No way man. PHOF survives because it is cheap, has lots of variety, owns the land it sits upon, and runs on a tireless human engine with deep knowledge of antiquated technology.

If you ditch the EM's, jack up the prices, and move it to the strip it would be bankrupt within a week. Faster still without my coin, because the vast majority of what I play are EM's.

Pinball as a form of entertainment, alone, cannot financially sustain itself outside of an inexpensive, tax-advantaged venue with passionate, knowledgeable techs. Upkeep is expensive and among the most demanding of any form of amusement on the planet. Have a look at the pinball arcade at New York, New York. That's the only sustainable model outside of the "museum" approach/private collection: Fewer games, higher prices, bigger crowds, and bolstered by alcohol and food sales.

My 2c? Break up PHOF into a few dozen high-quality barcades across the country. Each with passionate, knowledgeable owners and varying themes. Track scores across all locations, sell food and drinks, get tournament players involved, dress up the environment, charge more, and unify under a national brand. You'll get better information sharing and management methods, more people involved, and maintain a higher overall quality of games. It would also build national public exposure for pinball as a competitive sport (and provide locals an opportunity to participate)... leading to an eventual niche ESPN-treatment like PAPA/Pinburgh. Not to mention growing the hobby overall.

I imagine 1000+ games would require at least 30 locations each with investors/owners/techs with a good slice of what makes Tim tick... while remaining open to change and a willingness to serve the demands of a modern audience. I'm already on track to accomplish this with my own barcade project, but as part of a national competitive sport network and unifying theme? That would be on a whole different level.

Not likely to happen due to the business logistics involved, but if it happened, passionate people like us would be the ones to carry it forward. Anyway... just thinking out loud...

"Play for time" is a business model I actively discourage, very much dislike, and will never implement.

It ruins the fun of earning specials.
It increases wear and tear on dollar-for-dollar income.
People walk away from half-finished games.
People click up 4p games for themselves.
I don't want to tell any customer to "get lost" when their time is up.
I don't want people even THINKING about clocks... I want them to lose track of time altogether.
It discourages people from stopping by for "just a game or two"

Only museums and festivals work on an "all you can play" model in my opinion. Otherwise, no thank you.

The answer is in Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams"... the film sequence about Van Gogh.

"I paint like a train. No time to stop..."

(as he walks into a background of black crows)

No tokens. Use swipe cards or RF bracelets/key fobs.

$300,000 for 250 card readers? That seems crazy high.

What about RF? Cheap bracelets, cheap readers.

Gotcha, but MGM can afford to drop $300k on a nice secure turnkey card system for their casino ticket redemption arcade. Which is great when your row of pins happens to be sitting underneath that avalanche of coin... but otherwise it's overkill. A scrappy and determined arcade like PHOF doesn't need to be Dave & Buster's to acquire many of the benefits of digital payment.

See, we Makery-types are rather used to creating miracles by innovating on the cheap. Lots of brilliant people here... physicists, EE's, microcontroller designers, etc. We're not limited to expensive off the shelf solutions. We've launched several successful Kickstarters and countless deployments for small businesses and Fortune 500 projects. Point being, we'd rather engineer a better solution than pay for an overpriced card reader infrastructure or yield to an antiquated token system.

RFID is worth a look. Whatever the method, coins suck. No one carries cash anymore, it can get stolen, and tokens can be counterfeited. It has to be a digital solution which delivers metrics, player demographics, score tracking, collaborative gaming, and secure cash control.

...and it need not cost more than the arcade itself.

"It's hard to get somebody doing this full-time and dedicating their life to it, when there's no profit in it for them."

Seriously? Non-profits are allowed to pay salaries. So... why not do it?

I love pinball, but it is essentially an amusement device. I mean, come on, I'm not willing to *die* for it.

But are we not all the enthusiastic "Boring Guy" at some point in our lives, depending upon our relative level of experience? :/

My brother and I ran a bar in Austin about a decade ago. Guests always want to connect with the owner. It is important to cultivate these connections... because... as has been said in business and advertising many times:

"People don't buy what you do. They buy why you do it."

If an owner has lost their passion for business, it's best to sell out or at least keep out of sight. Running a successful business is more than keeping the floor clean and the lights on. Vision is what drives purpose. And without purpose... there is no point.

I salute Tim's unearthly level of dedication, but he is a human being, doesn't appear to be having any fun whatsoever, and I don't think he can run at the redline for much longer. It's kind of sad to see. I've seen it happen before to other small business owners who attain some success... and as the business and responsibilities grow... it turns into quicksand consuming every last minute of their lives.

If making assloads of cash is the only benchmark, then we're only discussing numbers. In which case I guess both styles of management would technically be successful. But what about the bigger picture? Like quality of life/quality of experience kind of thing?

I've visited PHOF at least 25 times over six different trips over the past year and a half. Which is a lot. I know how to talk to Tim constructively and not annoy him when busy... but frankly I've witnessed an unbelievable amount of negativity expressed towards customers of all types. Tons of F-bombs and yelling at kids and constantly losing patience. Not that I think I'd do any better under the circumstances working 80-90 hours a week for a decade or more... no way. I'd have lost it years ago. But regardless, a little hobnobbing goes a long way in a customer-facing business and Tim didn't factor that in by taking all of the business upon his shoulders at once.

True, he continues to make buckets of coin which is absolutely awesome. But... is that all life is for? I mean, pinball without people is like playing a board game in solitary confinement. Were it not for the social aspect, I'd have taken up racquetball instead. *shrug*

"Each to his fate" ~Torquil the Cyclops

"So why do it? “Because I’m a showman, and Las Vegas was built by showmen, not bean counters,” Arnold says. “Not by spreadsheets but by guys … who take a big step and present entertainment to the masses. That’s what we do.”

*fistpump skyward*

Right on. What we do is what we do. I'm driven by the same flame.

Some cities disallow coin-op games... IN PRIVATE RESIDENCES?!?

Where is this? Teabaggistan?

Makes me want to hang the Come And Take It cannon flag on my front door.