The Amusement Showcase International 2007 is less than a month away. Planners are optimistic about a slight spike in exhibitors and registrants perhaps due to moving the locale back to Las Vegas.
Do you share that optimism? Why are you attending, or why not? Are there particular manufacturers and product that you want to check out? Will this show follow the lead of last year's event -- that is, a more intimate, boutiquey tradeshow with a healthy showing of FEC and arcade managers?
Planners are foregoing the traditional reception for what they are calling the Big Bar -- a recreation of the Chicago Hyatt's lobby bar, the bustling center for after-hours industry activity -- erected on the show floor. Do you think this will spark interaction among tradesters, or will people flock to leave the space they've been in all day?
Share your thoughts and expectations about these or any other issues.
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RePlay Magazine is a monthly trade publication for the amusement route and family entertainment center owners and operators. This blog is intended to foster dialogue between professionals at all levels of the amusement industry. The site will pose a monthly question of critical importance to operators (and other members of the trade) in hopes that the sharing of our readers’ respective experience will help foster solutions and create a greater awareness of the industry’s common bonds.
5 comments:
I will not attend this year as Chicago was closer for me (midwesterner) and I could take my kids to experience the show on Saturday. The show returning to Chicago in 2005 & 2006 allowed me this opportunity which brought back the memories I have formed when my late father took me to my 1st MOA show at the Conrad Hilton many years ago.
Incredible Technologies decision not to exhibit last year shows me their true colors. I will no longer buy their products. Sega, Namco, Merit and Stern are where my dollars go.
Also, knowing that Chicago is the Pinball Capital of the World is still pretty cool. Take a look at the flyer for Bally's Old Chicago pinball machine for more details.
I'll save Las Vegas for the AMOA show in the fall.
Sign me MrBally.
I am very confused by the last post from the brave Mr. Anonymous. I did take a look at the Old Chicago flyer for more details. Amazingly I found nothing relavent about the ASI show in a flyer for a pinball machine made over 30 years ago. It is a mighty fine picture of the Water Tower and John Hancock building though.
So am I to assume that "Mr Bally" has a route full of Old Chicago pinballs which are still earning well with minimal maintenance? If so, then the industry really doesn't need any trade shows or manufacturers for that matter.
It would be nice if there was some honest discussion in this industry and not just silliness like the last and only reply to this important issue about trade shows.
Sign me,
Richard A. Ditton
Executive Vice President
Incredible Technologies, Inc.
Hey there richard a. ditton, brave MrBally here;
Sorry for the confusion, the Old Chicago flyer mentions "A contrast of old and new, in the Pinball Capital of the world" on the front. Nice to see that you did notice the John Hancock Center and the old Water Tower which survived the great fire that took place 105 years before the flyer was published. I was talking about Chicago as a show location versus Las Vegas (although Bally is alive and well and has been makeing slot machines in Las Vegas since 1990). No point in having two shows six months apart in the same city. Having one in the Western US and one in the East would be better. Except of course, for the company you founded which decided to no longer support or display at the spring show no matter where it is located. Even less than 40 miles from your plant.
You might be surprised how much revenue older games make for some route operators. Even with the *lower prices* on current IT products taken into consideration, those prices in relation to revenues does not justify their price for me. Operator comments and equipment polls verify that others feel the same way.
Speaking of older games, I have yet to get a blue screen of death on any of my pinball machines.
Since you have judged my reply as silliness, how has your attempt to bypass the distributor network that helped build your organization worked out? I'll be buying a few new games from my Global VR distributor soon. Apologies that I forgot to mention them in my previous message.
Google will not provide an account via my secure ISP so I cannot log in and the header lists me as "anonymous".
Sign me MrBally.
Hey there Brave Sir Robin,
I appreciate the additional information on the "Old Chicago" flyer. As most would know, my company started and still is in the Chicago area and most of our product is built by Chicago people.
I also have a fondness for Chicago history and I am sure that you know that the Chicago fire happened 136 years ago. At first when you said 105 years ago, I thought you might be referring to the Eastland Disaster, but that was 92 years ago. The only thing I can think of significance that happened 105 years ago was the reversing of the Chicago River which was an amazing technical feat. Anytime you would like to chat about Chicago history I would love to. It really is a great city. And if you are ever downtown I would be glad to give you a tour of the Old Pumping Station which has been partially converted into the Lookingglass Theatre. It also survived the Chicago fire.
