Where Do You Get The Games? 133
rafemonkey writes: "After nearly ten years, sysadmining has finally broken me. It's not the computers or the long hours, it's the freakin' users ... But, that's beside the point. In looking for an escape route, I settled on the idea of opening a used/classic video game shop. I'm fairly comfortable with busines plans, taxes and all the "mechanical" things, but the big question is: How do you get your inventory to start? Are there places you can get a bulk order of atari 5200 carts? Are there suppliers in japan who will wholesale you the really cool stuff? Or do I have to spend the next six months at conventions and lurking on eBay? TIA!"
Spy Hunter (Score:1)
franchises (Score:2)
Taco will sell you his PS2 and games (Score:1)
Oh yeah, he's got a stack of Who CD's to get rid of too.
Come on, this is Slashdot.. (Score:4)
I'm afraid your business model doesn't take into account the fact that people who are interested in your product are terrible thieves.
Finally a buisness plan that makes sense (Score:1)
Here's where: (Score:1)
Hope this helps
there goes my career... (Score:1)
GGS (Score:2)
Where else? (Score:2)
I've often seen piles of Atari 2600 cartridges in there, the odd Coleco, a few C64s, etc.
Run away. Run far away. (Score:4)
The overhead starting this up, anywhere in meatspace where people will come and buy the stuff, is staggering.
That is why most games for "leet people" e.g. classic cult favorite games etc. get sold on the Net.
Niche market.
If you are selling the latest thing, then you have to compete with Best Buy.
I wish you the best of luck, though. Perhaps you can find a meatspace location where the little kids down the street have industrious, thrifty parents who have not yet upgraded from their SNES and Atari systems, and thus are looking for games for them.
Otherwise your market's folks who would be looking on the Net for convenience's sake in the first place. and they havent the overhead so their prices are lower too.
Flea markets and garage sales (Score:1)
I would say your best best is to go to flea markets and garage sales and the like. It would probably take a little while, but you could get carts there for a low enough price to actually have a little margin.
Also, long long ago when I worked at Gamestop we would occassionally have huge sales on used games just to clear inventory (usually after two or three kids came in with every Nintendo game ever made wanting to trade them for a new Playstation or something). You could pick up a LOT of really good games like that for well below market value there, too.
It's YOUR business (Score:1)
A place to look (Score:1)
As far as Atari games go (Score:4)
 
maybe if you still hurry, you can buy them all out and resell them
The Only Things I've Seen... (Score:2)
The only things that I've seen out there that might be easily available are old arcade machines. A lot of game distributors, especially small ones, still keep them on hand, and are often willing to sell you older ones that they'll never bring to a bar or wherever for a song.
For various cartridges, consoles, etc., there should be some large liquidators who have purchased those in the past and might have some on hand. Maybe you could contact the companies (if they still exist) to see if their sales records of old inventory are public.
Wish I could help more than that, but I think that you've got an incredible idea, and I'd be the first in line with a checkbook to invest.
If you think users are bad.... (Score:4)
Well, good luck, cuz you're gonna need it. I just wish I could see the look on your face when you have to answer the question for the seventh time in the same day (NO! C64's DON'T run if you snap off the cartridge inside the computer), and realize that users actually aren't that bad
The Only Things I've Seen... (Score:1)
The only things that I've seen out there that might be easily available are old arcade machines. A lot of game distributors, especially small ones, still keep them on hand, and are often willing to sell you older ones that they'll never bring to a bar or wherever for a song.
For various cartridges, consoles, etc., there should be some large liquidators who have purchased those in the past and might have some on hand. Maybe you could contact the companies (if they still exist) to see if their sales records of old inventory are public.
Wish I could help more than that, but I think that you've got an incredible idea, and I'd be the first in line with a checkbook to invest.
Bankrupcy Court (Score:3)
Additionally, if you offered people 1 NQA for their old games, I imagine you would get hundreds of takers. Some of the games you get in might actually be saleable.
