Advice for my arcade?

I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THIS GOES please forgive me; if it's allowed in the DDR forum, please move it there but it's a weird question.

This arcade has had these DDR games for a while. I also work here and so does my buddy who's higher up in management than me. His "plan" is to eventually replace both those machines with DDR Extreme and Supernova 2, and with enough negotiation it may be possible, but we are a family-run business so it's not like we can just borrow extra cash for cabinets.

Recently (past two years, I guess) they've been getting rid of a lot of games. I've always disliked Max2 because not only does another local arcade have it but it's, well, a poor person's Extreme. Plus, they sold their Extreme cabinet and we were both like WHAT, WHY, WHAT IS WRONG HERE but moving on... While anything newer than Max2 is an improvement, I've been wishy washy about telling them to ditch 5th mix. The mats are missing so many screws that only one side works (it works fine imo but I'm kind of a nub), but, well, it's got an old school charm to it. As we've sold many of our older games, I question if we'd be missing out on anything by selling it. Or is scrapping old games for new games a step in the right direction? We used to be filled with old-school games but we kind of lost most of them, so maybe 5th mix just doesn't fit in anymore.

As far as competition goes, not all the arcades are listed here (I don't like them; don't go to them xP) but my own dear cousin and her friends and probably a bunch of other players refuse to come to our arcade because of the Supernova machine several streets away. It kind of baffles me, because she's blood why would she do this but also because the machine isn't privately owned and the guys at the arcade don't have the authority to fix the really wonky 2P pad, whereas our ITG machine works much better by comparison and (sometimes) Max2 works better. We used to have a bundle of Extremes (perhaps why FFC sold theirs) but they suddenly all disappeared and now there's basically just that SN machine, a Max2 in another city with a broken side, and Extreme miiiiles away from us that supposedly doesn't work great but I liked it... three years ago.

TL;DR: Is it a good idea to sell Max2 and 5th mix for SN2 for a family-run but surprisingly big arcade? (and we're keeping ITG2 like... forever) Or would only a member of the local community really know the answer to that question?

My goal is to get people that don't usually come here to make the effort to come from all around. Our old DDR machines won't equate to a working SN2, but for the love of DDR, we'd find a way to make it happen. All we really need is a decent argument and the owners would probably be up for selling their machines in this sort-of-trade. The other option was to just sell Max2 and have both SN2 and 5th mix, but with more characters and a new song list, it didn't seem like anybody would miss 5th mix, so the little bit of extra cash would be nice for SN2. Even so... I guess this is also just for my benefit because I played SN2 once and fell in love with it. xP

And then of course, there's the question of "does anyone even want to buy this stuff" so the next step after this is where do we try to sell these things at... my bud might already know what he's doing but I don't. xP

---

As your arcade has 5th Mix, MAX2, and ITG2, I'd like to start by saying I hate you.

If you had to sell a machine, I'd say to sell the MAX2. Honestly, the only things it has that EX doesn't that I can think of are the Tess songs, Drifting Away, and some Oni courses. 5th Mix has a great many songs that were never revived again or are otherwise hard to access outside of sims, so I'd say to keep that one as it makes a nice gateway back to the (semi-)old times.

And I would love to buy the 5th Mix for myself, I really would, but I don't have the room for it anywhere.

---

Max2 is still better than Extreme.

ok

---

There's a ton of 5th mix-exclusive songs that you can't get on any other machine. A Max2 for a SN2 is a no-brainer.

How...? I'm interested to hear, but I just don't see it at all at the moment...

Yeah, a nice chuck of those exclusives are pretty good and it's sad to never see them again; the primary issue is that the game itself sort of suffers from lack of speed mods. I play it anyway but some of my friends (even the ones who like characters) avoid it like it has cooties. And then my sister, on the other hand, hates speed mods, so I guess you have a variety of people... xP

Supposedly, I'm the only one who cares about 5th mix here. My buddy and his friends are all ITG pros. Like, there are a -bunch of ITG pros, it seems. Oddly, I don't frequent the arcade due to lack of other friends showing up and lack of time, so can't say there are or aren't 5th mix lovers out there. I should research this...

---

It's just an opinion from someone who has loved the game more than another game.
Take it as you want.
You should favor the majority that would participate and actually play the game.

Better color scheme/theme graphics.
Better quality audio
Better quality bgvideos (too many were needlessly changed on the same songs in Extreme)
Exclusive content (licenses) is better than Extreme's exclusives.

Although getting SN2 isn't a bad idea.

I would swap MAX2 for EXTREME and get an SN2. However, if you swapped the new SN2 for an X2 you would have my dream quartet of dance games: 5th Mix, EXTREME, X2, and ITG2

---

X2 needs maintenance frequently. :/

Do not do this.


Do this.

Get a IIDX Lincle and be done with it.

We actually had a ridiculous amount of Bemani for a somewhat old private arcade when I first started working there (IIDX... Distorted?, GF/DM V3, and a couple more that I miss too much to say xP and I had no idea it wasn't listed on this site until it was too late) but coincidentally after renovations they deemed the Bemani games among the least profitable and, well, people wanted them so they were sold. D:

Thanks for the discussion; it does come down to what people here want but it helps to hear what people who know Bemani think.

---