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Ted Hammerman, who owns the Mr. Fish restaurant in Myrtle Beach, S.C., looks over The Lobster Zone game at his restaurant Tuesday. March 31, 1998. The Lobster Zone, the machine, is an updated version of the arcade claw game where children drop in a quarter and maneuver a tiny crane in hopes of snagging a prize. The Lobster Zone's customers do the same thing for $2 a try, except they try to capture crustaceans for a cheap lobster dinner. AP Photo/ Janet Blackmon Morgan

'Lobster Zone' a hit at some Grand Strand hot spots

Web posted April 2, 1998

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Lobsters, long known for pinching beach-goers' toes with their claws, could get a taste of their own medicine in a new contraption that's making the rounds at some Grand Strand restaurants and bars.

Called The Lobster Zone, the machine is an updated version of the arcade claw game where children drop in a quarter and maneuver a tiny crane in hopes of snagging a prize.

The Lobster Zone's customers do the same thing, except they try to capture crustaceans.

For $2 a pop, players get 15 seconds to maneuver their claw over one of a dozen or so lobsters in a 50-gallon tank. If the claw falls just right, it will entangle and retrieve one of the creatures. The restaurant then boils the tasty crustacean and the player gets a cheap lobster dinner.

``If you're really good at it, you can eat lobster for $2. ... You can't beat that,'' said Ted Hammerman, who owns the Mr. Fish restaurant in Myrtle Beach.

The claw of an arcade-type game, called The Lobster Zone, tries to capture a lobster Tuesday, March 31, 1998, at Mr. Fish in Myrtle Beach, S.C. AP Photo/Janet Blackmon Morgan

Hammerman has had The Lobster Zone for about three weeks and said the game is popular with customers.

``I've already gone through four batches of lobsters,'' he said.

Dylen Larsen, manager of Sand Dollars in Surfside Beach, said: ``There's no time of day that you can't see someone playing that machine. ... It's the most popular one we have.''

Larsen said customers at his restaurant already have taken The Lobster Zone for 40 crustaceans in just two weeks.

It's best to play the game soon after a fresh batch of lobsters has been dumped into the tank, Hammerman said. The Lobster Zone plays the theme from the movie ``Jaws'' whenever the game is activated and it doesn't take long for the lobsters to get spooked by the music.

``After a while, the lobsters learn what that music means,'' Hammerman said. ``Their antennas go up, and they try to get away from the claw.''

The Lobster Zone was invented by the aptly named J.R. Fishman, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla., entrepreneur. Fishman recently told Business Week magazine that the game is selling so well he can hardly keep up with the demand.

Fishman's company, Advanced Games & Engineering, sells about 10 tanks a week for $8,995 apiece. Restaurant owners say it's a good investment -- many are making $1,000 a week on the machines.

``People love it to death,'' said Mickey Moss, owner of Florence-based Moss Amusement Co., which is South Carolina's Lobster Zone distributor.

Moss said he has sold or leased 13 Lobster Zones in the past year, about one-third of them to Grand Strand restaurants. A pair of companies -- Inland Seafood of Atlanta and Low Country Lobster of Charleston -- keep the machines full of lobsters.

``It's a fun game to watch,'' Moss said. ``And it doesn't hurt the animals in any way.''

Well, at least not until the crustaceans make their way out of The Lobster Zone and into a boiling pot of water. And it can take plenty of quarters before that happens.

Restaurant owners estimate it takes the average customer 18 tries before he or she masters the art of plucking a lobster from the tank. At $2 per try, those lobsters can sell for far more than most other menu items.

Hammerman said the game's entertainment value more than makes up for the cost. And besides, he said, The Lobster Zone is better than throwing money away in video gambling poker machines.

``At least you can get something to eat out of the lobster machine,'' he said.