Gaming Center and Internet Cafe Ideas

J

jumpin joe

Guest
Hi Gamers!

I plan on opening a new Gaming Center and Internet Cafe in my town and wanted to get some suggestions from some die-hard gamers.

The current plans are to open a facility next to a Movie Theater that has:
Console Gaming Pit with 12 stations each equipped with :
60" HDTV
PS2, XBOX, Gamecube consoles
Couch and assorted bean bag chairs at each station
Access to 250 copies of the hottest console games (ideas)

PC Gaming/Surfing Bar equipped with:
12 2.4Ghz P4 Gaming PC's with 54MB LAN/Wireless Cable Internet connection and 17" Flat Panel monitors
Access to 30 of the hottest PC Game titles (ideas?)
Users can also bring laptops link to the intenet wirelessly.

Pool table aracade area:
2 coin-op Pool Tables
1 coin-op Dance Dance Revolution Mix 8 Machine
2-3 assorted popular coin-op Video Arcade Games (ideas?)

Cafe/Ice Cream/Snack Area:
Bars with 10 Bar stools and 12 4-top tables
Serving Hershey's Ice Cream, Shakes, Malts, coffees, Sodas (Bawls!), Popcorn, and other assorted snacks.
Cafe area will also supply for *free* up to 30 assorted traditional board games for friends and family to play (Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, Pictionary, Scrabble, Backgammon, Chess, Checkers, etc.)

I expect to do a lot of Party business of weekends, but I really want this to be a "destination" for the kids... a place they would love to go to and where they can feel the "own it"... please give me ideas!!!

Thanks!:D
 
S

Scooba Da Bass

Guest
Forget trying to connect the machines wirelessly, it's a poor idea.

Also make sure you are near a high school/university if at all possible as they will be your biggest customers.
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
remember to have the PC area be off-limits for drinks or you'll be going through 200 keyboards per week :)
 
E

Embattle

Guest
As scooba says, don't use Wireless as it will be cheaper and easier using NICs and wire.
 
S

Summo

Guest
Switched network ahoy! As these guys say, with that much traffic bouncing around you need a fast, reliable network.

Use 3Com NICs (avoid Intel) and a nice 100Mb, 24-port Cisco Catalyst 2950 at the heart. That switch is relatively cheap and allows you do (probably) everything you're likely to need, including configuring VLANS and SNMP monitoring should you want to.
 
S

Summo

Guest
Originally posted by jumpin joe
I really want this to be a "destination" for the kids... a place they would love to go to and where they can feel the "own it"...
Click to expand...
Charge the little bastards rent and make them clean up after themselves.
 
S

Scooba Da Bass

Guest
Remove the floppy and cd drives from the machines to keep shit off them.

Check out a bit of software called Smartlaunch, it'll lock down the machines, handle timing and pricing as well as giving you stats.

Charge people to burn cds, it means you can weed out warez and stuff.

Make sure you have a decent firewall/filter system in place to keep retards off your internal network.

Be aware that some companies (off the top of my head, Blizzard and Sierra) require site licenses, not just individual copies, make sure you stay nice and legal.

Once you've got it open think about viral style marketing, hand out cards where people can put their names - then every card that comes in with a new person, the original guy gets a free hour. Bring in 10 people, get 10 hours, this then expands bringing more and more people in.

Make each individual gaming area as small as possible, You want to use as much of your square footage as possible for revenue-generating equipment, i.e. the machines. 12 doesn't sound that many, try to at minimum double that, if needed reducing the space of consoles. The PCs will earn you a larger profit.

Othe than that if there is ONE common factor in centers that fail (other then being clueless about business) it's people who try to do too many things at once. If you are opening a game center, be a game center. Don't be a PC repair shop, etc, on the side. Try to be everything to everyone and you will end up being nothing to no one, I assure you. IF your game center goes good for a year or more, and you've got that down, then look into possibly expanding into other areas.

Edit; anyone who wants to open a Gaming Centre in London, hire me!
 
X

xane

Guest
My idea, and one that would work especially well for University towns, is a Cyber-Laundromat (with cafe bit as well).

See, what better way to intice students, surf and Surf :)
 
M

Meatballs

Guest
12 consoles sounds a bit much too start off with, unless theres like 12 player games you can get. I guess I don't visit cafes much, but if I wanted to play single player console games, cafe wouldn't be my ideal venue. Maybe play beatemups and stuff 4 player but that'd all be on the same machine.

Having about 4x12 game pads, or however much would be a nightmare, security could be a nightmare with the consoles, not to mention all the copies of the games you'd need. Not so much a problem with the pcs, as only mouse and keyboard really easy to steal, and they can be secure.

Maybe get something to take advantage of text messaging, IE, text registered customers offers etc, and a computer with IR port so they can update their ringtones?

The wireless idea is ok for laptop users, make sure its secure, but I wouldn't set the base network up as wireless.

