The Ins and Outs of Coin Pusher Arcade Machines: How to Buy One for Your Home Game Room
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If you've ever found yourself at the local arcade (or frankly, probably a Dave & Busters location) and found yourself drawn in by the lights, sounds, and motion of a coin pusher machine, you're not alone. It can be quite captivating watching the machine's parts push coins and tokens around the cabinet, just waiting for that elusive jackpot moment where hundreds of tokens all fall into the machine at once.
It's a fun, mostly passive game to play and can be popular with both casual and experienced arcade game players. If you've found your way to this article, then you probably want a coin pusher machine for your home game room. But how do you go about buying an arcade coin pusher machine? Where do you even find coin pusher machines for sale? What should you be looking for?
In this article, we will give you a complete guide to coin pusher arcade machines. We'll tell you what they are, how they work, where to buy coin pusher machines, and why you should get a coin pusher machine for your home game room. So read on – it's time to learn everything there is to know about coin pusher machines!
Coin Pushers (sometimes called Quarter Pushers) are basically arcade sanctioned gambling.
Simply put, an arcade style coin pusher machine is primarily a redemption based coin operated arcade game, and it is probably the closet to gambling that you'll ever see at an arcade, as some machines can be set to play with real money instead of tokens or tickets.
There are a lot of different variations on this type of arcade game in the market today, but at its core, a coin pusher machine features a coin bed, where a large number of coins or tokens rest. Behind the coin bed, some kind of pushing mechanism moves front to back across the coin bed, pushing the resting coins closer to the edge of the machine.
Players add coins or tokens to the machine through a drop slot. These coins cascade down the machine and rest on top of the pusher mechanism. Eventually, those coins are pushed off the top of the pushing mech and land in the coin bed. As the coin bed starts to overflow, coins and tokens fall off the front of the bed and are collected by the player in the form of additional coins or tickets.
Coin pushers are mostly a luck based game, however, there can be a timing and skill element for experienced players, who look to maximize the amount of push each subsequent coin drop provides to the coin pile on the coin bed in order to maximize winnings.
Playing a coin pusher machine is pretty easy, but winning one is a much harder feat to achieve!
In order to play, all you really have to do is insert a new coin into the slot at the top of the machine, and watch to see if it has any impact on the coins in the coin bed. If all works according to plan, the coin you inserted will trigger a chain reaction where a lot of other coins fall off the edge of the machine and straight into your pockets (or ticket collect, depending on how the game is set up).
Of course, there can be a pretty big timing element to the game. Pros will all look to maximize the amount of coin push generated from each drop. Each game will be a little bit different in terms of the path the coin takes on its way to the coin pile, but if you time it right, you'll wind up with a flat coin on the back edge of the first coin shelf, creating a solid push motion that drops several coins onto the main coin bed, triggering coins at the front of the machine to drop off the edge.
Different machines will have different bonus or skill mechanisms at play too, like the ability to use a skill stop when dropping your coins, or something that triggers some bonus coin drops to give you a better chance at a successful push.
The most common place to find a coin pusher machine on location is at your local arcade or family entertainment center.
For a lot of people this will likely be your closest chain arcade, like a Dave & Busters or Main Event or Chuck E. Cheese's.
You may also find them at a place like your local bowling alley if they have an arcade or gaming space. Really any family arcade style location that has coin operated or redemption focused games is likely to have one or more of these coin pusher machines for you to play.
So, arcades will be your best bet, but a quick Google search for "arcade games near me" or "coin pushers near me" may also do the trick.
If you're interested in buying a coin pusher machine for your game room, your best bet is finding your local redemption game distributor, likely the same type of place that you might buy a pinball machine or a skee ball machine from.
For more nationally focused distributors with a decent online presence, you can look at the likes of Betson Enterprises, Game Room Guys or PrimeTime Amusements.
You can look on eBay or on your local second hand marketplace like Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for a coin pusher machine for sale. There you can check out any previously used models, or something from a local arcade that may have closed down or recently upgraded their game stock. If you're not looking to pay retail price or to put the machine on location to earn a return, this is probably your best option for buying a game.
Finally, there is an option on the market geared exclusively to home use, called the Coin Pusher 365 by Arcadro. This is a tabletop version of the popular arcade game, with features like metal casing, hidden holes on the sides, and a tilted edge that help it approximate the experience of pricier commercial models.
For a home game room, you'll probably want a coin pusher that's set up mostly for single player play, and not one of the larger machines meant for arcades that support multiple players at the same time.
Of course -- if you have the space and the budget to procure the LAI Games Angry Birds Coin Crash Coin Pusher, who are we to stop you?
Spending $100 Playing ONLY Angry Birds Coin Crash Coin Pusher & Cashing in ALL My Tickets!
For a new model, Andamiro's Single-Player Marvel Avengers Coin Pusher could be a good starting point, though could easily set you back $10,000-$15,000.
A few other good coin pushers to consider, but slightly more basic than Andamiro's Avengers include:
And again, be sure to check out the Coin Pusher 365 for a tabletop home version of the game.
Most quality, arcade style coin pusher machines will probably cost a lot more than you're expecting if you're used to buying pinball machines or 1up Arcades.
Newer model coin pusher games with flair and special features could set you back $10,000-$30,000+. Just remember that for the most part, coin pushers are geared towards business use (arcade and route operators), so they are designed to earn a return, meaning the upfront investment is many times above what one would pay for a home use only machine.
That said, some of the more plain single player models (like the aforementioned Silver Falls Bonus Hole and McGregor Enterprises Tropical Treasure Coin Pusher) will run you about $2,000-$4,000. You can find models that look similar to these versions but a bit more plain on Facebook Marketplace and eBay for less than $2,000.
Generally speaking, as with most home arcade purchase, stay away from the super cheap models (particularly those under $500 that can be found on sites like Amazon or really anything from Alibaba, as your mileage may vary).
This is a little more of a fun question and not totally relevant to actually purchasing a coin pusher machine. But some people wonder what the odds are of winning when playing a coin pusher machine, and we're here to clear that up.
It is difficult to accurately determine the odds of winning at a coin pusher machine, as these odds can vary depending on the specific machine and its design. However, it is generally understood that the odds of winning at a coin pusher machine are relatively low, as the main objective of these machines is to generate income for the operator through the sale of prizes or the insertion of coins. It is important to keep in mind that coin pusher machines are a form of gambling, and as such, it is important to play responsibly and within your means.
Colin is the chief pixel pusher at Kineticist. He's a lifetime gamer who became enamored with pinball after taking in a family copy of the 1979 classic Joker Poker (the EM version). Since then he's bought, sold and repaired many machines, competed in all kinds of tournaments, and contributes to This Week in Pinball, the New England Pinball League, and Pin-Masters of New England. Previously, Colin spent over a decade working in marketing for agencies and tech startups. He also started and ran a music blog, happy hour website, and wrote a regular craft beer review column for Central Track in Dallas. Once aspired to be an artsy film director.
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