Here’s the Ticket!

The Top 60 Redemption & Merchandiser Combined List is put together from actual collections from games owned and operated by Alpha-Omega Amusements at two locations so I know that the data is correct and is not changed in any way. The purpose of the List is for you to see where your current games place or rank and see where other games that you do not have would rank in your facility. And also to pick out trends and stay on top of your game.
 
Trend Analysis of Top 60 Redemption & Merchandise Combined

The main trend that the data shows is that the Top 10 games are earning ‘one third’ (33%) of the revenues of the 82 games. Players are currently more attracted to a few of the new games, the higher price/play games that award a lot of tickets/play (with high jackpot bonus potential), merchandisers with ‘actual’ tickets as prizes with high hit frequencies, and a few merchandisers with the hottest prizes. It is more important than ever to capture this revenue from the Top 10 category.

Also, notice that the merchandisers like I-Cube, Key Master, Color Match, and Barber Cut have slowly moved ‘down’ the ranking chart. What this could mean is that players are very slowly trending away from games that have low hit frequencies (high play to win ratios), higher than 1:100 for example (1 win out of 100 tries). The ticket crane has a hit frequency of 1:3 and the Knock It Off Rotary is close to 1:9.  Cranes are usually 1:12.  Players are more excited to win tickets (points) more frequently and then choose the prizes they want from the redemption prize center. This is the way it used to be in our industry, and perhaps we are heading back.  Just something to watch carefully.     

Kung Fu Panda (ICE) -This new game was set up on 12-17-14, too late to put together a complete weekly collection for this issue.  I got the revenues for the WE 12-23-14 that were $1032 at 31% and a projected ranking of #8 overall, very close to the revenues of Fishbowl Frenzy ($1140 at 25%) that came in at #7 overall. Of the 4 new games introduced, Kung Fu Panda is a game to watch carefully. 
 
Gear It Up (Bob’s Space Racers) -With first week revenues of $574 at 30%, it placed #20 overall in its first week of operation.

Up & Away (UNIS) -This new game did much better during its 2nd week at our 2nd Test Location.  It ranked #13 out of 38 redemption games with earnings of $538 at 18%.  Our techs raised the bonus from 25 to 50 and the points for scoring holes from 3 to 5. I think we will see further increases in earnings as we look to increase the ticket payout a few percentage points higher.  This is also a good game to keep an eye on in the children’s game category.

Ticket Candy Crane is still a phenomenon earning combined ranking of #6 overall & a merchandiser ranking of #2. As reported in the previous TRR #22, #23, and #25, this simple merchandiser with a very high hit frequency and very low maximum prize value of $1.13 proves that players can be attracted to small size cabinet low tech games. The Ticket Candy Crane has seen some of its revenues decline as the Knock It Off entered the competition. This is to be expected.

Knock It Off Rotary 4 Pl (Elaut) has moved up to the #4 combined ranking and continues to hold the #1 merchandiser ranking. Just as this report goes to press, the KIO moved up to the #3 combined ranking for WE 12-30-14, beating out both Big Bass Wheel’s during the super peak Christmas week. TRR has written this use of tickets in a merchandising game in the Breaking News section of TRR #25, TRR #26, and TRR #27.  

Candy Crush (Adrenaline) -This game has moved up to a #9 overall ranking for the past 2 months now that the price/play was reduced from $1.50 to 1.00. I expect the game to do even better once we install the perimeter candy glow lights that were shown at IAAPA. Remember, this is the original prototype model that we have.

Fishbowl Frenzy (Team Play) – We had been testing the prototype Fishbowl Frenzy in secret for several months upon Team Play’s and Betson’s request and this game often ranked in the Top 10 even with changes being made on the fly from week to week. Fishbowl Frenzy ranked #8 overall and is TRR’s Pick for the Top Game to have among all of the new games available.

Ask Frank ‘the Crank’ Seninsky

Here’s the Ticket!

How to Modify a Regular Crane to become a Ticket Crane
(Jon Wilkerson, Alpha Technician)

With the tremendous success of the Ticket Candy Crane, the AEM/Alpha Techs began the process of converting one of the bays of a Mega Triple Crane to a Ticket Crane and one bay of a Big Choice Double Crane to a Ticket Crane. The revenue increase results have been very positive, especially in those locations that did not have a ticket candy crane to compete with.

The concept is to duplicate the design of a candy crane claw. We cut out three triangles from a rigid piece of plastic (you choose the best color) with each triangle having a base measurement of 3 inches and two equal sides of 2-1/2 inches. A file was used to cut slits into the two equal sides to create saw teeth that can easily grip the ticket bundles. Each triangle is then glued to the curved inside claw finger so when the claw mechanism closes, the plastic teeth edges will come together but not get caught on each other.

