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The Lost Arcade (Chinatown Fair Arcade documentary) is now on Amazon/iTunes/YouTube

K

KalBalboa

Banned
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THE LOST ARCADE is the critically acclaimed documentary about the last hold out of old-school arcade culture in New York City. An intimate portrait of the passionate and exceptionally diverse community at the beloved Chinatown Fair, The Lost Arcade, chronicles the evolution of arcades, while celebrating the camaraderie and history of a pop culture phenomenon.

The Lost Arcade premiered at DOC NYC and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and screened at Open City Docs London, Melbourne International Film Festival, Glasgow International Film Festival, IFFBoston, Sidewalk Film Festival, and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. Going on to a limited theatrical release at NYC's Metrograph and San Francisco's Roxie.

The film is produced by 26 Aries, in Association with IGN Entertainment and Wheelhouse Creative.

Edited, Produced, Directed by Kurt Vincent
Written and Produced by Irene Chin
Original Music by Gil Talmi
Executive Produced by Josh Zeman, Kyle Martin, Jason Orans.
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Finally fired this up on Amazon last night. It's a great look into NYC's arcade scene from the 70s through today. A quick watch at under 80 minutes.

I really appreciated how honest the movie felt. There are no goofy caricatures of video game enthusiasts or tacked-on cameos by celebrities. I felt like I was given a pretty intimate look into the culture of the arcade through all the small stories presented, like the makeshift Street Fighter 4 cabinets hitting the US 8 months before the retail version hit.

Anybody else watch this yet?
 
As someone who used to visit this place back in high school, I'm so watching this. Thanks for the heads up.
 
Used to go play Street Fighter 4 after work there when it was new back in 2009 / 2010.

It really felt like I stepped into a portal and was transported to an arcade back in the 90's.
 
I always forget that YouTube is a place you can buy movies to watch now. When you said "on Amazon/iTunes/YouTube," I assumed it was something that's free to watch.....
 
The ironic thing is that my current job is actually like 5 minutes away from the location, but there's no way I'd bother going now.

Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku! said:
Does the new version of Chinatown fair still suck?
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It's definitely a shadow of its former self, at least in terms of fighting games. It mostly caters to younger people, especially the rhythm game crowd.
 
Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku! said:
Does the new version of Chinatown fair still suck?
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It's not what it was... but it's not as bad as it was right after it closed and re-opened under new ownership.

I was there about 2 months ago and it had a fair collection of decent games, and still some of the grime that made it interesting.

Seeing that place close the first time was definitely heartbreaking, because the games and the people made it an interesting place to go - certainly a time capsule to a different time.

It's worth checking out still, if anything for the strange japanese import games, like that one where you flip the table at people.
 
kuYuri said:
As someone who used to visit this place back in high school, I'm so watching this. Thanks for the heads up.
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Yup i was going when i was in HS also about 15years ago. Im not good at arcade game but my friends were sick at MvC, MvC2, street fight alpha 3, and DDR.

Also Sega GT.
 
Man. Mah youth. Friday nights were fun. Going for some bubble tea, dumplings, then hit the arcade for some 3rd Strike. Good times indeed. The Marvel 2 cabinets of course were always lit. I remember once Chris G holding down a 3rd Strike machine with like a 34 win streak going. Everyone was gunning for him that night. lol.
 
Holy shit, I just saw one of my friends that I've known for years is in the documentary, lmao. What a coincidence.

I'm texting him about it now, see if he knew about it.
 
specdot said:
Man. Mah youth. Friday nights were fun. Going for some bubble tea, dumplings, then hit the arcade for some 3rd Strike. Good times indeed. The Marvel 2 cabinets of course were always lit. I remember once Chris G holding down a 3rd Strike machine with like a 34 win streak going. Everyone was gunning for him that night. lol.
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Yes. Me and old friends used to take the train in from NJ to go to Chinatown fair to play some DDR and meet up with some locals there. We would always get bubble tea first then go to the arcade. I remember JWong being there playing MVC2 using a random team and had a 30+ win streak because no one could come close to touching him.
 
I miss this place. Back in sfiv (2009) I used to go to this place Fridays. Everyone was there like Sanford, jwong, lijoe, Arturo etc. I used to get bodied but learned a lot from playing them.
 
lordy, this is like jumping back 20 years in time. great times. I remember going to Elizabeth street to pick up an imported dreamcast with a buddy and all the awesome imported games.
 
I watched it last night.

It was pretty good though I would have liked him to have interviewed more regulars from the NYC FGC. I also had no idea it reopened. lol
 
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