games were 20p. Later on, when people began accepting that paying 50p per game was normal, the mint stopped producing the pound note replacing that with a coin and as if by magic the more popular games (and pool tables and slot machine 'fruities') jumped from 50p to a quid. There's now a two pound coin too! It's hard to imagine any industry these days having such a dominating force on the format that money is made for an entire country. 20p coin Pound coin Two pound coin I always figured it was a gimmick to make yanks feel like we were paying for our pints with pocket change at the local... Always seems to be how it feels to me, until I wake up the next morning and realize that each quarter-sized pound is about $2 US. I have *never* seen a two pound coin in such immaculate condition, either. You'll see shiny, newly minted quarters in the U.S. all the time, but the coinage in England always looks like it has been floating around the country since WWII. But really, a 20 pound note doesn't last very long before you've got a pocket full of coins... whereas the smaller bill denominations here last longer before you start breaking them down into change/coin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBman80 Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 Well here is what Star Wars, Asteroids, Battle Zone, and Missile Command cost Atari to build now I guess you just have to find out what they sold for then you can estimate how much they made off each game. At least it’s a start someone should compile a list of all the old games and what they cost to build and what they sold for. missilecost.pdf asteroidscost.pdf battlezonecost.pdf starwarscosts.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shawn Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 (edited) The 2 pound coin looks too much like the Canadian 2 dollar coin! Looks like you guys still have foot hold over here after all Edited October 17, 2006 by Shawn Sr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBman80 Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 So according to my production sheets Asteroids costs were $776 a cabinet (material costs) they sold "Asteroids remains Atari's bestselling arcade game of all time, with approximately 56,565 units produced (47,840 upright and 8,725 cocktail) in total.". So I'm guessing that the production sheet I got is just the cost of a full sized upright so 47,840 uprights made at an approximate cost of $776 each you’re looking at Atari's approximate material costs at $3,712,340 just for Asteroids now I really want to know what they sold for. Star Wars Approximately 12,700 units were produced At $1249 Approx material cost Atari's Approx material cost $15,773,400 Missile Command Approximately 20,000 units were produced. At $871 Approx material cost Atari's Approx material cost $17,420,000 Battle Zone Approximately 15,020 units were produced. At $853 Approx material cost Atari's Approx material cost $12,812,060 Got all my production number information here http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=database Just thought it would be interesting to figure this out the $1 amounts are insane!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazy Climber Posted October 17, 2006 Share Posted October 17, 2006 I always wondered that as well........... I mean, I didnt think they went for more than $1000 because I just didnt know what the turnaround was for a profit, even though I worked in an arcade for a bit. I remember seeing video arcade games being tossed to the garbage back in the day. those were the days! Yeah, my buddy scored an Asteroids that was tossed back in the 80's. I remember he ended up throwing it away himself a few years later when the monitor blew on him. I never understood that, how can you just throw away something so cool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.bill Posted October 21, 2006 Share Posted October 21, 2006 (edited) So according to my production sheets Asteroids costs were $776 a cabinet (material costs) they sold "Asteroids remains Atari's bestselling arcade game of all time, with approximately 56,565 units produced (47,840 upright and 8,725 cocktail) in total.". So I'm guessing that the production sheet I got is just the cost of a full sized upright so 47,840 uprights made at an approximate cost of $776 each you’re looking at Atari's approximate material costs at $3,712,340 just for Asteroids now I really want to know what they sold for. Star Wars Approximately 12,700 units were produced At $1249 Approx material cost Atari's Approx material cost $15,773,400 Missile Command Approximately 20,000 units were produced. At $871 Approx material cost Atari's Approx material cost $17,420,000 Battle Zone Approximately 15,020 units were produced. At $853 Approx material cost Atari's Approx material cost $12,812,060 Got all my production number information here http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=database Just thought it would be interesting to figure this out the $1 amounts are insane!!! Battlezone would be an interesting game to analyze.. Atari redesigned the game to open face (people complaining). The game also did not sell very well so they made red baron be a kit upgrade for the game. So there is a lot of time and material costs wasted on battlezone. Also atari sold a lot of games at discount and close out prices. (There are some data sheets out there showing the sale prices). Finally atari sold some game to employees. I am pretty sure the going rate was $300. Edited October 21, 2006 by mr.bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBman80 Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 Yeah it would be great if all the information was available for that stuff I sure it's floating around somewhere. That was just more or less an Idea of what they were spending material wise on the games. I'm sure some of them cost much more to produce than what my estimation came out to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 Yeah it would be great if all the information was available for that stuff I sure it's floating around somewhere. Wouldn't old arcade industry magazines from the time (e.g. Play Meter) probably have prices for arcade games in their time. Maybe just look for some mags from 80-83 on ebay or something. I'll tell you this much I remember reading when I was a kid that the standard arcade cabinet price was 2000-3500 bucks. That sounds about right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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