Arkeg was part arcade game machine, part beer tap. Brant Myers and Dan Grimm, long-time friends, were playing video games and drinking beer one night and thought: Why not combine their two favorite pastimes into one cabinet? And since they had both manufacturing and electrical knowledge, they were able to do that. The Arkeg is a standard-sized, brushed-aluminum video game cabinet with 60 pre-loaded video games (and the ability to load your own games) and a fully functioning “kegerator” (refrigerator converted into a beer-tap) that you can fill with a selection of beer, wine or soda. Surely, it had to be the coolest man cave accessory ever! But it wasn’t. Maybe it was the $4,000 price or maybe because it was already an anachronism when it came out.
A few years after Shark Tank, Brant and Dan put the business up for sale for $11,500. Whether they found a buyer or Arkeg simply went off to the Island of Misfit Inventions, there is no sign of it, and the website expired long ago.
But here’s the thing: The Arkeg may be priceless to the people who bought it. They loved it, e.g., “ …might be the best invention of all time after the light bulb and the automobile.” Now they have a collector’s item, something few people have and no one can ever get again.
Arkeg is no longer in business.
