Going by the stands we've kitted out over the years, the two games that do the most work are the Batak Pro reaction wall and the prize crane arcade grabber. One pulls passers-by in with a thirty-second score chase; the other keeps them there with a prize they can see from the aisle. Both have worked stands at the NEC in Birmingham, ExCeL in London and Manchester Central, and both come out of the same Sheffield warehouse with our own crew doing the setup. For brands running several stands across a show, we supply multiple units to multiple halls on the same day - it's how the Amazon activations we deliver work, and it saves a lot of arguing with the venue about who is plugging in where.
Batak Pro: the thirty-second queue machine
Twelve bright LED targets light up in random patterns and you hit as many as you can before the buzzer. Two score displays sit in the middle, the machine shouts "Get Ready" and "Go" at you, and the whole turn takes about half a minute, which suits a busy stand fine. Queues stay short and the aisle keeps flowing, the score displays face outwards, and everyone tries to beat the office champion. We run the largest hire stock of Batak games in the country, and the Pro has been to the NEC Birmingham, Leeds First Direct Arena and Old Trafford over the years.
It measures 2080mm wide by 950mm deep and 1950mm tall, works indoors and out, and runs off a standard mains socket - if the stand has no power we bring a generator. Branding is available on the back panel (£99), the twelve target buttons (£49), or both (£125), produced as sticker transfers for the hire period and removed afterwards.
The prize crane: a prize budget you control
The arcade crane is the other half of the pairing. You fill it with your own promotional items - branded merchandise, plush toys, vouchers - so the prize cost is yours to set, and the claw strength adjusts from "prize every time" for a giveaway stand to proper skill settings when you want the queue to keep trying. The panels take your branding, the footprint is modest at 3.8ft by 2.3ft by 6.2ft tall (allow 5ft by 3ft of floor space), and one player at a time keeps the turn over quick.
Hire pricing is £475 for a day, £695 for two, £895 for three or £995 for a week, all plus VAT. Our own crew delivers, sets up and collects, and that's in the price. There's £5m of public liability cover behind it, supervising staff are available if you'd rather your own people stayed on the stand, and 24hr telephone support runs for as long as your stand is open. The risk assessment and method statement land in your inbox before the day, which is the first thing most venue H&S teams ask for. The queues for the grabber never went down all night is how Verity Watson put it after her event, and the branding done for her looked great too, by her account.
What makes any stand game work
A few things decide whether a stand game gets played all day or sits there half used. Short turns matter because a game that resets in seconds keeps the queue moving past your stand instead of blocking it; both of these reset in seconds. Put the score display where the aisle can see it, because visible competition pulls the next player in without a word from your staff. A prize people can spot from ten feet away will usually out-draw a raffle box. And plan for roughly ten feet of frontage if you want both games - a stand under that fits one comfortably, and you're better off with one busy game and a bigger prize than two quiet ones. If neither suits your footprint, Whack a Zombie, the Atari Pong Table and the Football Darts Combi all pull a crowd on the same principles.
Exhibition work now has its own dedicated site at exhibitiongamehire.co.uk, with the whole trade-stand range and the UK venue experience in one place. Not sure a game will fit? Ring the office on 0114 345 0135 with the floor dimensions and the power you've got and we'll tell you which two games to take - and if you'd rather check us out first, the 209 Google reviews are all five stars, and most of them mention the crews.
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