A Smarter Way to Wait Your Turn

A Smarter Way to Wait Your Turn

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Arcades were a substantial influence on my life when I was growing up. There were usually a lot of people waiting to play the newest games, so a popular method of keeping track of who plays next was born; the coin line. The coin was used to credit the game and it was inexpensive to the player. It wasn't too big of a deal if the coin was stolen. As technology grew, the coin was replaced by a card which would keep all of your game credits. Surely, you wouldn't want to keep all of your money laying on the machine to wait your turn. What now?

To go in depth a bit more on the card system, each arcade game under this system has a card reader. When a player swipes their card through a card reader connected to the game, the reader checks the number of credits you have on your card's profile against the number required to play that particular game. If you meet the requirement, the game is credited. If not, you are told on a small LED screen on the game's card reader. The reader checks this by sending the information to the arcade's server, which holds all the information about the games and player's cards. The server can create statistics about which games are played most and when, which player's cards are used most and when, and so on. The server essentially creates profiles for each game and card with the ability to make comparison reports. One of the most popular arcades currently under this system is Dave & Buster's.

Currently the card reader is installed where the coin mechanism would go on each arcade game. The location is usually directly in front of the person who is playing the game and generally makes it difficult for other people to credit the machine is someone is playing. If the card reader were moved to a location on the game that was less obtrusive to those playing, this would be ideal for the next step.

Now to explain how the cards would operate. While people are currently playing a game, a new player would swipe their own card on the reader. This would hold the credit for the machine (if they have the available funds) but, not actually credit it. This would hold that particular player's card in a queue to play that game. Once the game is over for those playing, the card reader will display the player card that is next in line to play and allow them only to swipe to credit the machine. Of course, there is a possibility that the person swiped their card and left the arcade, so a time limit would need to be included to let others play in that event. Additionally, if you swipe your card in the reader of a game you have already started the queue for, it could display your place in the queue ("2 ahead of you").

The system could link to online profiles for social networking, in which players could share statistics on where, when and how often they play. More popular games could include a larger screen to actually display the game's queue and show card profiles. Game tournaments could exhibit enhanced automation.

There's only one problem with all of this; reality. Arcades have been on life-support due to advanced console systems and their ability to connect online. Now, people can play on their couch and compete against others without ever leaving the house. Gamers find others with a common interest over the internet rather than finding someone outside, playing their favorite game. Because of this, lines don't form as often as they once did at existing arcades. New arcade games are infrequent and expensive. If there was a time in future the tables turned, the advanced player card system is something I'd like to experience.