Coin-Operator

Money

¤ marks quarters, which the machines take; $ is what they’re worth, four to the dollar.

Ways to earn, least to most

Click a cabinet in the window to play a credit on it.
Wave in whoever walks past: they fill the floor, and every cabinet earns double for 15 minutes. A birthday party makes clicks pay ten times over for half a minute.
Finish a game in the arcade. Pays far more than clicking. A game pays in full when you own its cabinet here; any other game pays a quarter of that.
Your first run of each game each day pays triple.
Today’s game, named at the top, pays double.
A stuck coin: play that game to free it, for an hour of the whole arcade’s earnings.

Here and away

With this page open, the cabinets pay straight into your quarters.
While you’re away, they fill the coin box, which stops when it’s full. Come back and collect it.

Buying

Each cabinet of a kind costs 15% more than the last.
Owning 10 of a kind doubles what they earn, and again at 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200.
×1 and ×10 buy that many. Next buys up to the next doubling. Max buys as many as your quarters cover.

Reading a row

×66: Under the picture: how many you own.
¤232,437/hr: What that kind earns an hour, in quarters.
Bar and %: Its share of all your income.
+0.1% · back 2d 9h: With the math on (Options), inside the button: what that buy adds, and how long until it pays for itself. Red is the best buy.

Upgrades

A bigger coin box holds more hours of earnings while you’re away.
An attendant triples one kind of cabinet. One comes up for any kind you own ten of.
The floor (from the 1980s): a cabinet standing beside its partner earns 25% more for each partner beside it. Move them left and right to make pairs.

Selling up

Once the shop has earned enough, sell it for Reputation. Each point adds 10% to all income, for good.
You reopen in the next decade, with new cabinets and new regulars, starting again from one Pong cabinet.
The cabinets, attendants, snack bar and quarters go. Your regulars, tickets, coin box and marquees stay.

The snack bar

Snacks and drinks sell to whoever is in the arcade, as a share of what the cabinets earn: 12% each for popcorn and soda, 10% for candy. They sell faster as the floor fills.
Stock costs half of what it sells for. The other half is profit.
A shelf holds hours, and they’re real hours: a 4-hour shelf lasts 4 hours. Buying cabinets makes it sell more in that time, not run out sooner. Bigger shelves hold more.
An empty shelf sells nothing, here or away. Its line turns red and says what it’s missing an hour.

Tickets and capsules

Tickets come only from games you finish in the arcade.
Spend them at the capsule machine, which also gives one free capsule a day.

Regulars

Each capsule brings a regular, who adds to their favorite cabinet. A legendary adds to every cabinet of their kind.
A duplicate punches their card and adds more. A full card unlocks their perk.
The odds are printed on the machine. A rare or better comes within 10 pulls, and a legendary within 50.
Nobody comes twice until everyone of their rarity has come once.

Prizes

Prizes change the games themselves, like Breakout Plus.
Each one unlocks once you own enough of its game’s cabinets: 10 Breakouts for Breakout Plus, 25 Pongs for Pong Plus. The Prizes tab shows how many you have toward each.
An unlocked prize is yours for good, even after you sell up.

Today’s pattern

One piece waits each day. Your first run of each different game adds one, up to six.
Lay them on the board to match a pattern in the book. Three pieces make a small one (5 tickets), four or five a medium one (10), all six a large one (20).
Each size pays once a day. The first time you make a pattern, its sign goes up over the window.
Midnight clears the board; a new set of pieces comes with the day.

Bonuses for good

Each achievement in the arcade adds 2% to all income.
Each of the shop’s own milestones adds 1%. Stats lists the ones reached and the ones next.

The rest

Stats shows where your quarters came from, and with the math on, when the next decade comes.

Options

The math shows what each buy adds, how soon it pays for itself, and the best buy.
Your save lives only in this browser, like your XP. Keep a copy: export it there, and import it to bring it back.

A beta: the numbers will change.

Coin-Operator Beta

Today’s pattern

Help

Money

Ways to earn, least to most

Here and away

Buying

Reading a row

Upgrades

Selling up

The snack bar

Tickets and capsules

Regulars

Prizes

Today’s pattern

Bonuses for good

The rest

Options