If having a personal Ms. Pac-Man or Donkey Kong arcade game in your living room would spice up your quarantine routine, you're in luck.
For five years, Matt Sengbusch has been building scaled-down versions of these and other arcade game classics as Small Change Arcade. He rents the machines out for events, and mixes them into the rotation of offerings at Upper Haight arcade Free Gold Watch.
But with the event and entertaining industries reeling under the shelter-in-place order, "I'm just here at home trying to figure out what to do," he said.
So to continue to share his games with the Bay Area, he's rolling out an at-home rental program for arcade aficionados. Customers can rent a game for a month at a time for $200, with free delivery and a chance to rotate out for a fresh game after a while.
If people are interested in other arrangements, "I'm open to ideas," he said.
Using original, licensed circuit boards and CRT monitors, Sengbusch builds each of his game casings by hand, from scratch.
"All the parts inside are original parts from the original arcade game," Sengbusch said. "It's a pretty dorky thing, but the idea is that if you're really into the game, it's the real game — it's not an emulator of the game, it's not a toy, it's the real actual game."
In addition to standards like Tetris and NBA Jam, the collection includes some more niche titles, like Arkanoid and RoboCop. They're a bit smaller than the typical size, so they have to be mounted on platforms at player height.
What started as a passion project became a fully fledged business about three years ago, Sengbusch said.
After running out of room to store his collection in his San Francisco apartment, he connected with the community of arcade gamers at Free Gold Watch, who offered to rent some of the games. From there, he started to receive requests to bring games to events and private parties.
"I work really hard to do something that I think is cool and unique," he said. But with his business' future uncertain, he's hoping neighbors will step up to lend a hand.
"It takes a lot of quarters to pay rent in San Francisco," he joked.
The core collection of Small Change's arcade games is listed online. For a fully updated list, or to arrange an at-home game delivery, contact Matt Sengbusch at [email protected] or (415) 663-6902.