The ticket bundles are made up of mostly 100 and 150 ticket bundles with a few higher ticket bundles mixed in with different shapes. The Win % goal is 25% and is dependent on how many ticket bundles are used.

We are using equal amounts of 100, and 150 ticket bundles with a total of 20,000 tickets in the crane bay at one time and a small mix of 25 cent per piece well known candy items to add additional flash (optional). To build up the height of the tickets, fish tank gravel (plastic pebbles) was added to the base. The bundles are held together with the stretchable strings that come with the 2000 ticket bricks. Heavy duty colored construction paper bands with the number of tickets printed is used to add further colors. A sign behind the glass instructs the players to bring the ticket bundles won to the Redemption Prize Center. At the end of each shift the ticket bundles won are returned to the Ticket Crane and the staff is instructed to fluff up the ticket bundles so the display looks ‘mountainous.’ If the ticket pile is not fluffed up it gets flat and the win % goes down and the players will stop playing as much and the revenues will decrease. (See TRR #22 Archives for additional information and pictures.)

Venco Business Solutions has a wireless router that transmits a signal up to 300 feet from an internet connection that is high speed and secure. This simple router (cost $149) eliminates the need to run wires to an internet jukebox or an ATM. To receive the signal, a Verizon Wireless Stick is available for $29.95/month that connects to their 4G LTE network.

What this could mean? This is a fantastic installation and service labor savings for jukebox and ATM operators and can easily be adopted for other games and related equipment such as bill changers and debit card kiosks. In the near future, many games will need to be connected to the internet because the players will expect it as ‘normal’.

Team Play’s ‘Fishbowl Frenzy’ (winner of IAAPA Brass Ring Award for Best New Coin-Op Product) is the first video-redemption game to use augmented reality technology. Their 65” transmissive LCD screen creates the realistic 3D computer-generated animated fish that appear to be swimming inside real fishbowls.

What this could mean? TRR has been testing Fishbowl Frenzy for the past 8 months and it has consistently been in the Top 10 Overall out of 82 games. For Nov/Dec it ranked #7. Videmption is the category that TRR predicted years ago would be the next growth category where video technologies could be integrated with simple redemption style play. Videmption games like Harpoon Lagoon and Pirates Hook are still captivating players. TRR will soon be testing Ocean Pearls (Jennison), another augmented reality videmption game. This is a great new technology, well adapted to our industry.

Ticket Circus (Elaut) is a token pusher that has different colored and valued token chips throughout the playfield whose values are read by RFID technology. All the regular tokens and chip tokens are kept internal to the game and recycled. When a 25 ticket valued chip goes over the edge, the player is awarded 25 additional tickets.

What this could mean? Although RFID is an old technology, this is a great adaption for our industry. The ability to read the different valued tokens adds a great dimension to the pusher game category. Having everything internal makes it easier for the game technician who no longer needs to worry about replacing the token chips. This next step may be to add another available technology for players to keep track of the different token chips as they collect sets (like they do with the Wizard of Oz tokens and cards) but without ever receiving them. This could be done through their smartphones.

Andamiro has Smart Cube with Smart Monitoring that is compatible with your smartphone. The different models of I-Cube will send messages to your phone when a prize is won and for other programmable options including earnings report, error reports, and security status. A standard SIM card is installed in the game and transmits the data through a wireless provider.

What this could mean? This is another example to show that game manufactures are seeing the value of enhancing communications between games and related utility equipment and smartphones. Soon every new game will have these capabilities, with upgrades available to many others.

American Changer’s AC6007 Cash or Credit Card Changer now has web server capabilities. You can watch in real time from your computer, laptop, ipad or smartphone the cash received and credit card transactions, reprogram the changer remotely, and also give refunds directly to the customer. You will know if the bill acceptor is not working, the credit card reader is not working, or the token hoppers are malfunctioning or are out of tokens. American Changer will have this upgrade available on all of their changers in the near future.

What this could mean? This is a very valuable tool to have for bill changers and it is available at a very reasonable price. The industry is moving forward one step at a time, but still moving forward.

Here’s the Ticket!

