I have 8 machines at the local barcade and so far it has been pretty good. Barcade's is where the money is at for locations hands down. For my location it is the theme that matters and not so much the game play (Street Fighter 2 is a great pin at this location). All my games are cleaned and waxed every 3 weeks and they all have beer gulps, glare guards, LEDs (no crazy rainbow GI colors) and I keep the downtime to a minimum. All games (arcade, skeeball, pins) at the location are 25 cents per play. One thing I want to point out is all these nice items we purchase for home use to spiff up our machines do not last in location play. I have LED blubs separating at the top of the base and bulb (all brands), multiple cliffy's (not all, just the ones with the double stick) coming un-stuck, superbands breaking after 2k plays, 'unbreakable' round peg protectors breaking, cliffy posts that can't get pounded in dirt getting pounded in dirt. I have all the games keyed the same using chicago ace round style locks. Games get mix of token and quarter play (depends on the day/specials) so the risk of someone breaking in for tokens is low since the. I did have the bars across the front but I recently took them off.

Overall I am happy as our area only has one other quality place to play pinball and the other places with 1 pin are always dirty and play like crap because the OP that has most of them doesn't know how to work on their games which I don't understand.

I would not be on board with any type of free play as the machines would get murdered.

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Thanks ! A local OP has the machines at the other barcade and they unfortunately do not know how to work on their own games so they are usually pretty dirty and don't work correct. They (broken, dirty, busted machines on location) are actually the reason I approached Up-Down when it was opening so there would be a place with nice pins. The other place in Des Moines with nice games is at Jordan Creek mall in the theater arcade and another collector takes good care of them also.

The owner wants all games at 25 cents and I don't split anything so it is the same as getting 50 cent with a 50/50 split. Win for everyone.

Does anyone who op's have the bar owner sign any type of agreement ? Could list stuff like who owns the games, amount of split with the bar. Someone was talking to me about concerns if I have a game in a bar and the bar changes hands and if I would need to prove my ownership.