Mitch Rohde’s first job as a teen in the 1980s was fixing video machines at The Rink, a roller-skating hangout in Shelby Township. He enjoyed it so much, it ignited a lifelong passion.
“That’s really where it all started,” said Rohde, a tech entrepreneur and lecturer in the College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship, or CFE.
Pursuing his love of arcade-game restoration over the years, Rohde has attended arcade auctions and traveled all over the country to track down old machines. At one point, his collection blossomed to more than 170 games.
“I’ve always been more interested in repairing and restoring than playing,” Rohde said, “but I have a soft spot for the games I grew up with.”
Rohde’s passion for fixing and preserving arcade machines has now found a permanent home in Saline, where he just opened Otto’s Arcade and Club. Housed in a restored 1940s storefront, the project combines his love of technology with his entrepreneurial instincts, skills that trace back to his years at U-M as a student.
Maize and blue roots
Rohde arrived on North Campus as an undergraduate student in 1990 to study electrical engineering. He already knew Ann Arbor quite well, having spent many high school weekends in town, visiting his father and stepmother — and working in the lab of Spencer BeMent, a U-M professor of electrical engineering who was a pioneer in neural implants and a mentor to Rohde.
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree, Rohde earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering, another in biomedical engineering, and finally his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering, all from U-M. “It got to the point where people wondered if I’d ever finish,” he joked.
Some of Rohde’s graduate work was in bio-signal processing, and that set the foundation for what would eventually become Quantum Signal AI, a company he founded in 1999 with two fellow engineers and Bill Williams, a U-M professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science who died in 2020. Quantum Signal’s specialties included algorithm development, modeling and simulation, and robotics.
“We were out there in 1999 talking about algorithms and machine learning long before AI was trendy,” he said. “I joke with my kids that I tend to have good ideas, just 15 to 20 years ahead of their time.”
Quantum Signal’s success didn’t come immediately. “We had no business background,” Rohde said. What they did have was technical expertise, and eventually they learned about what business schools call “customer discovery.”
“At first, we spent a lot of time talking about our technology and not enough time listening to clients,” he said. “It wasn’t until we began listening and focused on customers’ real problems that things started to click.”
That customer-first philosophy helped the company grow steadily, landing contracts with major automotive and defense clients. In 2019, Quantum Signal AI was acquired by Ford Motor Co., and Rohde stayed on for five years to help integrate his firm’s autonomous-vehicle work into Ford’s research ecosystem.
Coming full circle
Shortly after selling Quantum Signal AI, Rohde was invited to speak at CFE during its popular “E-Hour” speaker series. The talk reignited his connection to the university and led to an unexpected opportunity.
“They asked me to come back and co-teach a class,” he said.
For Rohde, returning to North Campus felt both nostalgic and surreal.
“It’s strange walking into the same buildings where I spent so much time as a student,” he said. “Now most of the faculty are younger than I am.”
He teaches alongside colleagues who are shaping the next generation of innovators, helping students bridge the gap between engineering expertise and business insight — the gap he once struggled to close.
A new labor of love
If Quantum Signal AI represents Rohde’s pragmatic side, Otto’s Arcade reflects his passion.
“I started collecting games when I was 17,” he said. “Now I’m 53, and I thought, if I don’t get these games together and put them on display, they’ll just sit in a dark room unloved.”
He purchased the former Saline Picture Frame Company building on N. Ann Arbor Street, named it “Otto’s” in honor of the building’s original tenant, Otto’s Cheese Shop, and began a painstaking renovation.
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“It was supposed to be a quick project — slap on some paint, add electrical — but that’s the problem with being an engineer,” he said, laughing. “You can’t, and don’t, take shortcuts.”
Today, the result is both museum and playground: a new arcade filled with approximately 70 restored machines, including classics like Pac-Man and Centipede, as well as rarer finds like Computer Space, the first arcade video game, released in 1971. In a nod to the comforts of a bygone era, Otto’s is also stocked with Michigan favorites like Faygo, Vernors, and Better Made chips.
Events at Otto’s will range from corporate off-sites and birthday parties to monthly public openings. “It’s not a full-time arcade,” he said. “These are antiques. I don’t want to staff Otto’s 24/7 or burn out keeping every machine running.”
Still, Otto’s has quickly found an audience. Guests so far have included nostalgic Gen-Xers reliving childhood favorites and teenagers discovering retro fun for the first time.
“One kid got hooked on Missile Command and didn’t come up for an hour,” Rohde said. “It proved what I’ve always believed: You don’t need fancy graphics or supercomputers for a great game — just good design.”
On a mission
Rohde’s goals for Otto’s go beyond nostalgia.
“If Otto’s can be self-supporting, great,” he said, “but one of our aims is to raise money for local causes.”
Those include Saline High School’s Science Olympiad team, STEM education initiatives, the Saline marching band, and local social services.
“If we can use the games to give back, that’s doubly good,” Rohde said.
He also sees Otto’s as an antidote to modern stress.
“People come in here, the door closes, and nobody’s talking politics or worries,” he said. “Everyone just drifts back to a more carefree time.”
At U-M, Rohde shares both sides of his story with students — the disciplined entrepreneur who built and sold a tech company, and the dreamer who opened a vintage arcade to celebrate play.
“It helps my students see the difference between a business and a hobby. A business makes money; a hobby costs money. Otto’s is definitely the latter,” he said, laughing.
