บท 10: Trial Day
After another week of preparation the trial phase for the new arcade game Snake was finally ready. Dennis bought enough parts for 20 trial machines and used the connection of Simon's family to place them in some of the hottest bars in New York. Simon was fairly confident that no software error would ever happen, as he made sure everything was perfectly fine. The hardware part should be no problem either, as this arcade machine was far from as complicated as later game consoles. The trial machines were delivered on a Friday morning, the 23th of March 1970. The trial phase would happen over the weekend and the production capacity would heavily depend on whether the bar owners would order units and how the customers would receive the new arcade game Snake. Before the start of the evening every arcade machine was delivered and checked for any problems. After making sure there were no issues at at everybody left for home or the company office.
"Ding ding ding" the phone rang. Simon immediately put down the newspaper in his hand and picked up the phone, just a few hours after arriving at his home. Hearing the voice on the other end, he said: "Hello, who's there?"
Ted's voice, a bar owner and friend of the family, came from the phone and said: "Simon, your machine seems to be broken!"
"What? The machine is broken?"
He was really shocked. He had only been away for a short time, but why did the equipment break down?
After hanging up the phone, he immediately called the engineer who was responsible for this location, and then went to the bar first.
"What's the problem?" Simon asked quickly after seeing Ted.
"It's useless to put a coin in over there. It seems to be blocked." Ted pointed and said.
"Is it blocked?". In the training last month, he roughly knew the entire structure. The coin recognition device is the most likely problem on the equipment, because this technology is directly bought by a Japanese company.
The two walked to the arcade. At this moment, there were several blond young people standing around. Simon leaned over to open the coin door lock, and suddenly felt a weight was pressing down on him. Countless 25-cent coins fell out of the box and down on the floor.
"So many?" This was what everyone was thinking at the moment. SImon was also shocked and happily surprised. The box inside was fixed and neatly stored, which could hold almost 1,000 coins. However, the coins that rolled down from the top were not neat and fell apart. The discount is about five or six hundred.
It's only 11 o'clock, the nightlife has just begun, and this arcade machine has already made more than 100 US dollars?
Ted was also shocked. He had only seen people at the arcade before, but he didn't pay much attention to it. After all, the most important thing in a bar is drinking. A few hours later, he heard someone reporting that the arcade was broken, the coin couldn't be inserted, so he subconsciously thought that the hardware inside was broken, but he never expected that there would be a box full of coins.
"I need to suggest to Woz that the box for storing coins should be bigger." Simon thought to himself.
"Wow wow wow" Other people around him cast curious glances. Although they were not short of money, the appearance of hundreds of coins still shocked them.
"Put it away first." Staff of the bar began to collect the coins, while Ted went to the front to get a basket and put the coins at the front desk.
The two put the coins away and put the storing box in the arcade machine again. The machine started running again as normal and the young people around them immediately gathered again.
After the coin was returned to the bar, Ted frowned and said, "Now that I have taken out the coin, how will you determine the actual profit of the arcade machine?"
"Don't worry, the background of the equipment has daily actual data and will also record it for the day. How many coins have been invested in a certain timeframe?" Simon said with a smile.
"That's not bad." Ted thought for a moment. With this function, it would be convenient for him to manage it in the future. After all, the bar's arcade revenue is only a small part of the whole bar. The counter is the focus, and he can't keep an eye on it all the time. For the whole bar the daily income used to be just a rough estimate. If someone really took away 5% or 10% of the daily income, he would probably never know.
When the people around saw that the equipment was ready, they immediately asked impatiently if they could continue playing, and Ted naturally got out of the way.
Both of them went back to the bar. Ted gave him a free beer and asked: "Simon, what is the price of this arcade machine? You really don't know?"
THe young boy took a sip of beer and said, "Okay. I heard that the price is about 3,000 US dollars, maybe more. Are you interested?"
"3,000 US dollars?" Ted couldn't help but be speechless. The net profit of a bar as big as his in a month is about this amount. Such a simple game and the equipment costs 3,000 U.S. dollars, which is really outrageous. Remember, an ordinary car now only costs about 2,000 U.S. dollars.
However, after looking at the coins he had just recovered, Ted silently calculated the amount and he was still very excited. He could earn more than a hundred dollars a day. Although it was the first day and there were more people playing, the traffic in his bar would still be the same and it's definitely not small. In the future, even if the income is thirty or forty US dollars a day, the cost will be earned back in three months, and then it will be pure profit.
"Ted, our family have known each other for more than five years, and I can tell you some of our internal data." Simon suddenly said in a low and mysterious voice.
"What data?" Ted suddenly became interested.
Simon said: "In the past two weeks, the company headquarters invited many students and adults to play this game in Staten Island. The data obtained is that most people are interested in Snake and are very happy to play for a long time and their patience with the game is much stronger than expected. Many people can continue to play for a long time. In this case, if you charge, you just have to look at the current test data in the bar and you know this is gonna be a good business for you."
"How many days are you going to stay in my bar?" Ted asked. He didn't care before, but now that he is making so much money, he naturally wants to know more about it.
"Just three days. You know how big New York is and how many bars there are. We were only assigned 20 bars. A bar is open for three days on average. In a month, we can only choose 100 bars." Simon said .
"3 days!" Ted was a little reluctant to part with it, but this is also true. There are too many bars in New York City. This is where Americans spend time when they are bored. There are several bars in every town, and in big cities like New York In Los Angeles, there's probably one on every street.
"The factory in Staten Island has already started to prepare for large-scale production, and it will be available in the United States in a while." Simon said with a smile.
"Then if there are any goods, be the first to give them to me." Ted said quickly. Based on the interest of today's crowd, he concluded that this game will definitely be popular. A bunch of people gathered around the Snake Arcade machine to watch the players play and at the same time, there were a few people who were constantly instructing them on how to proceed.
"No problem, how many do you want? Let me write them down first." Simon asked.
"How many?" Ted felt a little conflicted inwardly. One unit costs 3,000 US dollars, and a few units would cost tens of thousands of dollars. This is not a small amount of money, but if you buy less, isn't it a loss to make less money?
"Ted, if you are under financial pressure, you can apply for a loan from Citibank. Our company has already negotiated with Citibank and you can get a loan directly. The bank will provide 70% of the funds." Simon said well prepared. This was the first time he used the connections and favors of his family for his own business.
"Like a car loan?" Ted asked.
"Yes." Simon smiled and said, "Let's do this. I'll write it down first. When we decide the price, you can decide how many units to buy."
"Okay, thank you, my friend." Ted patted the other person's shoulder and laughed.
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