Funny how the public moves in & out like the tide. We are also enjoying an unexpected boom in attendance and bookings this month. May be our best yet since reopening last July.

It's odd because the covid statistics are worse than ever and the new "super infectious" variant is only just starting to wreak havoc. My guess is that a lot of people are now totally fed up with being kept indoors and just want some semblance of normalcy back no matter what. Which I can certainly identify with. I am BEYOND TIRED of this virus... but am nevertheless staying as vigilant as ever. In fact, even moreso. Am now stacking a KN95 under my cloth mask.

C'mon vaccines... c'mon virus counts... start going down, dammit!

Could operators raffle some of their machines off much like project pinball?

They could easily sell enough tickets that would cover double the value of the pin. Make some $ to keep the lights on or cycle an old pin out and a different one in.

It would be a fun way to help all of our local arcade/barcades through this tough time.

I think most states have rules on raffles. It isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Payment processors have rules too. If they sense what is going on they don’t often like it.

If you have to pay to be entered, it is usually considered a lottery and therefore illegal. That is why pretty much all giveaways have a "no purchase necessary, to enter without buying, send us a letter at this address". I am not a lawyer, but you have to be very careful with how you set this up to not get in to a lot of trouble.

If you are a non-profit, you are allowed to hold raffles for fundraisers. However, the rules are strict and differ depending upon the state the business is located in.

Do the homework. Don’t wing it. Governments have no sense of humor about running illegal gambling operations.

In Texas, you have to be a nonprofit with 501c status (doesn't have to be 501c3 necessarily), in operation for three calendar years (so 1/1/2018-12/31/2020 would qualify, if I am reading it right), and you can only have two raffles per year.

Pretty tedious and odious laws given what some other states allow (I can see allowing more, smaller raffles in a year rather than capping it at two for example).

Following,
Have sent some unsolicited $$ here and there to my haunts and wish all of you the best !! Keep on pluggin away,the last few posts give us pinball crew hope.

Thank you for all your help in these trying times !

LTG : )

Nice to see some places in the US are opening back up, we have been closed since middle of December and looks to be best case April before we can open with restrictions again.

We had to close again here in Victoria, Australia ... meant to be only 5 day snap lockdown, but who knows

Making the most of the time by giving the machines a good clean and service, hoping it will get busy again when we are allowed to open again, like it was in Dec/Jan.

Got to stay positive

Update: January was better, and February might be better still. The public is restless to get out and do things.

Under the newest guidelines we can allow up to 25 people indoors at a time, but we have voluntarily limited the maximum to 15 since our reopening last July. However, now that we've been selling out lately, we have raised the limit to 20.

I also traded 3 of our rebuilt but not very popular EM's (Hi-Deal, Jungle Queen, Sheriff) and 4 nice projects (Air Aces, Space Mission, Flip Flop, Miss-O) for a Black Knight Sword of Rage Premium. Always gotta keep things new and interesting for visitors. Stand still... and be left behind!

Change isn't this mysterious malevolent thing coming to rob us of the present. Change IS the present.

bksor (resized).jpg

New study confirming what NicoVolta has been saying for a loong time. Airflow +hepa filters = safety

total air exchange rate of 5.7  ACH/hour, after 2 hours in closed room with a highly infective person—the inhaled dose is 6x reduced

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02786826.2021.1877257

I don't know you and probably will never visit your arcade, but this is very heartening to read. It's a sign of life! It's flowers sprouting in the spring! It's hope!

Ottawa arcade House Of Targ has re-opened on a limited schedule http://www.houseoftarg.com/
(though there might be another lockdown as the UK variant spreads through Canada, and vaccine deliveries have been choked)

Even after vaccinations, we're going to have to adapt to living with this thing, and I know protocols like that will help, especially with giving people confidence again to come out.

According to the FaTIMA modeler, we are somewhere close to 8.5x ACH with all fans running. I also have interior fans targeting dead air spots/recirculating areas. By the time May rolls around, the system will have been in place for a year... wow. But I still see people around town afraid of sharing ball point pens while their masks are hanging loosely under their noses... arggghhhhh. We are still not getting it right as a nation. So not getting it.

