A Moment With
Numskull’s Ryan Brown talks to us about its Quarter Arcades range of coin-op replicas
Ryan Brown chats to us about Numskull’s Quarter Arcades range
If you needed further proof of the popularity of retro today look no further than Numskull’s hit Quarter Arcades series. The company kicked things off with its premium Pac-man replica, but now it’s working on a number of other classics from Namco, as well as Konami and Taito. We spoke to Ryan Brown to learn more.
Where did the idea for the Quarter Arcades range originate?
Honestly, it’s all down to the company’s founders, Matt Precious and Ben Grant, being big fans of retro, arcade games, and wanting to create a line of products that replicated the old school cabinets they remembered playing. It really was very much a passion project that’s developed into a full-fledged product line.
How long does the average cabinet take to create?
From concept to release, about a year. There’s, of course, the licensing of the game, cabinet, artwork, and music, which can take some time, depending on the cabinet. Everything is passed through the licence holder for approval, so there’s a lot of backand-forth between us, them and our manufacturing factory, with multiple prototypes built along the course of a machine’s development.
What challenges do you face? Licensing is a big one – more specifically, working out who owns what nowadays. Unfortunately, arcade games weren’t necessarily expected to have this amount of longevity to them back in the day, so the rights to certain games and aspects of the cabinets can be broken up all over the place. We end up nailing it eventually, but there have been tricky moments where it’s realised the licencer we’re talking to doesn’t actually own the rights to the cabinet artwork, for example. Having a line of truly authentic replicas is a really, really big deal for us, so if we hit a stumbling block like that at some point down the line, the cabinet is cancelled.
Do you use authentic arcade components?
We try to! Creating a series of high-quality, collectable arcade cabinets that are authentic replicas of the originals is incredibly important to us. Of course, due to its quarterscale size, that means we can’t necessarily use the exact parts that original cabs used – but rest assured, it plays the original arcade ROM on a custom emulator, placed on a board inside of the cab. It’s not a Raspberry Pi stuffed inside a quality shell, naturally!
Even little details like the screws on top of the cabinet, wire mesh air vents, and metal plaque on the back are made to perfectly replicate the original cabinets.
Have you considered creating any games that might use trackballs or spinners? We’re definitely looking at those sorts of games, as well as a variety of other non-button based games, and how they could potentially be replicated in a quarterscale form. Some of our most-requested games include Daytona and Time Crisis; we’ve got some thinking to do on how to effectively miniaturise steering wheels, pedals, and lightguns before we fully start pursuing those licences.
Why do you think the Quarter Arcades range has proven so popular?
Numskull has been in the merchandise business for a long time, so we already had a lot of doors open for us to pick up some seriously big-name licences. We know that if you want to play Pac-man, for example, you can do so on any number of platforms already. If you want that arcade experience, you want it to be as authentic as possible. Our focus is on producing the most highquality, authentic replicas on the market for collectors and enthusiasts, which we’re pretty confident we have accomplished.