Fish Game Kings Cabinet’s All About the Route
New 4-Player Units Have Small Footprint, Sleek Designs for Street Ops
With three brand-new designs after years of evolution, the team at Fish Game Kings say they have a 4-player cabinet that has street operators wowed and beyond intrigued.
The initial design, the “4 Player Standard,” has been tested and tweaked with the makers saying the switch from an all-wood to all-metal cabinet design was the biggest change and every decision made with the operator in mind.
“We’ve had it out for about two years and have really been able to zero in on developing it,” said Fish Game Kings president Chad Belter (pictured at right above with Rod Clennon). “It’s been tested by multiple street operators and it’s a huge win for them.”
The innovations have led to Premium and Platinum versions as well. The company says all are capable of featuring any 4-player fish game out there, such as Ocean King 3 Plus: Blackbeard’s Fury, Black Pearl, Goddess of Mercy and Air Strike 2. The stand-up cabinet has a monitor right in front of players, reducing glare. It allows for a sit-down option as well.
With a focus on the redemption market with special attention given to fish arcade games, Belter said the cabinets were designed specifically for the street operator because “it was a niche market that wasn’t being taken care of.”
Belter teamed up with a mentor of his, industry veteran Rod Clennon, to form Bubba Technology Group to work on that market gap, which starts with these three 4-player designs.
“We saw it operate and we got really curious about it,” Clennon said of the original 4-Player Standard cabinet. “We thought, ‘How do we downsize it and compact it for the street operator?’ We wanted to build it so an operator with a pickup truck and a Tommy lift could operate these things.”
Belter added that one person can set up the machine on location in 30 minutes or less. The two main reasons? He said: 1) It’s lighter, stronger and more durable due to the switch made last October going from 3/4” wood to a light gauge steel. 2) It’s easy in, easy out at almost any location. The 4 Player Standard and 4 Player Premium, the mid-range cabinet, both measure 34” wide – fitting through single doors without issue, Belter said. He added that the 4 Player Platinum is a bit bigger at 44” wide, but can get through a double door with ease.
Perhaps most importantly, once on location, it’s highly serviceable. “Now we can lift the entire panel up so technicians have access,” Clennon said. “Even the lighting inside the machine makes it more accessible. Those are the kinds of things we’ve really been concentrating on.”
Belter also mentioned that the machines are set up to be convertible “to fit the needs of that specific street operator.” They can be set up with bill feeders and printers, and can run on a card system, RKS or combinations of whatever the operator would like.
With deep roots in the industry, both Clennon and Belter have a good sense of street operator needs. Clennon still operates 150 locations through a company in South Carolina and started in the biz with his father Gene, one-time president of the Music Operators of Minnesota. Belter is green by comparison, but had a small route with an amusement company in the 1990s for a period of time in between other business endeavors.
Their cabinets are expected to start hitting by early May. As of publication, fabricators are building 100 units of the Standard and Premium versions of the cabinet and 10 or so of the Platinum, which will be available on special order.
Belter and Clennon are excited about the official launch and glad to be putting out a new game for street operators that’s not a golf or bowling game, Clennon emphasized.
“You could give me a million dollars right now,” he said, “and I don’t know what I’d put on my street route. We’re just getting started.”
For more details, call 833-402-9538, email [email protected] or visit www.fishgamekings.com.