This issue marks RePlay’s 49th birthday…49 years since we published our very first issue (that’s its cover above) and brought it to that year’s MOA (Music Operators of America) show in Chicago to hand out to conventioneers. We also mailed a slew of them to an operator list derived by a combination of Wurlitzer’s and Rock-Ola’s rosters. (A lot of mail came back, but most stuck and subscriptions started coming in … and nicely, by the way.)
During this nearly half century, so much has changed with the rise of video games, digital jukeboxes, the FEC business and widespread prize redemption. The route and arcade owners from back then are either gray haired, sitting in the rocking chair, or gone now, mostly replaced by tech-savvy, computer-wise guys and gals, many of whom never had the pleasure of lugging a 20-lb. sack of quarters to the bank or visiting a record one-stop to buy the 45s they saw on the Cash Box and Billboard charts.
Our inaugural year of 1975 saw the aforementioned-MOA operator association stick the word “Amusement” in front of its name, reflecting the not-so-subtle morph from a jukebox-oriented industry to one about to travel through an electronic pinball boom followed closely by an explosion in the cash boxes of what became known as “video games.”
Few knew it at the time, but the latter’s boom would be relatively short-lived. The video game side of the business eventually settled down though kept rolling with evergreen route hits like the Golden Tees and those big ones made by Raw Thrills and some others, mostly for the FEC business, which bloomed like roses in the spring these last few decades.
Machine prices in 1975 – for example, $500 for a brand-new shuffle alley – rose over the years to … well, I’d better not print any numbers because they may go up further by the time this issue hits your mailbox. At the game rooms, quarters were replaced by tokens, and tokens are being replaced by play cards, though not everywhere. After all, tokens have several unique features a bunch of our readers still enjoy.
Well, that’s enough reminiscing. I’ll probably write a longer yarn next year when we celebrate our 50th anny. Yeah, internet be damned, we’ll be here!