See if you can get some kind of way for people playing single player pc games to keep their save games etc.

Good titles, Halflife + All mods, Quake3 + all mods, UT + all mods, RTCW, Tribes2, Battlefield 1942, Operation Flashpoint.

Rise Of Nations, Warcraft3, Diablo2, Starcraft, Total Annihilation 1+2

so many about, get a PC magazine and look at all the top10 lists in the back for a start, look at all the games that Gamespy supports etc.

DAOC, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies etc

Coin ops: Time Crisis 3, and maybe a beatemup or racing game to play as pair.

Stuff like bacon butties and stuff at cafe always a good thing :) If you want kids there for long periods, maybe open up the console beany bags area a bit, for them to lounge around on, because they probably cant keep paying premium prices for long periods.

You might possibly want to aim a bit for business users who need to connect to their office away from work etc more likely to have cash :D
 
C

Clowneh!

Guest
yeh, i'd probably only go to these places with my friends so i would probably work on multiplayer things.. like 20 daytonas!!

yeh that rocks
 
M

mr.Blacky

Guest
Oh and an area just for Wij, don't ask why, it is better that you don't know. ;)
 
L

Lester

Guest
I aer teh authorised Cisco reseller!!!



Oh and all your carpets aer belong to gum.
 
O

old.UKTwister

Guest
Right i'll tell you the problems i have with a games centre near me to try and help you:

Too cramped: so many pc's and seats cramped together its hard to move or get comfortable.

Lack of air conditioning: with all those pc's things are gonna get hot and sweaty.

Messed Up Pc's: Theres usually one or two pc's which are crapper than the others and makes it extremely annoying on LAN games. Give each pc the same equipment + setup to make things fair.

Music: Don't put music on full blast in the background. Annoying when trying to speak to others and usually music i hate!


Some games you can use:

Pc's: Half Life: Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2003, Quake 3, Codename Eagle, Battlefield 1942, Operation Flashpoint, Hidden And Dangerous, Worms World Party, Virtual Pool 3, Freespace 2, Freelancer, Total Annihilation(With Add ons/Uberhack mod), Serious Sam, Deus Ex, Tiger Woods 2003, Champ Manager 4, Red Alert 2, C&C Generals, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Grand Prix Legends, E-Racer.

Consoles: Gran Turismo 3, Timesplitters 2, Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Halo, Panzer Dragoon Orta, Jet set radio future, Ikaruga, Final Fantasy ?, Grand theft auto 3. (Not really upto date with console games)
 
O

Ono

Guest
Ahhh, remember The Playing Fields in London?














/before they went tits up.
 
G

gremlin

Guest
Originally posted by Ono
Ahhh, remember The Playing Fields in London?
Click to expand...
RIP TPF.. had many a good night there. Though Shoot'n'Surf was better...
 
J

jumpin joe

Guest
Thanks for all the comments.

The proposed Game Center/Cafe will actually be in York, PA. A small town on the east coast. Rent is very reasonable for 5000SF of space next store to a newly reopened Movie Theater. Location also has 2 small college campuses (York College and Penn State) within 2 miles in opposite directions. There appears to be a robust Gamer community and there is absolutely NO competition. The closest things we have are Chuck E. Cheese and the the Electronics Boutique PC Store in the Mall. I still need to do some more demographic research and survey the target age group as to their dream hang-out...

I envisioned the joint appealing to the crowds of movie-goers on the weekends and thru the summer as well as those interested in throwing a Party (mostly the under 12 age group). Also, family entertainment when the clan wants to go out for some ice cream. I also hope to pull in the hardcore gamers in the evenings for LAN Parties and such. Walk-ins of all varieties, of course, would be welcome anytime. Oh yes - it will be air conditioned in the summer and heated in the winter months!
 
T

Testin da Cable

Guest
remember to set up competitions and "end-of-week" / "end-of-month" highscore bonusses and stuff. kids will keep the cashflow up if you dangle a prize at the end of the tunnel dude. small stick, big carrot effect :)
 
D

domirx

Guest
join igames

id post the url but as im classed as a noob i cant.

Its a hard business but can be fun.

12 consoles is too many.

12 PCs probably too few.

check with igames about commercial licenses. you may have a few shocks on the cost of being legal.
 
W

|WarpiG|

Guest
cold beer and ash trays ;)

and maybe a healthy supply of blue rizla's
 
D

DaGaffer

Guest
Originally posted by xane
My idea, and one that would work especially well for University towns, is a Cyber-Laundromat (with cafe bit as well).

See, what better way to intice students, surf and Surf :)
Click to expand...

Saw one of those in Oz - seriously considered it - launderette/web/coffee - only problem in the UK is u have to add 'scumbags' into the mix somewhere.

Great name too: http://www.comecleanandchat.com.au/
 
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