Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade

 

I grew up in the ’80s, and particularly I grew up playing video games in the arcades around my home town.  Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and Asteroids were my games of choice, and I played them every chance I got, either in the little arcade stashed away in the back of the local movie theatre, or Aladdin’s Castle, a larger arcade that took up space in the mall. So when I heard that there was a documentary based on the arcade superstars that ruled the ’80s I got all giddy with excitement.  But it wasn’t on DVD, so I had to wait to catch it on cable, which isn’t a bad thing because the flick is a good fit for the boob-tube.

The flick follows a group of famous arcade rock stars that jockeyed the joystick during the heyday of the arcade game.  In the small but obviously video game centric town of Ottumwa, Iowa an arcade that rivaled all arcades arose and decided to take gaming seriously.  Twin Galaxies, run by the referee of pixels, Walter Day became the hot spot for awesome arcade competition, and a group of video game nerds with time on their hands called it home.  I wasn’t aware that these early gaming legends existed, but evidently the rest of the world was because they landed themselves on the covers of magazines, and even on television shows.  They basked in the glow of fame until something extraordinary happened, Atari brought arcade games into the home and quickly killed off the majority of the video arcades across the country.  

This documentary is the story of the players that broke records and the arcades they called home.  It’s a fascinating look at early gaming and effect that home gaming systems had on the video gaming industry as a whole.  for anyone that grew up during this time period, this flick will be a blast.  I enjoyed it, and think that it’s the kind of documentary that would hold up after multiple viewings.  Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a absolutely a killer film.

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