DAVE&BUSTERS

Discussion of arcades and other gaming locations with music/rhythm games

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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:42 pm

https://www.livingsocial.com/deals/7683 ... e-buster-s

Pretty good deal, especially if you're into games like Pac-Man BR that can get expensive quickly, or feel like beating one of their many shooty games.

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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by MonMotha » Tue Jul 16, 2013 8:45 pm

FWIW, they run a deal after 10:00 every evening where if you buy at least $10 on a card, you get a time card valid for the rest of the evening (in addition to the $10 in chips). You can combine this with their various email and survey offers like buy $10 get $10 free, buy $20 get $20 free, etc.

What's fun is that the card time is not activated until you use it. So, you can buy a $10 card and walk out the door not using it. You can then come back later (any time during the day) and use the card. You'll get (IIRC) 4 hours of timed play starting whenever you actually use it. The $10 (or whatever you bought) is on the card, too, of course for redemption or when your time expires.

This works on recharges, too, including those done from a kiosk.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:16 pm

Can you farm tickets at Dave & Busters? Are there any games that have a payout such that you can get a deal in their Winner’s Circle? It’s hard to tell. Many games have random payouts, and the conversion from dollars to in-house currency (chips) is obfuscated and hard to calculate. In this post, we’ll explore the prospect of coming out on top by playing Speed of Light.
Here’s the game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kIBPiCGbas

Hit buttons, score points, and get tickets.

Today I played a few games, but I’d stop around the 670 mark. It’s pretty easy to get that score consistently, which is critical for this exercise. I incremented the score by 1 each play to guarantee the gameplay tickets, plus a new high score bonus. The results weren’t bad. 242 tickets per game. As long as I only increase the score by 1 each game, I can continuously get 242 tickets through about 800 points.

So what do 242 tickets get you? Not much, but thousands of tickets get you real prizes.
Xbone – 130,000 = 538 games
On Amazon it retails for $499. The game costs 7.9 chips to play, or on half-price Wednesday 4 chips. Assuming you only play on a Wednesday, it will take 2152 chips to play the 538 games. The internet tells me I can get 750 chips for $100. That buys me 2250 chips, which should give me plenty to play Speed of Light to my heart’s content. There are a few variables here such as what happens when my scores (incremented by 1) get too high? How much do ticket values increase? Do I want to dedicate 9 hours of non-stop Speed of Light to get that amount of tickets? How big is the new high score bonus?

Tl;dr: Play Speed of Light a shit-lot, and get an Xbone for $200 less than you’d pay in stores.

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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Merk » Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:24 pm

I highly, highly doubt this would happen but I sort of wonder if there's a risk that management would ask you to leave if they knew what you were doing and were skilled enough to consistently farm tickets; sort of like card counting in a casino. You also run the risk of D&B removing the game from the floor or changing the payout if they knew that it could consistently be beaten.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Fri Apr 25, 2014 1:43 pm

Merk wrote:I highly, highly doubt this would happen but I sort of wonder if there's a risk that management would ask you to leave if they knew what you were doing and were skilled enough to consistently farm tickets; sort of like card counting in a casino. You also run the risk of D&B removing the game from the floor or changing the payout if they knew that it could consistently be beaten.
Yeah, I dunno what they'd do. Like with any kind of exploit, the less you publicize it, the more likely you are to get away with it. I think the safest place on the internet is IndyDDR, even if D&B started this thread.

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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:00 pm

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/s ... cade_game/

Here's a weird self-absorbed Redditor that thinks he's famous for wasting time playing games. Ask him anything.

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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Merk » Fri Apr 25, 2014 2:53 pm

Here is Redditor closet pedophile MewtwoStruckBack's take on winning tickets for hot chicks that come into the local D&B
As far as the hot chick...you could have offered to hit 14 jackpots for her in exchange for a hummer. :p
Keepin' it classy baby this is the wild world of ticket taking and money making ya dig? Get on yo knees and get ready to please at the Chuck E Cheese
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by MonMotha » Fri Apr 25, 2014 3:39 pm

Supposedly there was somebody who used to frequent the local DnB and play Slam a Winner all night, hitting the jackpot basically every drop. According to the employees (several independent reports of similar behavior) who told me the story, it would take almost half an hour after close for the game to fully pay out the tickets owed. Apparently nobody cared as long as he legitimately paid for the gameplay.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Potter » Tue May 20, 2014 1:05 am

Merk wrote:Keepin' it classy baby this is the wild world of ticket taking and money making ya dig? Get on yo knees and get ready to please at the Chuck E Cheese
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Ho » Mon May 04, 2015 9:35 am

I was at D&B last night. According to Swarm (Foursquare), it was my first visit in about a year (last May, 2014). I walked the entire game floor twice and did not see PIU anywhere. Not that I was really wanting to play it, but it seems to be gone.

I was there to try out the new Star Wars Battle Pod game. It was pretty fun. It captures the Star Wars atmosphere pretty well. The cabinet is pretty cool (although it was turned up so loud that my ears were ringing a bit when I was done). A couple of minor glitches but overall pretty solid rail shooter gameplay. Not too hard. I was able to complete all 5 levels and only had to replay 2 of them.

I'd say it's a better offering than Star Wars Trilogy Arcade or Pod Racer. It has more variety than the original wire frame Star Wars game from Atari, but I'm not sure if I'd rate it higher than that. Though I'm sure there's some nostalgia factor elevating that game a bit. :)

At any rate, this new game is probably about as excited as I've been for the Star Wars franchise as a whole in the last 10-15 years. Good show, Namco.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Merk » Mon May 04, 2015 9:42 am

Hmm, that must be a super recent change then. I went there less than two months ago and Pump was there albeit in a different spot.

And someone was actually playing it!! And they were setting options and choosing hard / expert difficulties! I was legitimately shocked that some rando was playing and actually knew what they were doing.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by MonMotha » Mon May 04, 2015 9:56 am

PIU was still there a couple weeks ago. It was in the same place it had been for a while: facing the back of the building and behind a "pod" of upright shooter/gun games to the "right" as you enter just past the big driving/booth games.

It's possible they've gotten rid of it since then, of course.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Ho » Mon May 04, 2015 10:22 am

I noticed there were people working on a bunch of games in the big party room. I couldn't quite tell if they were old games being fixed, new games being assembled, or a combination of the two. I didn't look very carefully, and this was before I noticed Pump was missing. After I noticed Pump was gone, the doors to that room were closed, so I didn't check if it was in there.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Ho » Mon May 04, 2015 10:25 am

Also, getting back to Star Wars Battle Pod, level 5 was a real treat. I won't spoil it for anyone who may actually play the game, but it was definitely my favorite part and the part I would cite if I was going to elevate the entire game above the old wireframe Atari game.
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Re: DAVE&BUSTERS

Post by Amp Divorax » Mon May 04, 2015 10:49 am

I was there less than two weeks ago and saw it there as well so I'm surprised by this development.
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