Only Diehards won't use Mame and Nesticle (Score:5)
For example, I own an old Nintendo (Famicom) machine that I have kept in working order since childhood. Despite that fact, I play any Nintendo games I want to on Nesticle. Mario 3? Despite the fact that the Mario All-stars SNES (Supa Famicom) cartridge sits *on* my desk, I will load up SNES9x and play it, Zelda 3, Mario-Kart and all the other really great SNES games with my keyboard.
Older games, especially arcade boxes, have fallen into a kind of legal swamp because they're not really public domain but are treated that way anyway. They're even more easy to come by. Dozens, if not hundreds of really good Mame Rom sites exist on the net right now. They're very rarely shut down, SFAIK. YOu can get even more on Usenet, IRC, and Hotline. Build-Your-Own upright Mame box instructions have been posted to
Atari 2600-5200, NEC, and various other emulators are floating around out there. Considering the average speed and power of modern computers, they run the emulators easily while MP3's download in the background.
If you're going to sell Classic Games, I reccomend that you cater to collectors and arcades, people who are interested in *having* rather than *playing*. Otherwise, you're going to have a very hard time.
idea (Score:1)
where to find the "good stuff" (Score:1)
Ebay is the place to get your price check, just use your pda and compare. That will tell you when you are overpaying
ONEPOINT
spambait e-mail
my web site artistcorner.tv hip-hop news
please help me make it better
This fellow has millions (Score:2)
Note that he also sells those styling oldskool orange Atari shirts. nice.
This probably isn't a safe plan then.. (Score:3)
If you're worried about where you are going to get your product to sell and don't have any reliable source to get the product from, then this probably isn't a safe business. As far as I know no one makes Atari carts anymore so you are not going to be garaunteed a source of atari carts from anyone. What happens in the middle of your business when you run out of carts?
Right now there is a limited set of cartriges out in the world. Everytime someone breaks one, looses one, stuffs one in the attic, the supply goes down, and down is the only direction the supply will ever go in. So the longer your business stays up, the harder it will be to get cartriges.
You could make your own cartriges if you had the right hardware, but who knows what kind of legal implications this will get you into. Companies are not making these catriges anymore, yet they still feel the need that they should get money for their sales.
is this the new new economy? (Score:1)
You need to start with supliers and the supplies. then you can calculate your prices. and you need do some market research to find out if people will buy it.
then you make a businessplan
no the other way around
Is There a Market For It? (Score:4)
If you want to be profitable, you should try to obtain an inventory of only games that are collectors' items, and and old videogame memrobilia you can find. That's the stuff (along with old full-size game machines) that sells.
Lenny
Here is a tip (Score:1)
I am sure someone out there knows the link.
Also with the emu scene so strong do you think you really have a viable buisness plan.
Major Burnout (Score:1)
Unfortunately vintage doesn't pay the bills (Score:4)
If you are a brick and mortar operation that buys stuff from folks who walk in, then you know that you'll be paying them probably 20% of what its worth (Don't agree with me? Try selling anything to funcoland or a used CD store). Plus there will be plenty of kids showing up with a pile of newer RPGs that they beat in a week who just want anything they can get for them. These are the same kids who want to buy the newer stuff, not the 5200 carts.
Not that their isn't a market for the older stuff. Its just that you need to realize that the vintage games will be a small percentage of your business. In reality, if you want to move rarer items (original Tengen Tetris for NES for example) you will probably have to sell on eBay to get the price you want. That is the reality of the Niche business.
Basically what I'm saying is that the bulk of your inventory (and $$$) will be tied up with the newer stuff. So don't worry about combing conventions for copies of Yar's Revenge with the missprinted label (no, I don't know if this exists)
For what its worth.
Pete
Robotron 2084 (Score:1)
The guy I got them from would only sell me one if I agreed to take them all........
Hmmm... (Score:5)
Of course... you'd have to bring a shovel....
Here's a few...plus, don't forget the auctions! (Score:2)
Used Video Games [usedvideogames.com], Video Game Liquidators [vglq.com]...many of these places also do auctions on eBay [ebay.com]; often you can contact them directly and get better deals than you would get from bidding, but the auctions themselves are a good way to find the wholesalers and their websites/contact info. Good luck!