FaTIMA link: https://www.nist.gov/services-resources/software/fatima

Smoke checks at every game is the only way to prove the system works. Rigorously test every place a visitor might stand or sit... no way around it.

Luckily, my venue is under 3500 sqft., so it isn't too difficult to test. I still want to rent a high-capacity fog machine and see how quickly it dissipates. Just for fun.

OK. I'm a bit late to this thread and I haven't read through the whole thing yet. But like most of you, I also operate a location that has been adversely affected by the pandemic. Fortunately, I have been able to hang on so far. And I am beginning to see some signs of improvement over the last few weeks. I still don't expect customers and revenues to return to pre-pandemic levels for quite some time. In fact, I believe that may be another year or more away at this point. But I do feel strongly that a recovery is coming. The trick is just to survive until that time.

I was shut down for about 2 months last year when the pandemic first started. Since that time I have remained open with several limitations, including occupancy limits, mask requirements, distancing, and time limits (our model was all day admission with wrist bands). I've also been constantly evolving our COVID-19 mitigation strategy to reduce the risk for our customers and employees. Many of those steps have already been discussed in previous posts. They include sanitation, ventilation, air flow, and air cleaners.

I was texting with Nic today at RPM about something new I was trying out and some of you may want to consider also. There has been some interesting information about indoor air quality monitoring using CO2 monitors. Apparently, some local municipalities are using this technology to verify that businesses have adequate ventilation to be considered equivalent to "outdoor" spaces. I was intrigued, so I bought one of the devices to try it out.

You can read a little about them here:
https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/coronavirus/c02-monitors-can-be-part-of-indoor-coronavirus-fight/2529078/

and here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/02/10/carbon-dioxide-device-coronavirus/

The device I purchased:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08644N7QD/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_SQVFV0B5Z8ZYJDPN6XER

I've only had the device for a day, but so far it does seem to have enough sensitivity to provide a real-time indication of how effectively your ventilation system is working. I'm not posting this a product endorsement or as some kind of magic solution to the problem of viral spread indoors. But it looks like it can serve as another useful tool in a multi-layered strategy to reduce risk.

Awesome share. This thread has been an amazing cooperative of ideas and support.

Just had the best weekend of the pandemic. Still not what we used to do but with cases dropping and vaccines rolling out clearly people are ready to party again.

For me things are kind of an even keel. I can hang on and hopefully with time things will improve.

When the video game fad died. It took 3 or 4 years to get rolling again.

I am hoping for a shorter time frame this time.

LTG : )

Last weekend was the best we've seen since the shutdown. This weekend is also proving equally strong. Not bad for February!

If we didn't have to maintain maximum occupancy limits, we'd be about where we were pre-covid. This is good news. It may mean a blowout summer season.

Nevertheless, I am seeing increased levels of mask non-compliance. Having to nag the guests more frequently as of late. SHIELDS UP, FOLKS. We're almost there for crying out loud. Don't screw it up.

That NYT interactive article is GREAT. A must-see. I'm going to repost on my FB and elsewhere.

Have also added a CO2 sensor to see what's what. Thanks again, @PinChatt! Excellent suggestion.

Yep. Same here. Mask enforcement is going to be tougher and tougher the more comfortable people get. We can see the shore but it’s still not time to jump the ship. It’s tough when you’ve been at sea so long.

It's good to hear a lot of places are opening again.
We are still shutdown here.
No end in sight yet either.

We are still in phase 1, I don't think we will open until phase 3.
Lucky if that will be by summer.

I was told Step 4 by AlbertaBiz for Arkadium, however, I am hoping that we will be able to open for Step 3, best case will be in just over three weeks depending on hospitalizations.

We have had up and downs but are making it through at the Richmond Pinball Collective.

The CO2 gizmo arrived a few days ago. Useful tool & highly recommended. Thank you again, Chattanooga Dave!

Preliminary findings: In my house, indoor air worsens dramatically without ventilation! If 420ppm (uncalibrated) is the outdoor reading, empty indoor rooms read 540. In the room I am working at my desk: 675. Working out: 800+. This is *with* fans moving air and doors open to other areas of the house!!!

