Exhibition games suit a spaced-out stand better than most stand entertainment, and the reason is structural: the big names in the range are one player at a time by design. A reaction wall takes one set of hands, a claw machine takes one person, and a 30-second arcade run clears its queue in short bursts with gaps between players. This post went up in September 2020, when exhibitions were restarting with spacing rules, and the adaptations below were built for that moment - the underlying point holds at any busy show, which is that one-player games move a queue without crowding it.
The games that already played solo
The Batak Pro lights up twelve targets in random patterns and scores hits and misses on two central LED displays, one player at a time, with everyone else a step back from the wall. The Vault gives each player 30 seconds to stop a speeding white light in a shrinking red zone, working through five unlock rounds on a single trigger button. The prize crane takes one player at a time, holds your own prizes or branded merchandise behind the glass, and its win rate is adjustable so a stand gives away exactly what the budget allows - the machine itself is 3.8ft by 2.3ft and 6.2ft tall, so it fits a shell scheme corner. The Batak Pro and the crane ran exactly as designed that autumn; the Vault needed one change, which is the next bit.
Exhibitions were only part of the picture. Smaller private parties and corporate events were still going ahead, and businesses still wanted the fun on their stands, just with more room between players. The one-player format suited that perfectly: one person in the hot seat, everyone else watching from a step back, which is roughly how a crowd watches these games anyway.
The adaptations from autumn 2020
Where a game had a hand button, hands came off the equation. The Vault's trigger went from a hand-held button to a foot pedal - press to stop the light, no hands on the machine. The two-player horse racing games got screen dividers between players: the Bounce a Ball horse racing ran with a divider and a separate set of balls for each player, and the Gold Cup, which takes up to four racers, was capped at two so the players sat apart. Every game also went out with a foot-operated sanitiser station beside it and printed signage spelling out the rules, so players didn't have to ask a member of staff anything twice.
What doesn't suit a spaced-out stand
Head-to-head games are the limit. Anything where two players share a surface, a table or a set of handles can't be run from opposite corners of a stand, and a few items stayed in the warehouse through that autumn because adapting them would have made the game worse. Standing capacity got smaller too - a stand that held a queue of eight in 2019 held three with gaps - so the games that moved players through fastest earned their floor space. The electronic interactive games range scores well on that measure: short rounds, instant resets and no shared kit between players.
Booking exhibition games
The current line-up sits under exhibition game hire, with reaction walls, the Batak Lite and arcade cabinets all in it, plus the Batak hire range. Ring 0114 345 0135 or send the enquiry form with your stand size and expected footfall, and we'll suggest a mix that fits both. We've been supplying exhibition games for over twenty years at venues including the NEC in Birmingham, so the spacing question is one we've answered on real stands many times over. Every game hire comes with delivery, setup and collection by our own team, public liability cover at £5 million and 24-hour telephone support through the event, and delivery runs nationwide for exhibition work, with the same crew that builds the games at showground events in Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster doing the stand installs.
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