Meet The Man Who Supplies Netflix, Disney And EA With Vintage Arcade Cabinets – an article by Damien McFerran

I was recently featured in an article by Damien McFerran for timeextension.com.

The article delves deep into my past, talking about what inspired me to start collecting classic arcade machines – specifically my first inspiration, Discs of Tron. Despite my mum wanting me to be a dentist, I had traced the distributor for the machine and raised money by pleading my family for help and the rest became history – I had become an arcade collector at age 14, without even knowing it!

A couple of years later at 16, I came across my first Star Wars cabinet – I tried to buy it, but was pushed away. I came back to find it broken and was again sent away. By the end of the season, the machine was still broken – so I offered a cash fee and walked out with this Star Wars cabinet weighing around 200kg… the problem was, I couldn’t drive!

Fast forward to today and through my business, National Arcade Hire, I have up to 100 arcade machines on hire at any one time. But we are about much more than just hiring out classic arcade machines – we’ve developed the business into so much more.

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to hire out custom-wrapped boxing machines to many different events, such as at the premiere of The Gentleman by Guy Ritchie. I’ve been involved in promotional activities for films such as Wreck-It Ralph and Pixels.

But I’m not ready for stopping here – I’m keen to give back to others too. I was recently approached by a student at Stoke University who wanted to create a documentary about the ride of arcade gaming called Going 8-Bit – I liked the work so much, I helped to create TV Head Productions – which I will write more about soon!

If you’d like to read the full article, it can be found here at timeextension.com