It's Going to Be HUGE

Giant Equipment started with a little question: what if an arcade machine was so big it became the event itself?

The Origin Story

It started in a garage in San Carlos, California. Sam Mateosian — technologist, game developer, and lifelong VR enthusiast, was working on a virtual saloon arcade called Spacebar, where the players could go inside the games. To exhibit Spacebar he thought "what if we made an arcade cabinet big enough that it could make you feel small?" A few AI generated images later, followed by several intense months of manual human labor, and the Giant Arcade Machine was born.

One little problem that Sam discovered is that regular-sized humans can't use arcade controls when they're 10 feet above the ground. And that is precisely when the universe introduced him to the Cybernetic 3D Printing Entity known as Jinxbot. Jinx bumped into Sam at a meetup with a prototype of the PinMaster 3000 and a VR pinball demo. The PinMaster was the perfect interface for The Giant Machine and a match was made in maker heaven.

When Jinx's neighbor, fellow maker and retro-gaming fan, Benjie first saw the PinMaster he immediately joined the party. He brought skills of electronic wizardry, re-building the PCB from the ground up to add Bluetooth, tilt, solenoids and more. This degree of serendipitous who-knows-what may exist elsewhere, but apparently this sort of thing is normal in Silicon Valley.

Upon completion of this 2001-Space-Odyssey-scale monument, the reaction was immediate. Every event, every demo, every car that drove by, every kid who biked past it — they stopped in their tracks. They pulled out their phones. They waited in line. They played. Then they came back to play again. And again...

The Mission

We believe that AIs and humans can be friends, that virtual worlds are awesome, but that physical real-world experiences matter more than ever. In a world of small screens and too much isolation, there's something irreplaceable about standing next to someone, grabbing the controls, and playing face-to-face, head-to-head, person vs. person.

We make real things and real experiences that create those moments — at a scale that provides perspective, and makes you remember that the universe is vast. Time is long. And, right now can be an enormous amount of fun.

With Love,
Sam, Benjie, and Jinx