"Star Trek" at Dave & Busters

Dave & Busters is an arcade/restaurant concept that targets young adults with video games, midway games that offer tickets that can be collected and exchanged for prizes, a sports bar, and a restaurant, Think of it as a "Chuck E. Cheese" for adults.

One of the games they offer is a "coin pusher" with a Star Trek theme. The game play consists of a remote control metal arm that delivers a single metal token coin each time the button is pressed (or a continuous stream of coins via "rapid fire" by holding down the button) onto the top of the "step" that acts as the "pusher". The "step" moves in and out a few inches each cycle, allowing coins to pile up, then fall onto the larger, lower tray, where the front of the same "step" bulldozes the coins, tokens and trading card prizes toward the ledge, and if they fall off, into the collection bin.



The interesting thing about this game is that the metal "coins" that come out of the metal arm are not the prize. There is a carousel in the middle of the six stations that delivers orange and blue plastic tokens or trading cards at seemingly random intervals. The plastic tokens can be redeemed for 15 tickets each, and the cards, featuring characters from the various Star Trek series, can be exchanged for 50 tickets each (regular) or 100 tickets each (if a rarer limited edition). If a player collects the entire series of eight regular cards, they receive a bonus of 2,500 tickets. If all eight limited edition cards are collected, the bonus is 5,000 tickets. Of course, not all the character cards are equally distributed, with one character quite rare to make collecting a set a challenge.

Assuming you will play the game to collect cards instead of buying them on the secondary market, what is the best strategy for collecting all the cards?

Also for discussion, why is this not the model for skill based gaming in Nevada?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Assuming you will play the game to collect cards instead of buying them on the secondary market, what is the best strategy for collecting all the cards?

Check out Youtube.... there's a bunch of videos of people playing this game and there might be some tips on there. I know there's a whole "subgenre" of AP players who focus solely on beating D&B arcade skill games.

I saw people play the "Wizard of Oz" version of this game with such a disturbing fervor that it made me wonder how much the operators are making from these machines.

This game is very well designed. After you play x amount of coins you will get bonus shots. I have been just a few away from bonus so I rebuy. Bonus gets me 50 shots and before you know it I am just a few away again so I rebuy again. I like to ap this game too. Look for the ones where kids leave it just a few from bonus.

Quote: GWAE

This game is very well designed. After you play x amount of coins you will get bonus shots. I have been just a few away from bonus so I rebuy. Bonus gets me 50 shots and before you know it I am just a few away again so I rebuy again. I like to ap this game too. Look for the ones where kids leave it just a few from bonus.

Agreed that the design of the bonus program is to encourage additional purchases. After every 30 shots, a wheel awards a “Random” number of bonus shots. The amount of the bonus is awarded in a multiple of 5 up to 50 max. Interestingly, the award seems to leave the total number of shots remaining just a few shy of a multiple of 30, so that the bonus will be just a few short of re-activation when all the shots are taken; but it may be observer bias.

small side track on the game. Groupon currently has a bunch of deals for DB. Of course not my area but we will be in Philly in Aug so I bought 4 play all day passes for $28 after a coupon. It does not count for ticket games but it allows for unlimited play on the video games. It will be a fun day for the 4 of us. We didnt have anything to do on the first day of our trip so I figured this would be a cheap way to have some fun.