__
Where to L@@k (Score:2)
Also, there's about 10 million ET cartridges buried somewhere in southern california, look for a landfill shaped like that pile of dirt in Close Encounters ;-)
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It's a good idea.... (Score:2)
Re:It's YOUR business (Score:2)
He's asking Slashdot because there are smart peope who visit the site and contribute positively to it, unlike some, DUDE. Why would you assume that nobody within the Slashdot community hasn't opened their own business anyway? With a positive attitude like yours, the ability to type like you speak and the unwillingness to take a risk, I'm surprised we haven't yet seen you on the cover of Fortune Magazine.
Re:It's YOUR business (Score:1)
Re:Run away. Run far away. (Score:1)
I agree. However, if there were a place where people could go to play a wide variety of vintage games (for a pittance), while drinking beer and listening to music, I think it might be quite successful. I know my wife would be dragging me out of there on a regular basis.
A Better Idea: A Game Museum (Score:3)
Not only could visitors learn about the history of notable systems and games, but they could *play anything*! I don't know about you, but I would definitely pay 10 bucks to spend a day at such a place. Now, start-up costs would be high, but maybe you could get official help from the games companies. Tracking down some of the older, more obscure stuff could be difficult. But if you love games enough, you could pull it off, with fantastic results...
Re:It's a good idea.... (Score:1)
Las Vegas Conventions (Score:1)
Gamez!!! Mi Lykes!!Lah!Laffz!JEJEJEJEJE! (Score:1)
10 years ago I used to play these games while eating spaghetti... Now, I can't eat spaghetti without thinking of them. I also, tend to start salivating when the doorbell rings, but that's because I'm hoping it's Natalie P()rtman.
INCREDIBLE NEWS UPDATE!!! [segfault.org]
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Re:franchises (Score:3)
If I were going to do this sort of thing, I'd have two parts. The first would be an exchange for used modern games, sort of like FuncoLand was. The second would be the classic stuff including REAL(tm) arcade video games and pinball machines.
The problem is whether there'd be enough time left over from running the store to do all the dealing and tinkering necessary for the arcade inventory. Oh, and if it were me, I'd go for premium-price, mint-condition games, instead of the $250 barely-works variety.
It still amazes me how man Ms. Pac Man, Galaxian, Centipede, etc., arcade games are still around.
Re:franchises (Score:3)
I'm not sure how profitable a "classic games" shop would be. Maybe if he was in the right area (Si Valley) or if he combined his brick+mortar with a web and/or catalog business?
Making a Niche (Score:1)
But what i really would like is to get the games in a some what decent condition.
Clean up the games and machines (who likes buying anything covered in 2 inches of dust). Try to get original copies of the boxes (make duplicates or replicas) even replicate the goofy promotions that obviously are outdated.
Sure it might be a little bit more expensive, but as a somewhat game collector thats what i buy the game for... The box and the manual.
Buy the rest of this guy's inventory? :) (Score:2)
Re:Bankrupcy Court (Score:1)
Could be your plan (Score:2)
There are a few classic games that peple want, and would like legally. You could get into a niche by legally buying the rights to make copies of those classic games in the old formats. (of course paying a royalty, perhaps right to copy all their old games, and for every 10,000 in advance)
Don't expect to get rights to put a atari cartrage on a disk, but you can at least copy the cartrage (easy to do if you can find those old chips anymore). I would think that a compitent hardware designer could modify stella to read from the cartrage given an adaptor you design and sell. Of course you have to do more work this way, but I think if you can make it work it is more likely to be a viable business model. (And if you have that cartrage adaptor let me know, I want one!)
You need to find a copy of Zero Wing (Score:1)
if you don't know what i mean, here's a link:
http://www.detonate.net/newsitems/01021601/ayb.sw
second hand stores are a good start (Score:1)
don't bother (Score:1)
Yeah, this a big plus in this business. (Score:2)
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O'Shea LTD. (Score:1)
As far as I know, they had a wharehouse full of Atari games (2600, 5200, 7200) going for around a buck a piece.
