Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary about the "Golden Age of Arcade Games" directed by Lincoln Ruchti. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and has also been shown at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival, as well as other film festivals.
Plot
In the eighties, video games were synonymous with arcades, and games were bringing in enough quarters to fill the Rose Bowl. This led Iowa entrepreneur Walter Day to declare himself the sole authority on high scores. In 1982, Day launched his Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard. Teenage superstars came from all over North America to join Walter in a LIFE Magazine feature spread, which recognized them as video game world champions. This led to the nationally televised 1982 Video Game World Championships, a touring National Video Game Team, and the promise of fame, fortune and groupies.
The film revisits Day and the LIFE players, now middle-aged men, as they reminisce on the arcade scene, its demise, and the dreams that crashed with it.
Reception
Stephen Garrett of Time Out New York compared the film to the documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters , which covers similar ground and also premiered at the same time, opining that Chasing Ghosts explores the material far better.
Pixar director Andrew Stanton, director of the films WALL-E and Finding Nemo , saw the premiere of the film at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and enjoyed it so much that he arranged for a private screening of the film at Pixar's Emeryville, California campus for the Pixar employees.
Appearing in the LIFE Magazine Photograph
Modern Reunion September 24, 2005
A modern reunion was held on September 24, 2005 in front of the downtown theatre in Laconia, New Hampshire, in an attempt to mirror closely the look and feel of the original photo. Footage of this reunion is included in the final scenes of Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade. The group photo includes Walter Day, Billy Mitchell, Steve Sanders, Robert Mruczek, Ben Gold, Joel West, Sam Blackburn, Todd Rogers, Ron Bailey, Darren Olson (Chris Steele) and Kent Farries.
Enrico Ferorelli Studios
The classic 1982 LIFE magazine photo shoot with the 16 video game superstars was orchestrated by Enrico Ferorelli, an internationally noted photographer based in New York City who was brought in by LIFE to take the shot. Ferorelli still maintains his headquarters in New York City, under the name Ferorelli Studios. LIFE Magazine's 1982 Video Game Photo Shoot
References
- ^ Stephen Garrett (August 16–22, 2007). "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters". Time Out New York Issue 620 . http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/reviews/84336/the-king-of-kong-a-fistful-of-quarters.html . Retrieved 2007-08-26 .
- ^ Peter Hirschberg. "Peter Hirschberg's Journal: Pixar and Me" . http://peterhirschberg.blogspot.com/2007/07/pixar-and-me.html . Retrieved 2008-07-14 .
External links
- Official website
- Official Twin Galaxies website
- Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade at the Internet Movie Database
- Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade at Allmovie
- Sundance Film Festival - Chasing Ghosts:
'Chasing Ghosts' by Paul Rieckhoff - Official Website
"Paul Rieckhoff's powerful book is an unabashed, succinct and fascinating mix of shocking detail and humorous commentary. 'Must' reading for those who care about the truth, Chasing ...
Chasing Ghosts | Official Movie Website | Press Reviews
"Chasing Ghosts does for the old school video games what Trekkies did for Star Trek."
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Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary about the "Golden Age of Arcade Games" directed by Lincoln Ruchti. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film ...
Chasing Ghosts | Official Movie Website | View the Trailer
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Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade (2007)
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Chasing Ghosts (2005)
advertisement. Overview. User Rating: 5.4/10 924 votes. MOVIEmeter: Down 16% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro. Director: Kyle Dean Jackson more
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