Round1 Unlimited Time Play : Good Deal or Not?

Round1 Bowling and Amusement is a fun place with lots of ways to spend some time… and your money!

During a recent visit, I wondered when does it make sense for an arcade/game player to play using “Unlimited Time Play” versus playing by game credits.  There is a lot of factors to consider here, but here is my perspective.

This calculation is based on charges I saw posted on October 27, 2017 at the Round1 nearest me.  Your location may have different rates.  But I will show you how do this step by step so you can determine this for your situation.

First, I am going to assume that you are a frequent player and that you signed up for the “Club Card”  which costs $5 per year as of today.  I will ignore that $5 to keep things simple.

Let’s look at the cost of game credits first.  At my location, the sign said the “Best Value” was to purchase 150 credits which costs $29 with the “Club Card”.  That works out to $29/150 = $0.193 per credit. 

(Not sure how Round1 determined that $29 per 150 credits is the “Best Value”.  The $49 for 260 credit =  $0.188 as well as the $99 for $530 = $0.187 credits work out to be less cost, but lets just trust Round1 for the moment and move on).

Now suppose your favorite arcade game requires 4 credits to play and that typically you get 7 minutes of play time on the machine for those credits.  If you were to play for 70 minutes, you would play 70/7 = 10 rounds.   This would require 10*4 =40 credits.  Your total cost for this period would be $0.193 * 40 = $7.73 .

You may ask why did I pick 70 minutes? Because if you play Mon-Thu with a Club Card, you can purchase 70 minutes of  Unlimited Time Play for $8 at my location.

So, with the above assumptions, if your average time per round on a 4 credit machine is 7 minutes or more, it makes more sense to play using credits.  But, if your average time per  round is less then 7 minutes, it makes more sense to play using unlimited time play assuming you don’t mind playing back-to-back games for 70 minutes.

Here is an Excel spreadsheet you can use to determine where the break-even period is for Round1 rates.  I hope you have as much fun at Round1 as I do !