Rolls-Royce pushes pixels with this retro-game inspired edition of the Black Badge Ghost

Inspiration is an unpredictable beast; harnessing it doesn’t always end well. That’s one takeaway from this, the Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost Gamer, the latest creation from the company’s Bespoke division.

As enjoyable as it is to marvel at the application of high-end craftsmanship and methods to low-tech pixellated pop culture graphical forms, it’s even more entertaining to speculate exactly who commissioned this car – all we know is that it’s a tech entrepreneur. With its plethora of 8-bit infused details and hidden Easter Eggs, this Ghost is an arcade machine on wheels.

Colour us unsurprised that this is the ‘first-ever Bespoke Rolls-Royce inspired by vintage video game culture’. Maybe it’ll be the last, but it’s certainly a testament to the Bespoke department’s ability to go above and beyond a creative brief. Quirky bits and pieces abound in this thoroughly bleeped up Ghost Series II, including seat embroidery reading Players One to Four, and what the company calls a ‘Cheeky Alien’ exterior Coachline motif, hand-painted of course. The main body is finished in Salamanca Blue with the upper body in a shimmering Crystal over Diamond Black.

According to Joshua McCandless, Bespoke Designer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, ‘the unique privilege of working within Rolls-Royce Bespoke Design is the extraordinary breadth of ideas we’re asked to bring to life. This brief was particularly exciting.’ The Bespoke team immersed itself in the art, culture and games of the early arcade era.

Retro gaming is having another one of its period moments (this week’s launch of the Analogue 3D console, for example), and Rolls-Royce is keen to position gaming culture as a ‘rapidly emerging space in the contemporary collectables landscape.’ It’s certainly a step up from NFTs.

As you climb into the car you step of four Bespoke illuminated treadplates, with the same low-resolution font seen on the seats. Each treadplate bears a familiar arcade game prompt: ‘PRESS START’, ‘LOADING…’, ‘LEVEL UP’ and ‘INSERT COIN’. However, if you’re going to go with such a quirky motif, why not go all in? Why not build in actual gaming consoles into the rear screens? (Perhaps this is a job for Love Hultén, following on from his synth-equipped Lagonda project?).

We also reckon Rolls missed a trick by not adding a playable Space Invaders in the Starlight Headliner. Instead, there’s a not-completely-unrelated pattern called ‘Pixel Blaster’, consisting of ‘a formation of 80 bitmapped battlecruisers’. Instead of shooting stars, there’s laser fire. Up front, the illuminated fascia gets a special ‘Laser Base’ pattern, with a gunship flying through a starfield that appears to be animated.

If all this sounds like the very best bits of the electronics section of the Sears or Argos catalogues circa 1983, then you’ll have some empathy with the person who commissioned the Gamer Ghost. ‘We wanted the client to feel that the motor car itself was an immersive experience – and that every time they stepped inside, it would recreate the same thrill they felt when they pressed ‘start’ on an arcade machine for the very first time,’ says McCandless.

We know not how many 8-bit side quests the owner had to undertake to be in a position to commission this one-off machine. We will probably never know, but suffice to say it taps into a very distinct era of video games that would place them squarely in Gen X. However, even Douglas Coupland’s most prescient tech hallucinations didn’t foresee a world where the superrich amuse themselves by painting aliens on a Rolls-Royce. What’s next, a Minecraft or Fortnite Edition? How about a Spectre with upholstery made from Labubu fur? To infinity and beyond, for sure.

More information on Rolls-Royce Bespoke at Rolls-RoyceMotorCars.com, @RollsRoyceCars