Choosing an arcade script can be one of the most difficult aspects of starting your arcade webmaster adventure. It can also be a decision which ends up greatly affecting your success.
All too often, newcomers to this field will waste time and money on one script, only to find it does not meet their needs and having to purchase an entirely different script.
The time wasted on this could be spent on much better things, so its important to get it right first time.
Most scripts tend to fall within the same sort of price range, so this shouldn’t be too much of a factor - however what is important is weighing up just how much value for money you are getting, as well as looking at what further costs may be involved in ensuring your needs are met by your recently purchased script.
The true value of a script is determined by many things, such as:
- Features
- Pre-installed/packaged content
- Default template/free alternative templates
These factors are important for making a ’shortlist’ of which script to buy. In order to narrow that down to one solid choice, you should then look at the following:
- Reputation
- Support
- Community of fellow owners
- Availability of third-party upgrades, mods and gamepacks etc
As you will see, that actual price of what you’re buying isn’t such a big factor as the actual content of the script you are purchasing - and you should certainly not be fooled into associating a high price with high quality, or indeed a low price with low quality.
A perfect example of this can be seen with two different scripts; ShockScript and AVArcade;
The price of Shockscript has jumped all over the place in the past few years. Originally selling for $25, for some reason this price has since bloated up to a whopping $2997.
The script itself comes with 250 games installed, and the basic lineup of features such as top games, members online etc. The community of owners is… well… non-existant, considering that the members’ area is still ‘under construction’, additionally, reports on the pre-sales and after-sale support have not been particularly favorable.
So… thats a mediocre script, minimal features and pre-loaded content, no community so no sharing of user-made mods, enhancements, gamepacks etc, and sub-standard support, for the princely sum of almost $3k.
Now, lets look at AVArcade - a completely free arcade script. Its features are on par with Shockscript, you can purchase gamepacks through the official site at a very reasonable price, the community is active and is a good resource for mods, templates and more gamepacks, and support feedback has been generally positive.
Of course, there are a lot more pros and cons to each of the scripts, however imagine shelling out $3k on Shockscript… and then finding the AVArcade site days later.
So, what have we learned today? Well, that common sense, patience, and research are your friends. Your script will be the foundation on which you build your success as an arcade webmaster. You need enough features, content and visual appeal to attract, and more importantly, retain visitors; but you also need to have support from the programmers, and an active, helpful community resource to turn to. Plus, of course, you need to be sure that the next decades revenue isn’t spent on filling the hole made by your initial investment in the script itself.
We strongly encourage you make use of the other guides on this site, as well as our reviews of each of the key scripts, when considering which arcade script to buy; and of course there is are several arcade webmaster communities in which you can talk to others in the field and make use of their knowledge and experience.
Good luck, and happy shopping!