They don't have a "classic" like Ninja Golf anymore, but it shoudl be a good start.
Getting real fuckin old. (Score:3)
Average number of articles per day that you cannot discuss because the referenced site has been taken down?
1
2
3
CowboyNeal
/. is so overloaded?
OR how bout:
Average time it takes to post a message because
30 seconds
1-4 minutes
5+ minutes
Never been able to actually get a post to go through
CowboyNeal
In any case, my opinions are ignored anyways. Gotta love that moderation system. Only allow the Karma whores to moderate. That's akin to putting an oil cartel in charge of the EPA.
Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:3)
What about the rent-a-computer-lab?
A few blocks from me, sitting in the top floor of an old house which also houses an ISP, is a place called Springfield Powergames--sort of an Internet cafe without the cafe, a rent-time-on-a-computer center that offered a high-speed LAN and high-speed Internet connection with about 20 networked computers, for the purpose of playing first-person shooters or other network games against each other and/or other folks on-line.
It just went out of business. Apparently the older hardware it offered couldn't compete with the cablemodem and DSL connections rolling out here in Springfield.
Is there any market left for such a place? How would one make it profitable, what with the high cost of computer hardware and the ease of getting together in one's own home instead? There is something fun about playing in person--being able to hear the other guy swearing when you take his head off with a railgun--but how do you draw people out of their cablemodem-equipped homes and pay the bills at the same time?
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Re:Bankrupcy Court (Score:1)
"Someone set us up the credit card debt!"
"Judge Turn on."
"Goodevening, paupers."
"All your hard assets are belong to bank."
"You have no change to mortgage, make your time."
Re:Run away. Run far away. (Score:1)
Re:Spy Hunter (Score:4)
If you have not bought at least a game or two for yourself, you probably don't know the market as well as the people who have been collecting these games for a couple years.
So the answer to your question is: Yes. Spend a few months getting into the game collector scene via eBay and other trading resources, as a hobbiest. After a few months of doing so, you might learn that there are reasons why nobody else has gotten rich doing this yet... or you might realize that it's a rich gold mine that few know about... or you might find a way to enter the business in a way that has not already been tried.
In short, know the market first, then think about entering it.
In the mean time, there might be something that you already know a lot about which you can use to start a business. Look at the guys at ThinkGeek. They turned a fondness for pithy little geek sig files into their own little T-shirt and bumper-sticker empire.
Gonna take some searching... (Score:1)
Re:Gamez!!! Mi Lykes!!Lah!Laffz!JEJEJEJEJE! (Score:2)
Remember F-16 Combat Pilot? ohhh, the flashbacks!
Ask Saddam for left overs (Score:2)
Check with these guys (Score:1)
I've got a great start for you. (Score:1)
Re:Come on, this is Slashdot.. (Score:2)
I think that we are suffering from the cheap materials/expensive labor problem. CPUs are fast and cheap, but programmers are expensive. Instead of hand-coded assembly platform games, we have higher level games that more or less look like they are done with the same engine. Just change the graphics and a little code to add new fighters into an already full genre.
Sorry to stray so far off. Long story short, I think that classic games have something to offer that you can't get on a PC. Then there are the pinball machines...
Re:Run away. Run far away. (Score:1)
Where to get items like this. (Score:1)
Re:Taco will sell you his PS2 and games (Score:1)
ain't dictionary.com grand?
I think....therefore I am
On a related note: (Score:2)
"Hi, I would like to make lots of money running my own business (maybe with something fun and `geeky' like games, so I can enjoy myself and become more popular with my adopted community as I make my fortune), but don't know how. Would you thousands of slashdot readers please all get together and spend your own unpaid time and effort to figure out how to make me rich?"
