This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2007)

Cops N' Robbers. The player launches a metal ball causing it to land on a certain pocket in the field where he/she can earn a number of tickets ranging from 2 to 100.

Redemption games are typically arcade games of skill that reward the player proportionally to their score in the game. The reward most often comes in the form of tickets, with more tickets being awarded for higher scores. These tickets can then be redeemed (hence the name) at a central location for prizes. The most inexpensive prizes (candy, small plastic or rubber toys) may only require a small number of tickets to acquire, while the most expensive ones (skateboards, low end electronics) may require several thousand. In general, the amount of money spent to win enough tickets for a given prize will exceed the value of the prize itself. Some redemption games, particularly electronic ones such as Flamin' Finger involve elements of chance, which can be set by the operator.

A variation on the ticket-based redemption game is the merchandiser, which directly displays and dispenses merchandise, rather than dispensing tickets which are then redeemed for prizes.

Redemption games can be seen as the modern successor to carnival games, as the same general principles apply.

[edit] Legacy

As revenue from traditional arcade games started to decline in the latter half of the 1990s due to competition from home game consoles and the Internet, arcade operators began to rely on the income from redemption and merchandiser games to remain profitable. These games were often much less expensive to purchase, and had a better return on investment than video games. The revenue of video games would diminish as the titles were released to the home market. Redemption games did not have that problem. Redemption and merchandiser games could generate good revenue for many years, compared to months for most video games. There are exceptions to this, such as the video game Dance Dance Revolution. With manufacturer software and hardware updates, this game has remained popular for many years. Redemption games have allowed many arcades to remain profitable in an ever changing entertainment market.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Pachinko

Pachinko balls

A Japanese form of redemption game is pachinko, which features small metal balls which are both used in play and used for redemption, instead of tickets. Pachinko is primarily or entirely a game of chance, however.

[edit] See also

• Skee ball
• Whac-A-Mole
• Medal game