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Cost of tokens for atari games in an arcade


paulo

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In 82 and 83, tokens were 25 cents each at places like Showbiz Pizza and Putt-Putt.

 

At the start, but I remember when dispensers would give you extra tokens for exchanging bills larger than $1.

 

Also, at my local arcade, you could bring in your report card and get 4 tokens for every A and 3 tokens for every B.

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That's true. When i was a kid I'd jump on my bike and take my allowance down to Wizards, the near-by arcade. I remember I would always spend $5 because you got 24 tokens instead of 20 if you spent $5. Can't recall if they had a special if using a $10 bill. I think my allowance was only $10 so I wouldn't have blown it all anyways. I also recall if you brought in a report card they would give tokens based on your grades. Can't recall exactly how it worked, I don't ever remember drowning in tokens at report card time though! LOL

 

BTW paulo, your posts would be easier to read and to keep track of if they were all contained in one post, instead of spread out over 3 or 4. Just sayin.

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Those were the days. $.25 games, and extra tokens for grades at the local Putt-Putt Golf and Games.

 

Haven't been to an arcade in a few years, but if I remember correctly you can't touch a game for less than $1 these days. And the new games suck. What would. $.25 in '85 be today with inflation?

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Atari, and any games, were usually just one token. How much was a token? Depended on where you go, but no more than 25 cents per token. A lot of the indie arcades tended to give more...like there was a local place close to where I lived back in the day where they'd give you six tokens for a dollar.

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When I started having interest in arcade games (about 1979), just about all games cost 5 ATS (Austrian Schilling) here in Vienna. In our arcades, there were no tokens, instead you put your money directly into the machine. This included Atari games like "Domino" (the first Atari arcade game I saw). Then they started putting a price tag of 10 ATS on "special" games, which was later lowered to 5 ATS as the game aged. Games that were marked up this way initially included Pac-Man, Tron, Pole Position and Dragon's Lair (which, admittedly, were not Atari games). Starting in 1984, some games even went higher, including TX-1 and World Grand Prix, which each cost 20 ATS initially.

 

Then in 1984 a law came out which said that operators had to pay a much higher tax for machines showing a score display. Subsequently, the ROM's of most games were hacked (or the display adjusted) so that the numbers became invisible or obfuscated. However, in 1986, that law was changed again so the tax would also apply for violent games, causing many violent games to disappear, being replaced by older, non-violent games. However, they apparently did a test with a "Jail Break" machine which also had a working score display, but was set to 10 ATS per game. It seems that this was successful, so in the years after that, you would see more and more games with a working score display again, including violent ones, but all of them now cost 10 ATS per game. By the early 90's, there were only a few games remaining with a 5 ATS price tag, all of them in standard cabinets. I think Tetris was one of them. By 1992 or 1993, they had disappeared entirely.

 

I don't know exactly what happened after that since I stopped going to the arcades around 1998 when I became more interested in Karaoke instead.

 

Anyway, I've been to London in April 1988. There the most that was asked for a game was 1 GBP (for After Burner), but you got 7 lives in that game. Most games in the arcades in London were 50p. However, things were different in Brighton where they had put up some old games for lower prices in an arcade by the beach. I think I played a game of Asteroids for only 10p, and other games were 20p or 30p.

 

I've also been to Lignano, Italy where they do issue tokens for their arcade games, or at least they did so in 1991 and 1997 when I was there. As you described, you got your tokens cheaper depending on how much money you spent at once. The prices there differed by arcade. The most expensive one was at a kids place near the center of Lignano where they charged up to 700 ITL for a game. In cheaper arcades, tokens were 350 to 500 ITL, also depending on how much you spent at once. And most games were 1 token. I don't remember if any games required multiple tokens, and if so, which ones did.

 

I've also been to Paris, France, in April 1989, but they didn't let me into their arcades because I was under 18. So I only saw a "Hard Drivin'" machine at the front of one arcade which required a payment of 5 FF per game.

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post-1349-0-76818200-1358839835_thumb.jpg

What was the first game to cost 50 cents? Dragon's Lair?

 

This was my game. This may have been the first 50 cent game. I was on the local tv station at age 13 against another opponent. I had the best score with no lives lost so I was one to compete with the second place person. I won and got a jacket from the arcade it was in. Boy was I a goofy kid. When Dragon's Lair 2 came out, I played it like crazy until I beat that too. Great when I could get them on the computer.

 

Here is a photo of the arcade token from back then. For some reason I didn't spend a few and found them a couple of years ago. The place closed I think in the late 1980s or very early 1990s. Tokens were 4/$1 or you got 25 for $5, giving you 5 free.

 

Phil

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In the '90s there was a casino by my Grandmother's house and so when the family went to visit her and my mom would go play slot machines for a few hours, but my dad and me would go to casino arcade. They'd give you 2 tokens for every quarter, plus a bonus for cashing in larger bills. The machines were usually 2 tokens to start and 1 to continue. Man, those were the days.

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