Rob Schmuck

Rob has been collecting games and ephemera from around the world on virtually any console, computer, arcade and amusement machine for over 25 years. 

As a longtime buyer and seller of video games of all generations including hardware, games, software and ephemera, Rob has watched the collecting and enthusiast scene grow significantly over time. Rob has specialized in high end and unique rare collectables from all over the world, participating in the growing collecting  and enthusiast community for many years. 

Rob served as Vice President of the Seattle Retro Game Expo (SRGE) that held more than 10 large scale local events in the Pacific Northwest focused on fostering a community of gamers of all ages and backgrounds from 2011 to 2022. Rob organized guest speakers and panels, assisted with leading onsite logistics for events, and helped grow the yearly convention through marketing activities with local community and business partnerships. 

Rob worked as Senior Operations Manager at Living Computers: Museum + Labs in Seattle, WA from 2016 to 2020 where he oversaw all public aspects of the museum.  Rob lead teams to manage facilities, guest services, retail sales, event sales, memberships, exhibit operations and design in conjunction with Collections and Curation team members. During Rob's tenure, the museum experienced a period of exponential growth, increasing attendance by over 650% in 4 years. The growth was driven by renovating to double the size of the interactive museum space, adding 30k sq. ft. of new exhibits and 3 educational lab spaces to accommodate student and community groups. Events, memberships and retail sales all experience tremendous exponential growth. Rob created and led a service culture to drive results, Living Computers ranked #3 for all museums in Seattle and #5 "top things to do" on Trip Advisor at year end 2019. The museum gained 719 new reviews across all platforms with a 4.8 star average rating. 

Rob has championed the notion that video games are now being established as a storytelling medium, one that can relay powerful emotional stories. The video game category now includes areas of interactive entertainment such as digital 'toys', music creation tools, visual and audio experiences that do not fit in to a standard definition of a 'video game’.  

Rob contributes to many organizations including the Video Game History Foundation, Strong Museum of Play, National Video Game Museum, Hit Save! as well as many hobbyist projects working to save video game history for future generations.