Raw Thrills Turns 25 in the Coin-Op Business
One of the most influential arcade manufacturers of the modern era is celebrating a major milestone. Raw Thrills, founded on January 26, 2001, in Skokie, Illinois, has now reached its 25th anniversary. The company was established by Eugene Jarvis, Andrew Eloff, and the now-retired Deepak Deo, and has since grown into a dominant force in the contemporary coin-op industry.
News of the anniversary comes from the long-running trade publication Arcade Heroes, which marked the occasion with a retrospective on the studio’s catalog, a beat that fits squarely into the RetroArcade news section. Despite a relatively low-key celebration earlier in the year, the milestone underscores just how long Raw Thrills has been shaping the look and feel of American arcades, family entertainment centers, and amusement venues.
Roots in Midway’s Golden Era
Raw Thrills did not emerge from nowhere. The company was built on the bones of one of arcade history’s most storied publishers. Many of its earliest staff came directly from Midway Games, the Chicago-area outfit famous for such classics as Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and NFL Blitz. When the post-arcade bust era took its toll on Midway’s internal development operations, a wave of experienced designers, engineers, and producers migrated to the new Skokie-based studio.
Headlining that talent roster was Eugene Jarvis, a designer whose resume reads like a hall of fame list. Jarvis had previously co-created arcade staples such as Defender and Robotron: 2084 at Williams Electronics, and later directed Smash TV while at Midway. His track record of designing cabinet experiences that players return to again and again gave Raw Thrills a credibility boost from day one. Co-founder Andrew Eloff brought business and operational expertise to the partnership, helping translate the team’s design instincts into a sustainable commercial operation.
Sustaining an independent arcade hardware business for a quarter-century is no small feat. The modern coin-op market has weathered console-era competition, the rise of mobile gaming, a global pandemic that shuttered venues worldwide, and ongoing shifts in where Americans go to play. Through it all, Raw Thrills has remained a go-to partner for operators seeking eye-catching, revenue-generating cabinets. For retro gaming enthusiasts, the company’s anniversary carries extra weight: many of today’s operators trace their cabinet walls back to Raw Thrills hardware, and the studio’s DNA reaches back through Midway to the golden age coin-ops of the early 1980s.
That makes the milestone less a corporate anniversary and more a continuation of a 40-plus-year lineage of arcade craftsmanship that began with Williams Electronics, ran through Midway, and arrived at Raw Thrills in 2001.
Source: Arcade Heroes