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Re:Gamez!!! Mi Lykes!!Lah!Laffz!JEJEJEJEJE! (Score:2)
I hacked M.U.L.E. on my 64 so it would play past the 12th month and amazingly saw economic cycles manifest themselves. The original designers put more into the game than met the eye, my guess is Electronic Arts had them limit it to 12 months. Whoever decided that, it was really sad. The game really gets going about month 18.
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Re:franchises (Score:1)
But to answer the guy's question: I have a couple dozen Atari 7800 games, SuperNES, and a bunch of old computer games on CD (and 5.25 floppy!) if you're interested. ;)
Retail Help (Score:1)
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
I'm actually starting up a game center myself. Any suggestions on the kinds of things you'd like to see at a place like that would be great.
-Vercingetorix
Suggestion (Score:2)
Have the consoles setup to play for a quarter, but have a sale price on them. You'd get some revenue from plays, but there's no shortage of dot-com yuppies with 80's nostalgia, and more money than sense. Hell, start building them yourself.
Get really nutty: sell espresso; have coin-op laundry; free 'net access. Above all, make your place attractive as a hang-out - regulars will do your marketing for you.
question: is control controlled by its need to control?
answer: yes
Another collection reported on /. (Score:2)
But people like The Optimizer [slashdot.org], drinkypoo [slashdot.org], rapett0 [slashdot.org], bungelo [slashdot.org], and JatTDB [slashdot.org] collect video games. The Optimizer has a huge collection.
See also jakdin's account [slashdot.org] of old video games lying around in Tokyo shops
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Re:Only Diehards won't use Mame and Nesticle (Score:3)
Kids would come to your shop with their christmas money *just* for the latest id and blizzard titles and then see Mario 2 which got broken a long time ago when they were like 5 and they miss dearly. So they say "SHIT! gimme that too!"
And then collectors would also come to your shop regularly *just* for the classics since you're the only store in town that has them and it's a lot more convenient (and probably cheaper) than ebay ;^)
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Garett
Not necessarily (Score:2)
Ten Years? You need recovery! (Score:1)
alt.sysadmin.recovery
alt.tech-support.recovery
Re:Getting real fuckin old. (Score:1)
Darn those slashdotters! Won't give a guy a lousy break! Now I'm going to do what I always should have done! But first I'm going down to Moe's.
</Homer Simpson Voice>
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Re:On a related note: (Score:1)
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:1)
Most people (or at least those wanting to play at your location) have adaquate equipment. That means you'll need screaming equipment. Nice 19" or 21" monitors, Athlon T-Birds, GeForce 2 Ultras. People won't pay to play something they can play at home for free.
Also, create a "space" for each player. Nice big, dark walls around the computers, definately a wall behind. Also, get good nice comfortable headphones. You're going to want them to immerse themselves in your enviroment so they lose track of time. Isolate the players, but provide a conference type phone in each "booth" for team games.
It's gotta be comfortable, the computers gotta be fast, and the games are going to have to be good.
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
Well, I think you just hit the nail on the head. You can get decent hardware pretty cheap now-a-days: a sub $1000 computer capable of playing modern games is totally possible, either building or buying retail. That, plus $40/month cable modem service means I can game for pretty cheap, at least compared to what it would have cost a few years ago. And it's yours: you can play whenever you want, and your not on the clock.
The kind of person who would be interested in this sort of thing is also the kind of person likely to already have good hardware, for gaming reasons as well as other reasons. In short, geeks. Gamers who don't have that kind of hardware have probably gravitated over to console gaming.
That's not to say there isn't a marketplace for this kind of thing. Obviously, it would be very attractive to a certain percentage of games to have access to a room with high-speed access and 8-10 cutting edge computers. Think gaming clans or tournaments. To recoup the costs, however, those machines would either have to have paying customers on them non-stop, or have customers willing to pay a premium price for the access. The startup costs are formidable, plus the internet access and hardware upgrades means the costs are on-going as well.
I've often thought a dedicated gaming place like that would be a great business if I ever won the lottery or something. But to be feasible for the common man to venture into, we're going to have to see a big increase in the popularity of on-line gaming.
