What started out as an arcade gaming hobby has become a full-blown business venture in designing and building custom machines for Robert Lutz.
The local man is the owner of Rob's Custom RCades, and with 35 years of electronics experience under his belt, has used his skillset to follow his passion and dream of creating arcade gaming machines.
Since the business was established in 2019, Rob has crafted more than 100 machines for his customers with a wide range of fun and quirky themes included in each design.
“I have designed everything from Space Invaders, Pacman, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Spiderman and more,” he said.
“I can do just about anything a customer's heart desires.”
He said the craftsmanship behind each project varied in difficulty and time but the end result was always the same.
“Depending on the style of the machine, it can take from one to four weeks to build,” Rob said.
“I like to make them compact so that they can fit through any doorway in your house or man cave and don’t take up too much room.
“I love being about to create and build my own designs and seeing the excitement and smiles from customer’s when they see the finished product.”
In a world where major brands like PlayStation and Xbox dominated, Rob said it was great to see feelings of nostalgia raising the popularity of arcade gaming once more.
“Arcade machines started to die out in the late 80s early 90s and lots of these machines where destroyed as their popularity started to decline,” he said.
“No one was playing them anymore because of the rise of home game consoles like PlayStation, Nintendo and the like.
“But things have slowly turned around as more parents who lived in the 80s want to show they’re children what dad and mum used to play at the arcade parlours when they were their age.”
Rob said while the older generation would appreciate his machines, they were definitely proving to be a popular amongst the younger generation too.
“I make my arcade machines affordable so everyone can enjoy the fun of playing an arcade machine,” he said.
“They are great for all ages, from young to old.”
To find out more about Rob's Custom RCades visit the Facebook page here.
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