And for Bally, I started in this industry by working for a company that did games for Bally and have always had a deep respect for them and their products. I was sad to see when they left coin-op and concentrated on fitness and gaming. They started the trend of companies moving on to greener pastures and leaving coin-op behind followed by many more.
Now, on to the point of this blog. Why does coin-op need two shows a year when a much larger industry such as amusement parks only has one (IAPPA)? Is there so much new equipment shown each year that we need two shows? If a regional show is required, why not depend on the distribution network to provide it? The fact that you aren’t even willing to go to Las Vegas to attend a show would indicate that you don’t believe that it is all that important. In fact, AVS puts on a very good show of new equipment every year. It is close and I would suggest that you attend. Our decision to fully support only one show and instead provide a yearly operator summit where operators can come together and exchange ideas still seems like the appropriate way to go.
And I am not surprised by how much older games make especially when ROI is taken into account. A good route should have a combination of both new and older equipment. Your eye should always be focused on the goal of maximizing your return on investment. Different locations require different equipment, but I am sure you know a lot more about operating than I do. I wouldn’t take into account the “polls” to much and if you checkout the current poll at insidecoinop.com, you will see that 79% of the responses don’t trust the polls either. A quick analysis of the Playmeter poll will show that generally less than 60 responses are received and the number one game is voted on by about 8 operators. When you consider that that is about 0.4% of the operator base, I am not sure that the results are statistically accurate. For about $500 a year, I could get 8 subscriptions to Playmeter and completely change their results on a monthly basis. That doesn’t sound like a bad marketing expense, does it?
And you have never gotten a “Blue Screen of Death” on an IT product either because we have never used a Microsoft Operating System. You have to look to other companies that just convert PC games to the arcade market for that fine feature. We build our games from scratch and they don’t run on Microsoft PCs.
Thank you for asking how our attempt to provide the operators a choice in their buying decision is going. It is going very well, Thank You. I am baffled by anyone who could criticize us for letting operators buy games in any matter they choose. If distribution works for you, that’s great and we have a fine distributor network. I once went to Salem, MA to chat with the city about allowing tournaments in their fine city. At dinner I asked a group of operators how their distributors were working out for them. To my surprise they both said they had a great working relationship with their distributor. I then asked who their distributor was. One was using Central from Omaha, the other was using Moss from Des Moines. Those two operators thought they had to go half way across the country to get good service. They were exercising choice in their own way.
Good luck with your new purchase of Global VR games. I am sure they will provide you years of flawless earnings.
And lastly, just click on Other if you want to go Unanonymous and you can enter any name you want. And if you ever want to play a little pinball, I would love to meet you at one of your locations for a drink.
Sign me,
Richard A. Ditton
Hello again, Mr. Ditton.
The Old Chicago flyer is 31 years old (1976) and 105 years before 1976 was the year Mrs. O'Leary's cow was said to have kicked the lantern and started the straw burning. I wasn't using octal numbers!
I can only attend one Las Vegas show and since that's the case, AMOA it is. Not quite like the ones at the Conrad, er, Chicago Hilton (& Towers) but it is the closest thing you can get! I only did the ASI's since they were in downtown and the Hyatt Regency was home to a few AMOA shows as we both know. This way I was able to treat my kids to what I experienced 25 years ago.
I'm glad that you did not end your relationship with the distributor network. Without them a good source of service which is still necessary from time to time would disappear. Not to mention a parts supply that is a short drive away. Overnight delivery is ok, but when the operator is paying the charge, $5 worth of gas is a lot better value. Especially when you realize on Friday morning that you need a part. Overnight delivery may mean three days down. (off topic: thank goodness Touch Tunes is located in Lake Zurich).
Your comments about operators using out of state distributors usually means that the particular distributor offers lower machine prices or they extend credit where other distributors or Firestone will not. Sometimes even the best of us have a few "notations" on our credit score!
I like your idea about the trade journals to skew the equipment polls. I wonder if one of the countertop touchscreen manufacturers isn't doing something like that. My experience with, let's call it "Brand J" is quite different from what the polls say.
Thanks for being civil with me and showing that you are a true professional. Your new Target Toss Bags game looks promising. I will probably be trying one or two to start.
If you have not been to Tim Arnold's Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, we could meet there during the AMOA show. Maybe the evening before as I know you will be busy with your best customers evenings of the show. That's a great place to play machines from all eras of pinball. I'll even supply the quarters! There's a really good deli two miles from there. (www.pinballmuseum.org)
PS, Did you work for Dave Nutting in the early years? I suppose I could dig out the copy of either Play Meter or RePlay that did the nice story on the history of IT for a clue.
MrBally
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