The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Business designs,builds custom arcade cabinets
North Coast Custom Arcades creates arcade cabinets to add a nostalgic look to a home game room.
A North Ridgeville business will design and build any custom arcade cabinet thought of by clients.
North Coast Custom Arcades, 34601 Mills Road, will help customers get that arcade cabinet in their home that will add that nostalgic look to their game room.
“We’ve been in business for around 20 years, and we’ve been here for 10 years,” said Scott Glazer, owner of the business. “We were in Cleveland, we started in Grafton, so we’ve been around.
“For services, we do a little bit of everything. We do every level of manufacturing for arcades. We do a lot of bulk manufacturing for our clients. We also sell arcade cabinet kits that they can assemble, put lights in and sell them.”
Glazer said North Coast also sells fully assembled empty cabinets.
Custom cabinets
“We also do cabinets where we assemble the electronics,” he said. “We do empty control boxes for folks to put their own control board in. Folks put in their own computer systems.
“We do a lot of custom work. Someone comes to us with an idea for an arcade cabinet. For example, we have a customer that came up with the idea for a handsfree arcade. You take a camera (Microsoft Kinect) and you move your body to control the game.
“This is the prototype, and pretty soon we will be going into mass production of these. With COVID, we are expecting hands-free to be the next big thing.”
Glazer said a big part of the business is working with clients to get that specific arcade setup.
“We have a lot of custom work where we work with clients to build the setup they want,” he said. “We build them, we design them and we repair them. We also build vending machines. We did one for Synergy Paintball in Grafton. It actually distributes and counts individual paintballs and it’s handsfree to accommodate for COVID-19.”
Glazer said North Coast can do a variety of different customizations.
“For example, we recently made one with a slide out keyboard, draws, storage trays, ports on the sides ... and they wanted a top that can mechanically lift up on a push of a button,” he said. “That’s just some of the customization we do.
“We’ve done some that have automatic lifting tops, guns that swing in hydraulically. It’s all custom stuff. If someone wants a tray that opens up with a PS4, a monitor that rotates ... we can do it all.”
The clients
Glazer said his business has a good variety of different clients.
“Most of what we do is private and residential for what someone might want in their game room, but the other side of it is bulk orders for businesses,” he said. “We can actually make any style cabinet.
“We have a lot of kits and have built cabinets that resemble the original machines that would play PacMan. We then have the wiring or electronics added here or by someone else. If something doesn’t exist on the market that we can’t buy and use, we’ll just make our own.
“Whether it’s the wiring up a relay to get the control board we want, or just buying something another company has made ... we really do what is needed.”
Glazer said the novel coronavirus pandemic has not really affected his business.
“Surprisingly, I think it’s because a lot of people are staying home and working at home right now ... we haven’t really missed a beat,” he said. “We haven’t slowed down, which is great.
“We still have businesses also placing very large orders.”
Glazer said it’s a good combination to have a cabinet hold a modern gaming machine.
“Some put computers in, and some put in game boards,” he said. “There really is no limit to the customization we can do.
“The biggest, most common thing we get are people that want computers in because it allows them to download any game they want. Sometimes, we have customers that just want us to build the cabinet and then they put the computer in. But we can also install that for them as well.”
Glazer said the big part of his business is the nostalgia of arcades.
“I think there is the technology out there that lets you play hundreds and thousands of games in one unit that makes it appealing,” he said. “Mostly, the clients are the 40 to 50 year olds that grew up in the arcades.
“So, it’s mostly nostalgic and finding a way to use them with modern game machines.”