Hi, My friend is interested in starting an arcade and wants to have some BEMANI machines. How would you go about buying them? I know you can find some on ebay sometimes, but a new machine would probably appeal to him more.
but a new machine would probably appeal to him more.
Until he sees the price tag on any new Bemani machine.
I'd say go and talk to other arcade managers who have Bemani in their arcades, and ask them where a good reliable source is for that genre of game. Unless your friend is looking to get a new machine, which SuperNOVA would be the only one he'd be legally able to obtain stateside. All of the other DDR machines (excluding ones running DDR USA) in the US are illegally here. There is only one legit licensed IIDX machine in North America, and it's at Tokyo Game Action in Massachusets, but I guarantee you that your friend will not be able to get that licensing very easily, if at all. Andy, the store's owner, had to shell out tons of money and do backflips through flaming hoops for Konami to say OK for it to happen.
In short: Price tags for new machines are fucking ridiculous (hell, used machines are ridiculous), used machines are sometimes unreliable, and just hard to find in general, and getting those machines legally over to the US is a major pain in the ass.
Maybe there is an arcade distributor nearby where your friend plans to put his arcade that rents or leases DDR machines. That is always an alternative to purchasing machines.
Hi, My friend is interested in starting an arcade and wants to have some BEMANI machines. How would you go about buying them? I know you can find some on ebay sometimes, but a new machine would probably appeal to him more.
I hear quite a few horrow stories about Channel Beat and Coin Op Express, but I have a friend who has dealt with both companies without any problems. He originally purchased a Korean DDR 3rd mix machine from one of them and it arrived without a problem. He eventually upgraded the machine two or three times with (hacked) upgrades to up to Extreme from the other company. All along the way, the sales people communicated with him and answered any questions he had about the purchases. Of course, that was a long time ago and their service may have gone downhill since.
You know that Channel Beat and Coin-op express are two sides of the same coin right?
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Where to buy aracade machines 
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