I do not know the reason why today’s entire amusement industry doesn’t focuse harder on adapting new technologies ahead of our other competitive industries. History shows us that the public loves to see, touch, feel, hear, and smell new innovative products such as the jukebox, pinball, skee-ball, video game, and the modern merchandisers that have been some of the main reasons our industry grew so rapidly. Technology is our best friend and not the enemy. Below are some new products and new technologies that caught my attention these past two months:

A Game with a Smartphone Interface. As reported in Vending Times, Unit-e Technologies has created a music-themed game (including a redemption model) called Neon FM. The unique aspect is the smartphone interface. A player can connect his/her smartphone to the game by scanning a QR code on the monitor and logging in to a wireless internet connection. Initially this would allow a player to save their scores and compare them with other players. What is entirely new is that a player can input their own settings for the game including ‘…colors, speed, and note modifications’. A player or anyone using the player’s smartphone can make changes during the game in real time to take advantage of a player’s skills or ‘your friends could mess with you while you’re playing’. In other words, this means that players can not only challenge each other traditionally, but can each use the other’s smartphone to change key features of the game while their opponent is playing.

What this could mean? This could be a major breakthrough for coin-op games. What our industry has been missing is a direct connection between our games and the public’s smartphones that goes beyond mobile payment and mobile reward and advertising capabilities. People have become so addicted to their smartphones that they want to use them as a part of their everyday experiences and that includes out-of-home game play. This technology gives the player the ability to unlock features of a game after completing a series of challenges or missions over a period of multiple game plays, similar to achievements in laser tag.

Taken a step further, this could be a great application to adding more skill dimensions to video and video-redemption games. These challenges and changes would not need to be random or programmed by the game, but are skillfully inputted directly by the player’s smartphone during real time game play. This technology can keep the players coming back more often to further develop their skills.

This is just the beginning and the uses are limitless. I have not yet seen or played Neon FM, but for those who are interested in learning more, Unit-e is located in Timonium, MD, phone 858 848 6483.

Here’s the Ticket!

The AEM/Alpha Team was very busy at IAAPA looking for new games, new attractions and new technologies that can help keep our customers interested and attract new customers. We have committed to testing 12 new games for 1st Quarter 2015 and that is the most ever from one show. In this issue of TRR #27-Test Game Spreadsheet, we have the first full week’s revenues from 2 of those that have arrived early plus Fishbowl Frenzy, the game of the Show, (which we tested for the past 6 months under name TBD) and continues to live up to its Top 10 earnings.

Games AEM/Alpha is/will be Testing:

• Kung Fu Panda (ICE)
• Gear-It-Up (Bob’s Space Racers)
  
• SpinDrome (Benchmark)
  
• Up & Away (UNIS)
  
• Fishbowl Frenzy (Team Play)
  
• Ocean Pearls (Jennison)
  
• Gold Fishin (ICE)
  
• Hop Star (Bay-Tek)
  
• Full Tilt (Bay-Tek)
  
• Piano Tiles (Bay Tek)
  
• Prize Time Crane (Smart)
  
• Side Box (Coast to Coast)
  

There were several other good games at IAAPA and we will continue to add more during the 2nd Quarter 2015. For testing purposes, the results can be off when too many new games are introduced at the same time so the tests will start with 2-3 at most at the same time. We also rotate the positions of the test games periodically so they each get a chance at the better locations within the game space. Testing is not a perfect science, but TRR has done its best to give its readers the most accurate results in the industry.

Knock It Off Rotary Hits #4 Overall Ranking for Nov / Dec

Here’s the Ticket!

The Knock It Off Rotary 4 Player at 50 cents/play with rolls of tickets as prizes has moved up to the #4 Overall Ranking and #1 in the Merchandiser category. Nov/Dec weekly revenues of $2851, $1782, $1772, $1678, $1267, $1063, and $921 put KIO ahead of our 2nd Big Bass Wheel (priced at $2/play). The industry has taken notice of this and I have been working with Elaut on their new upgraded ‘Tower of Tickets’ rotary, that was shown in prototype form at IAAPA. The Knock It Off was built by Elaut a dozen years ago as a special build for Alpha-Omega Amusements. Go to the TRR Archives for detailed information on the Knock It Off Rotary. For WE 12-19-14 the Knock It Off Rotary ranked #3 Overall, its highest weekly ranking do date.

Ticket Crane Gets #6 Overall Ranking for Nov / Dec

Here’s the Ticket!

The Ticket Crane at $1/play with 50, 100, & 150 ticket bundles as prizes earned the #6 Overall Ranking and #2 ranking in the Merchandiser category. Nov/Dec weekly revenues of $1843, $1050, $1227, and $990 placed it firmly in the Top 10 Combined. The TRR Archives has the details on how to convert and set up a candy crane to a ticket crane or ticket/candy crane. Many TRR readers have asked if a regular crane can be modified to be a ticket crane. Go to the ‘Ask Frank the Crank’ section and learn how to transform a regular claw crane claw machine into a ticket crane.