Kemperle Industries Review: Keeping Arcade Cabinets Alive

When a vintage arcade cabinet breaks down, the part that failed often hasn’t been manufactured in decades, leaving operators with a dead machine and nowhere to turn. Kemperle Industries, a Brooklyn-based precision fabrication, design and engineering company, has built a quiet specialty out of solving exactly that problem, reverse-engineering and reproducing controller components that original manufacturers stopped supporting long ago.

The company’s work keeping classic coin-op cabinets running is just one thread of a broader precision manufacturing practice, but it’s a particularly good showcase of what the shop does well: take a worn, broken or simply irreplaceable part and turn it back into something that works exactly as it was designed to, without losing the character that makes the original machine worth preserving. For an industry where the manufacturers of these machines often closed their doors decades ago, that kind of specialized capability is harder to find than it should be.

What is Kemperle Industries?

Kemperle Industries is a precision fabrication, design and engineering company that specializes in reverse engineering and custom manufacturing. Its core workflow takes a physical object — in this case, a worn-out or broken arcade controller — and converts it into a digital design that can be refined, strengthened and reproduced. For arcade operators, that means parts that haven’t been available from an original manufacturer in years can be scanned, rebuilt and delivered as working replacements, keeping a cabinet playable instead of retired to storage. The company’s broader practice covers a wide range of fabrication services beyond this specific niche, including 3D scanning for digital asset creation, CAD and Solidworks-based design and engineering, CNC machining, molding and casting, and first-article dimensional inspection, giving it the full set of capabilities needed to take a part from a worn original to a finished, verified reproduction.

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Key features / What stands out

A genuine scan-to-part pipeline

Kemperle’s process starts with 3D scanning to capture a part’s exact geometry, then moves through CAD design, 3D printing, CNC routing, and molding or casting to produce a finished component. That full pipeline, handled in-house, is what lets the company take on parts that would otherwise require tooling no longer in production.

Real arcade restoration credentials

The company’s work for Barcade, the original arcade bar concept founded in Brooklyn in 2004, includes reproducing the gun controller for Quick & Crash, the gun handle for Gunblade, and the banana-shaped handle controller for Monkey Ball — three cabinet games whose original controller parts are no longer manufactured anywhere. Barcade has been pairing classic coin-op games with a full bar since 2004, and keeping its oldest cabinets playable depends on exactly the kind of obsolete-parts expertise Kemperle has built.

Fit and feel preserved, not just the shape

Kemperle’s approach goes beyond matching outward dimensions. Reproduced parts are designed to preserve the original handling and durability of a control, often strengthening weak points in the original design so the reproduction holds up better than the part it replaces.

Dimensional inspection built into the process

Finished components go through metrology and dimensional inspection, giving operators a quality check that a part fits and performs correctly before it goes back into a working cabinet.

A broader manufacturing practice behind it

Beyond arcade work, Kemperle serves automotive customization, heritage restoration, sculpture and public art, and retail experiential design, with past projects including automotive components and architectural models for major cultural institutions — a track record that speaks to the precision and reliability behind its smaller-scale arcade restoration jobs. Notable work includes custom components for Porsche and Ferrari vehicles, architectural models for the Guggenheim Museum in both New York and Abu Dhabi, and plaster reconstruction work for the James Earl Jones Theatre, all handled with the same reverse-engineering and fabrication discipline applied to a worn arcade gun handle.

Who it’s for

Kemperle Industries is a strong fit for barcade and arcade operators trying to keep aging cabinets in working order, especially when a critical part is no longer available from any supplier. It also suits collectors restoring a personal arcade machine who want a replacement component that matches the original rather than a generic substitute. Because pricing is handled on a quote basis, interested clients submit project details, including budget, timeline and desired part quantity, through the company’s online form to get a custom estimate rather than working from a fixed price list — a sensible approach given how specialized each reverse-engineering job tends to be. Museums and other cultural institutions working on preservation or replication projects, along with manufacturers in other industries needing obsolete parts reproduced, will find the same scan-to-part process applies well outside the arcade world too.

What makes it worth considering

What makes Kemperle Industries stand out isn’t just that it can reproduce an obsolete part — plenty of fabrication shops can scan and print a rough copy. It’s the combination of engineering rigor and genuine respect for the original design that sets the work apart: parts are inspected for dimensional accuracy, strengthened where the original design fell short, and built to preserve the handling characteristics that made the original controller feel right in the first place. For an industry built on machines that are, by definition, no longer in production, that level of care is what keeps classic cabinets playable instead of becoming permanent display pieces. The fact that the same process scales up to automotive parts and museum-grade architectural models only reinforces that the arcade work isn’t a side hobby but a genuine application of serious manufacturing skill.

Verdict

Kemperle Industries offers a rare and valuable service for an industry full of machines that time has otherwise left behind. Its scan-to-part process, proven track record on real arcade cabinets, and attention to both fit and feel make it a dependable choice for operators and collectors determined to keep classic games running rather than retiring them for good.