The Experience Dollar is Alive Our Own Numbers Show Where It Went & How to Win It Back This Quarter By Howard McAuliffe, Partner, Pinnacle Entertainment Group Using broad consumer data is important to understand what is happening in our industry, and what might happen in the future. However, it always requires context, fine tuning and having a deep understanding of our business. There is a lot of talk about how high-income earners are driving the economy, but that is just part of the story. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York does publish a series showing high-income households outspending…
Author: RePlay Editor
The Power of an Open Book What 300 Roadshow Visits Taught Me About Our Industry By Clint Novak, Owner of Planet Novak & The Novak Network My obsession with visiting other family entertainment centers started years ago when I was the general manager of Fun Land of Fredericksburg. I didn’t just visit to scope out the competition; I visited to learn. I wanted to borrow their best ideas to make my park better, and in return, I was always eager to share whatever secret sauce was working for us. It was a true passion. My wife and I would go…
A Season of Transformation By Beth Standlee, CEO, TrainerTainment There’s a moment at the All Access AAMA Annual Meeting when you feel the room shift from “conference” to “community.” This year, standing at the podium for my final address as AAMA president, that feeling hit more than I expected. And yes, before I get to anything else, we’re coming back to Dallas/Ft. Worth for at least one more year. You’re welcome. Two years ago, when I took the gavel, I had no idea what the next chapter would ask of me personally or professionally. What I did know was that…
Ohio Operator Chris DeSarro Marks 50th Year in Coin-Op Business by Matt Harding Chris DeSarro was 16 years old in 1976 when his late father Jack started a coin-op route. “He was always in business for himself,” DeSarro said. In the ’60s, the elder DeSarro was a livestock buyer for big packing houses, then got into the bar business, which morphed into operating vending machines, jukeboxes and pool tables. “I remember our first location was an American Legion. He knew the commander there.” Everything Chris was doing at 16 is still the stuff he’s doing today as the proprietor of…
Star Lanes Polaris Turning a Dream into a Popular, Award-Winning Food & Fun Venue By Sara Karnish Sometimes, the wildest dreams are just wild enough to come true. Star Lanes Polaris in Columbus, Ohio, started that way and more than a decade later, it’s a top BEC in the area. “This was one of those ‘wouldn’t it be fun…’ back of the cocktail napkin kinds of things,” says Doug Mechling, co-owner and managing partner. In 2008, Mechling owned a construction company that did interior residential remodeling when a neighbor brought him an idea for bowling. “I didn’t know much about…
Watch Costs But Don’t Over-Economize by Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack Pinball & PinballSales.com You have an FEC. It’s a few years old and you’re looking for direction. Should you concentrate on new games and attractions? Food quality and clean bathrooms? Live entertainment and children’s birthday parties? All the above? Pick a direction and get started! This magazine is a resource for game operators and manufacturers. It can give you some ideas and insights into what can work and what life experiences can be shared. It provides an opportunity to learn from other people’s mistakes and successes. Let’s face it, any…
ICEBALL X Latest ICE Alley Roller Offers Multiplayer Fun Innovative Concepts in Entertainment is bringing back their classic alley roller with a majorly updated cabinet and modern, interactive gameplay. ICEBALL X, which went into production Aug. 17 and is shipping now, made its official public debut at IAAPA Expo Europe in late September. Its predecessors, ICEBALL and ICEBALL FX, came out in 1997 and 2014, respectively. ICE’s vice president of sales, Ryan Coppola, explained that those had the same playfield and same type of scoring structure. “Games could be linked but there was no dynamic gameplay between them,” he said.…
Screams in Vegas, Scoops in Texas Fun Across America’s Wildest Double Feature Yet by Barry Zelickson This month’s Fun Across America highlights two attractions that couldn’t be more different – and yet both prove the same thing: the best FECs and attractions in the country are those built by people obsessed with the guest experience. Our host Nate took us first into the fog-choked corridors of Universal Horror Unleashed inside Area 15 in Las Vegas, a year-round haunt experience from the same creative minds behind Halloween Horror Nights. From there, we traded jump scares for joysticks at Dig World…
When any machine operator gets the dreaded “your game doesn’t work” call, the first thing he asks is if the thing is plugged in or if its lights are on. I, myself, just “fixed” my kitchen sink disposal by plugging it back in. My guess is the cleaning lady mistook the disposal’s plug for the Ajax (just kidding). Anyway, problem solved, and wouldn’t it be grand if all problems could be fixed so easily? One of my fondest memories is the night the late Benchmark co-founder Al Kress came to my house back in New York to fix my Chicago…
Apple Has the Photo Booth for “Everywhere” Faceplace Lineup Offers More Than Ever Before The photo booth, invented about 100 years ago, has greatly changed during the past century. One of its modern makers, Apple Industries and their wide range of Faceplace photo booths, aims to keep the evolution going. For the nostalgic among us, their photo booths still do the basics – capture a few moments on a strip of paper. But they don’t just offer traditional photo booths that simply take and print pictures. They make interactive entertainment platforms they say can continually adapt to guests, locations, brands…