Sleeping in my corner bedroom with no fan, levels reached 800 with the door open! Holy frijoles! Indoor air is freakin' TERRIBLE. I don't even have any pets, kids, etc... it's just me in this 2500+ sqft house from 1925 which is hardly airtight... geez.

No wonder so many people working from home are falling asleep during meetings, etc. This has been a real eye-opener.

I'm very pleased with the results at the museum. Very, very pleased. Front desk remains around 480ppm due to the constant inflow. Inside, the levels never exceed 530 at multiple test points even with as many as 20 people present with masks. I wonder how many more I'd need to move the needle?

I know it is working because it is sensitive as heck. If I blow at it from six feet away, once, it'll temporarily spike the levels by 40ppm.

Key takeaway: Pay attention to the ppm level -->>with respect to how many people are inside<<--.

Lotta people + large room + 550ppm reading = good ventilation.

Few people + large room + 550ppm reading = not good.

It's all about how well the space is maintaining its CO2 count -->>relative to total attendance<<--.

More importantly, MY HOUSE NEEDS REMEDIATION for my own well-being! To fix this, I'm getting an Air King QuFresh mechanical ventilator installed. At $300-ish, it is far less expensive than a full-on ERV (Energy Recovery Ventilator).

The QuFresh basically turns your house into a positive pressure system, unlike running your bathroom fan 24x7 with negative pressure. It can be programmed to only pump air indoors when the air "falls within favorable criteria" which you can set yourself.

Too humid? Not humid enough? Too hot? Too cold? It'll basically stop running during those times. Otherwise... whoosh! It's a basic low-tech way to get more fresh air indoors without the expense and maintenance costs of an ERV (runs all the time).

Learning is fun!

On a further note, the mask-below-the-nose-nagging reached a new level. People are letting their guards down or just don't care.

I don't have that luxury.

Thanks for posting about your test. My first thoughts when reading about your own home reminded me about how we can make ourselves crazy tracking these numbers.

The first site I looked at said this:

The levels of CO2 in the air and potential health problems are:

250 - 400 ppm: background (normal) outdoor air level.
400 - 1,000 ppm: typical level found in occupied spaces with good air exchange.
1,000 - 2,000 ppm: level associated with complaints of drowsiness and poor air.
2,000 - 5,000 ppm: level associated with headaches, sleepiness, and stagnant, stale, stuffy air. Poor concentration, loss of attention, increased heart rate and slight nausea may also be present.
5,000 ppm: this indicates unusual air conditions where high levels of other gases could also be present. Toxicity or oxygen deprivation could occur. This is the permissible exposure limit for daily workplace exposures.
40,000 ppm: this level is immediately harmful due to oxygen deprivation.

I'm not sure if I would freak out over an 800 in the corner of my bedroom, based on the above. I know what a stuffy room feels like, and if I'm not feeling that, I probably wouldn't think much more about it.

Now, I do see it as an effective tool for your business with covid. That's a different issue. It sounds like a great tool to test with.

Yah, I'm a bit OCD about my hobbies and interests. On the upside, it helps me function like an early warning system (canary in the coal mine). On the downside, it can lead to anxiety, excessive browser/Excel tabs, obsessive attention to detail, and the occasional diarrhea-text-dump of a Pinside reply.

Ah, life. An endless series of tradeoffs. Luckily, I know how I'm wired and when to knock it off... usually. :p

It's sad how that chart refers to outdoor CO2 being within the range of 250-400ppm. Global ppm hasn't remained between 250-275 since before the Industrial Age. Nowadays the global average is over 400 and rising steadily. Imagine if getting a breath of fresh air in the future never gets better than a stuffy living room... horrible.

Although 800ppm is nothing to freak out about, I'm considering the fact that I don't live with any pets or other people and live in an older house which is hardly airtight. Even with the door open and hallway fan spinning, that seems high enough to warrant some remediation. I'm also thinking of post-covid times of having guests over and wanting their experience to be as good as it can be. Fresh air helps me sleep and feel better and there are other aspects not being measured such as airborne dust and outgassing of all sorts from household items, plastics, furniture, carpet, fragrances, etc.

So, I guess it seems like a good time to do something about it. I do feel better after opening a window. Would be nice to have that feeling more or less consistently throughout the day.