Re:Only Diehards won't use Mame and Nesticle (Score:2)
Only Diehards play alone / potential market (Score:1)
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (OT) (Score:2)
There used to be a local place kind of what you described. It was called Battlestations. They had about 25 gaming optimized computers hooked up to a 100Mb/s network. This place was in the back room of some local company with the cryptic name "CPL". For some reason or another, CPL had set up this little room to generate cash on the weekends when the building was empty. There was no sign, no advertising, no nothing it was all word of mouth. CPL was hidden somewhere in the maze of office buildings called The Industriplex (or as my friend describes it, "the place where people with boring jobs spend their time"). If you didn't know exactly where to go and what you were looking for it, you weren't going to accidentally stumble upon this place.
Despite this not really being a business and CPL doing absolutely nothing to promote it, the place was *packed* every day it was open. Every high school kid who played games at home was more than happy to shell out $5 an hour to hang out with their friends instead of "i k1Ll3D k3NnY" at home playing the same games over the net, and when you're on a LAN with super high bandwidth who cares about ping? Fragged because of lag? I don't think so. Fragging your buddies and hearing them scream obscenities across the room is the most fun I've ever had playing any sort of game on the computer.
I remember driving over with my friends at about 7 one rainy Friday night to find that there were barely enough open computers for us. 2 hours or so later the room in general decided to order some pizza and we all chipped in to pay for it, you could buy Cokes from the high school guy who kept things running (read: takes money every hour and runs servers for various games on the server box in the corner). Some nights we wouldn't leave until after midnight, not because they were closing but because we had run out of money to pay for another hour. Most of the guys who hung out there on the weekends were regulars and the guys who worked there were awesome and so good at Starcraft it was scary (Ben Monkey owns me
In other words, how do you draw people out of their homes? Simple: offer a hangout spot. It's really that simple. Even though I've got a brand new computer at home with a bigger monitor and a cable modem I'd still go down to Battlestations with my friends so I could kick their sorry asses all over the place. Unfortunately, Battlestations is now closed for some unknown reason (maybe CPL needed that back room?
-antipop
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
-Vercingetorix
Existing store you can check out (Score:1)
Re:Getting real fuckin old. (Score:1)
I got my first moderation points with less than 10 karma points.
-Erik
Re:Only Diehards won't use Mame and Nesticle (Score:1)
Re:Getting real fuckin old. (Score:3)
When has not reading the linked story ever stopped /.ers from discussing it?
Re:Making a Niche (Score:1)
- Location, location, location. You need to be somewhere with a high-traffic flow of gen-X aged geeks. Silicon Valley between large company campuses and residential areas was the first place that sprung to mind.
- Ambience. A place with a combination of retro arcade games and newer games opened near me and closed in under 6 months. The problem was that the old games were all beat up and stuck in the back. Someone earlier metioned to go for mint machines and not $250 cheapies. I couldn't agree more. There's nothing worse than playing Karate Champ on a machine with cigarette burns all over it reeking of 12 year old smoke. I went once and was turned off by the place. If you are going to have an arcade area, make it clean, spacious and inviting.
- Selection. There's a million E.T. carts buried under New Mexico for a reason - the game sucked! You need to keep the best games in stock, and don't put 10 Combats on the shelf next to 1 Spy Hunter. You probably know which games will be easy to stock and which will be next to impossible. I still remember going into Microplay (Canadian game chain) and seeing 10 NES Karnov carts in the case - I can tell the game sucks without even have ever played it! Very unprofessional.
-Box/Instructions. If I saw Yars Revenge in an unopened box for $20 next to just the cart for $3, I'd probably still buy the boxed one. Just the feeling of ripping open a 2600 box and looking at the game promotional catalogs is worth the money.
-Knowledgable staff. Another poster mentioned how terrible the FuncoLand staff were. You need to find some employees who love the old games as much as you do. These people may not be easy to find (especially since a lot of them are well paid programmers these days), but it will be worth putting in the interviewing time.
