The word “jargon” refers to the special language a group of people in a specific industry or organization speak which they alone know the meaning of. Coin-op, for example, used to say “mini-cade” referring to a handful of games, usually
in an off-beat location. We don’t hear it said often at
all these days, but maybe we should.
The number of machines a mini-cade offers players depends on the amount of space and AC sockets the location has available, as well as the arcade licensing laws that can and do come into play in many jurisdictions. So, it’s not just a matter of economics (cost of installing the machines, extra routeman visits, etc.) that come into play. The big question is “will enough people play the games to make the whole thing worth the effort?”
Even though many route operators have games languishing in the shop, setting up a mini-cade isn’t as “simple” as just rotating some used machines into the back of a pizzeria. When any route owner eyeballs any possible new account, he asks himself if it’s going to make money or not. There’s real talent involved in “reading” the expected performance of any new location. Bars usually dominate any route, but not every bar makes money, for example. And if the pizza sucks, so does gameplay.
I recently visited my local Dan the Pizza Man location and discovered the mini-cade installed right as you enter. Set up in a small space, the games made a nice appearance and the fellow taking my order said it gets decent play, especially in the latter part of the day when’s school’s out and people come in for dinner. “Dan,” whoever he might be, seems to be a big fan of our games. The order taker said they operate another pizzeria in a neighboring town that has a lot more games than the eight or nine in his store (which has a Smart candy crane and a Coast to Coast Fun Zone 2 crane besides the Raw Thrills deluxe videos that make the scene look like a Raw Thrills boutique).
My purpose here is simply to remind route operators that this sort of opportunity may await them in their part of the world and maybe keep an eye peeled. Could offer a better place for some older videos than the back of the shop, right?
