DDR Machine

[Strike_Vanisher]

Just wondering if any of you own or have an intentions of owning a DDR arcade machine... Before I die I wanna get one... I dunno the odds of that happened but we'll see...

[dibshead]

lol, my life long dream (a dream) is owning a dancing machine

[blades]

isnt it all of are dreams to own a ddr machine i mean to be bale to play ne ddr song at your will think of the possibilltys i would rather have a ddr macine then a car or ne thing like that

[ImEric12]

You have serious problems. And a lack of brain mass.

[bman_006]

lol well, i think the best u can get is to get one of those metal dance pads like at the arcade. iv seen em on ebay, for bout 100$. it would be sweet to have one. but to have the whole machine? whoa...........

[Novacaine]

if by own u mean go to the arcade do wickid good show off and own lives ive already done that.

woud like to own a machine~ cost too much dough yo

[novaquinn]

I was at a Game Stop the other day and was asking about pads. We got into talking about songs and stuff (the clerk and I) and this one chick walked in. She started joining in our conversations on songs and that, so I asked what pad she used and/or recommends. Her reply? "Oh, I don't use pads. I have my own arcade machine."

Yeah. I just about s*** bricks right then and there. The clerk recovered first and asked her how much it cost....she said around $6000. I just turned and left, completely and totally pwned.

[Spazzbite]

Having a DDR machine would be flat out retarded. You'd play it so damn much that you would be sick of it, then you've got a $6k-8k machine in your house that you DON'T USE. Now a STEPMANIA machine would be cool. All you would have to do is order the frame of a DDR machine, without all the CPU crap inside of it, then hook up a large monitor/TV inside of the frame and allow PC connectivity to it, and uh... somehow pull off the whole coin-op feeling. And if you got bored with it, you could just go to some random site such as bemanistyle and download any new songs that would be paddable, and throw them onto the machine.

[kickassbuddy]

I was one Ebay and you can get DDR 4thMix the arcade machine for somewhere round $4,000

[hEaLiNgViSiOnAnGeLicMiX]

$4,000? kickassbuddy PM me the link to that. 4th mix can be upgraded to an EXTREME I've been wanting a machine for quite a while, and my parents have no objections.... now it's just a matter of finding one i can actualy afford :S

[Snapps]

http://www.coinopexpress.com/products/machines/music-dance_machines.html

Best place to get them.

[Jam930]

4-8k for a machine?

Take 6,000 dollars.

Now it costs like 50 cents or something to play once on a cheap machine right?

Divide 6,000 by 0.50.

12,000.

You could play 12,000 times on an arcade machine with the money it costs for one.

How does the arcade make money? The machine would have to be played 12,000 times just to pay for itself, and then the electricity to run it, and the repairs that need to be made?

[ddrruler]

muh hahahaha i know where to get 1 for about 1900 damn if only i had that much but i don't ='<

[ibor132]

4-8k for a machine?


How does the arcade make money? The machine would have to be played 12,000 times just to pay for itself, and then the electricity to run it, and the repairs that need to be made?

Two ways -
1) Volume. In the fairly small arcade in which I work (Dream Machine in Maine, if any of you are from around there), it's very rare for the machines to not be occupied. We have two - one 7th Mix and one Extreme. Even if they were set for .50 for 3 songs (which they arent), we would still gross $45 day per machine, assuming that each game was constantly occupied from 10AM to 9PM (which they normally are, plus a couple of games in the morning, and a lot in the 9-9:30PM period. $120 total gross per day. Admitly not a princely sum, but arcades make their money by extracting huge profits from tiny amounts of inlay.

2) It's a rare DDR machine that's set for .50/3 songs (a typical game is 3 songs, for those who don't make it to the arcades much). Out of our two, one is set for $1/3 songs, and the other is $1 for 4. This doubles our per machine gross for the Extreme, and raises the daily gross for 7th Mix slightly. $90/day for Extreme, and $72/day for 7th Mix if you're interested.
Our location on the beach currently charges $1/5 songs, as an opening special. It's being reset to .75/3 songs at some pont, which would keep the daily gross about the same. Our main competitior on the beach has the same ratio of .25/song.

As well, all these numbers assume that everyone plays a complete game, by themselves. If even half the people were to play 2-player, that would raise the daily gross to $125 for Extreme, and $108 for 7th Mix. Moreso, if half the people only finished one song, and the machine was immedily occupied again...well, that's too much math for toninight. It'd definatly raise the gross a bit though.

Our DDR machines basicly take care of themselves. Occasionly, a coin jams or a sensor dies, but those are trivial. As for eletricity, I can't imagine they consume more than a couple of large computers. Being VERY conservtive, let's figure $20/day per machine. That's still only $40 total per day.


So...yeah. That's how arcades make money off DDR. Didn't quite mean for it to turn into a book. Hope it's interesting/informtive.