That's enough from me. I believe that if you tie in a web business too, this can work (Hell, I'd order from you). Congratulations on doing what you want to do. Now I'm going to go write a sitcom about a sassy robot!
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:1)
Re:Getting real fuckin old. (Score:2)
I'm going to start taking anger management classes. I feel I need more than 2048 characters to vent my frustrations with
Re:It's YOUR business (Score:2)
Take everybody on Slashdot who's gone on that crusade to find that one elusive game and put all of their findings in one spot - this discussion thread. Now there's one place to look for what all of these people have found out. I think that's what "Ask Slashdot" is here for.
Most "Ask Slashdot" entries can be boiled down to somebody asking us all to help them with their jobs. Maybe it's a call for opinions on some software package, or the best way to implement a firewall... basically any info we give in response may be used by somebody to make some money. How is opening a video game shop different from using "Ask Slashdot" to help with a consulting job?
Since this is an open forum, everybody else visiting the site can benefit from the info just as much, so I don't see any problem with it.
-jah!
Re:As far as Atari games go (Score:2)
Guys name is Bill Houlehan.
-Tommy
the arcade game store... (Score:2)
Seth
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
The reason is that you need to keep the prices very low to attract anybody -- computers and fast internet connections are cheap these days, so you have to be cheap AND have better stuff than the average kid has.
At $5-$6 per hour per computer, with 10-20 computers, you're just not making too much money to begin with, and when you subtract operating costs (rent, utilities, internet hookup, software, hardware upgrades, part-time staff, security, etc. etc.), you're not left with all that much.
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Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
-Vercingetorix
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
-Vercingetorix
Re:Speaking of Unstable Businesses (Score:2)
The ultrafast LAN, decient connection to the net, large monitors, a headset intercommunication system and a guy who cleaned out the ash tray for ya where the big selling points. Did I mention the headset intercom system? It was small, cheap, analog and took Rouge Spear to a completely diffrent level. Ah, the days of playing Army all day, only to get off, run to the Nest, and play special forces on the computer... Real Life vs Games:-)
But it was successfull because it was IRL. Clan wars where followed by a trip to the bar where everyone bragged about the long shot through the wall, or blowin away half the competition with a well placed C-4 charge. I would
--Cam
Re:This probably isn't a safe plan then.. (Score:2)
Atari also had the deadly problem of massive overproduction as well as strong-arming retailers to buy less desirable games. This means there's lots of stuff, way too much stuff out there. O'Shea sells carts at something like 80 cents a piece, for example. Nowdays, Sony et al have short run production and inventory turnover down to a science, so there's less likely to be a 'forgotten warehouse' full of games out there somewhere.
So, the key is to grab a bunch of inventory, and sit on it hoping that a crowd develops later that decides that they want it. Somewhere out there there's a big lot of Sega Saturn or older Playstation stuff waiting for you to store in your warehouse for another 5 years. Will there be nostalgia value for old Saturn games? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.
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NESticle sucks BFDD. Use LoopyNES. (Score:2)
Despite that fact, I play any Nintendo games I want to on Nesticle.
NESticle's accuracy sucks Big Floppy Donkey Dick [everything2.com]; it can't emulate games that rely on precise timing. Use TuxNES [simplenet.com] or one of the better WinDOS-based emulators [zophar.net] instead. The only reason I ever touch NESticle is to make sure NES software I write displays a warning message if it is run on NESticle; it takes only four lines of NES asm to detect NESticle, and from there I display an advertisement for LoopyNES.
All your hallucinogen [pineight.com] are belong to us.
747 bandwidth (Score:2)
The cargo capacity of a 747-400 is 24,952 cubic feet [boeing.com]. You were using the cargo capacity of a passenger model, not a freight model. And you were told to never underestimate.
I also think that you miscalculated your 747 TB-m/sec. Did you forget to multiply km by 1,000 before dividing by 3,600 sec/hr to get m/sec? I got 1,622,745,002 TB-m/sec for the 747-400F. That makes the 747 equivalent to 24,965,307 T1s.