As you mentioned, it's a wonderful tool for testing indoor ventilation. Now I'm curious to surreptitiously test other businesses...

evil! ha.

I am curious what some of the league nights I've attended, a ton of bodies stuffed into a basement and it feels stuffy, would measure as.

Indeed.

Yes, changes...

Agreed on all fronts. Some folks are getting lazy with masking but business is way up in our FEC from 45 days ago. Birthday parties are starting to really roll in too.

It seems as though we might be getting to a better place with this pandemic. My hope is that it will be sooner than later and people are going to be looking to get out and do stuff.

I've been contemplating opening a Pinball Bar for years, and if I could time this right, rents might be low enough now to make it a possibility.

Anybody in the forum run a Pinbar as opposed to an arcade for kids? I'm wondering if it's financially viable if you don't cater to the kiddos and the birthday parties.

I was a bar owner/partner from 2005-2009. I now run a pinball museum. I've personally visited many dozens of them across the USA as well.

Key question: Will you be a bar with pins, or a pinball arcade with drinks? The business models are similar but not quite the same.

Bars are louder, messier, target the 21-26 crowd (often to the exclusion of all other age groups), make a crapload more money, and you'll have to fight more battles internally and externally. You'll want fewer pins and more EZ-maintenance profit games.

Pinball arcades are family-friendly, event-friendly, won't make as much money (some barely break even). You'll want a good variety of pins and will do more maintenance overall.

Other hybrids exist, but these are the Main Two Roads into the industry. Choose carefully.

I was thinking the latter, pinball arcade with drinks. It would be located in the suburbs, so not a big twenty-something crowd.

I'd need to keep my day job and hire someone to help run it. Then I could slide into it full time when I'm ready to retire.

Rents around here are not cheap, so I'm not sure if this a possibility. Probably a minimum of $3k a month for 2000 sq ft.

Would likely be a labor of love in that case. Best shot for success would be to anchor it next to a pizza parlor. Could get families coming out for "pizza & pinball" nights in one stop.

Beware of anchoring next to a bar. It'll be GREAT for the bar, not for you. They make the profits and you'll babysit and clean up after the drunks wandering in who will chase off everyone else.

NicoVolta thanks for the advice.

Local to me - https://www.gamecraft-arcade.com/ in New England (so comparable in terms of demographics and rents)

Seems to be a bit more arcade / gamer leaning. I think the tie-in with local brew houses works well (craft beer, craft gaming) and they do lots of events - tournaments, discounted tokens, etc. as well as private events. I think there's an outdoor area.

They opened not long before the pandemic hit and I have not been there yet, but getting vax'd today in fact so hoping to get out a bit more soon.

Thank you for sharing this. I've been doing non-stop CPR trying to keep a yoga studio alive over the past year. We've been working primarily with fresh air (windows open, we're blessed with a lot of windows), HEPA / carbon filter air purifiers (running 24/7 when the space is closed / windows shut), and mostly doing virtual / online classes (I've got some A/V production experience so have set up a 4 camera video system to live-stream in-studio classes, plus the ubiquitous zoom classes)

CO2 monitoring makes a lot of sense, not too pricey, and will give us a good sense of air freshness / staleness especially as people feel more comfortable coming back.

https://pokeyspinballcafe.ca/

This is the way.

If you don’t have bar industry experience you either should get a partner that does or not open a bar concept. With selling alcohol comes all kinds of liability and red tape and requires a lot more expertise than you’d think. Not to mention the price tag of building a bar concept to code and paying for equipment. It’s not as easy as it looks. I had ten years experience and management under my belt and it was still a huge learning curve. A project I could have never pulled off without a string network of people supporting me. And I went 200k over budget. If you’re worried about rental rates you aren’t ready. Doesn’t mean you won’t get there but it’s a long journey.

Glad to hear it Pooks. Drove through Charlottesville this evening and was hoping to stop by, but was a bit too late (picked up a Monday Night Football for the museum). Hope to stop by before too long.

This does make a degree of sense, if the group all know each other it is much more likely they will all be interacting with one another in close quarters than small groups of random strangers would.

pookycade We made another trip down yesterday and loved it! You’re right, my kids loved that bowling game. It’s soooo slow though.
Glad to see business picking up. Keep up the great work.