Every exhibition and arcade game on our books comes off the shelf now and then to be plugged in, cleaned, checked over and played, and a shelf full of reaction games plus a competitive crew turns a checking day into a tournament. The results explain something customers notice on event days: the people who deliver and run your games have played every one of them.
The Atari Pong table started it, with a mini tournament and the winners going through round by round. Liam took the overall title, a result still disputed at HQ because he cannot play the real thing for toffee. On the Batak the quickest return came from Kane, who put in 29 hits in 30 seconds, and being both the youngest and the tallest member of the crew did him no harm at all. Strike a Light is a straight head-to-head, both players putting lights out opposite each other at the same time, and Kane won that too with 197 hits in 30 seconds. The Horse Racing Gold Cup emptied everyone's legs, and it went to Deano, the biggest rider of the bunch, who won fair and square and then needed a sit-down.
The checking itself is more than a plug and a glance. Each game gets powered up and run through its modes, the Batak's random and repetitive light patterns both get played, every button gets hit, and the branding gets looked at while the case is open. Anything that reads wrong on the day of an event is a lost round and a disappointed stand, so the faults come out here, in the warehouse, where fixing them costs an afternoon and not a booking.
Why it matters that the crew play the games
An exhibition game looks simple from the queue and has a knack from behind the console. On the Batak the difference between a good round and a wasted one is knowing when the pattern repeats; on Strike a Light there is a rhythm to the double targets that nobody finds in the first ten seconds. Because the crew set these games up, test them and play them, the attendants who come with a hire can brief players properly, run a mini tournament on the Atari Pong the way we do it in the warehouse, keep the score honest and restart a game in seconds if anything jams. Trained attendants are available on these hires to run the items hands-free, so your own team stays on the stand working while the games take care of themselves. Lucy, Specsavers' Early Careers Manager, had Katie, Dean and Becky on her stand at the company's schools careers events: “The DB team have been absolutely fantastic at our recent schools careers events. Katie, Dean and Becky have been efficient, friendly and very helpful. I thoroughly recommend them.”
It is also worth planning around the throughput. A reaction game plays one or two people per round, so a busy stand needs someone marshalling the queue, briefing the next player and keeping rounds short, and that is the attendant's job on the day. Left to run itself, a popular game builds a queue that wanders off; with one of the crew on it, players keep stepping up.
The checking day does a second job as well: everything that came off the shelf went back working, clean and correctly branded, ready to go out the next morning. The exhibition games travel from Rotherham across Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Worksop and Chesterfield as routine runs, and out to shows in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and London on the longer hauls, all covered on our delivery page. Several games booked together come in cheaper than the same items hired singly, which is how most exhibition stands take them, though delivery charges and minimum order values apply depending on how long the games are needed and where they are going.
To price a set of games for a stand or a funday, add the items through the green quote button on any product page, or ring 0114 345 0135 and talk the list through with someone who has played every one of them.
<< Return to news