Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Encyclopedia
Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a documentary film directed by Lincoln Ruchti about the golden age of video arcade games. The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the Sundance Film Festival and has also been shown at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival
, as well as other film festivals.
, 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.
, which covers similar ground and also premiered at the same time, opining that Chasing Ghosts explores the material far better.
Pixar
's 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.
, 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.
who was brought in by Life to take the shot. Ferorelli still maintains his headquarters in New York City, under the name Ferorelli Studios.
Los Angeles Film Festival
The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...
, as well as other film festivals.
Synopsis
In the 1980s, video games were synonymous with arcadesVideo arcade
An amusement arcade or video arcade is a venue where people play arcade games such as video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers , or coin-operated billiards or air hockey tables...
, and games were bringing in enough quarters to fill the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
. This led Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
entrepreneur Walter Day
Walter Day
Walter Aldro Day, Jr. is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby...
to declare himself the sole authority on high scores. In 1982, Day launched his Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard
Twin Galaxies
Twin Galaxies is an American organization that tracks video game world records and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions. It operates the Twin Galaxies website and publishes the Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records, with the Arcade Volume released on June...
. Teenage superstars came from all over North America to join Walter in a Life magazine
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
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 QuartersThe King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film that follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the world high score for the arcade game Donkey Kong from reigning champion Billy Mitchell...
, which covers similar ground and also premiered at the same time, opining that Chasing Ghosts explores the material far better.
Pixar
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
's Andrew Stanton
Andrew Stanton
Andrew Stanton is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional voice actor based at Pixar Animation Studios. His film work includes writing and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E; both films earned him the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.-Life and career:Stanton was...
, director of the films WALL-E
WALL-E
WALL-E, promoted with an interpunct as WALL•E, is a 2008 American computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. The story follows a robot named WALL-E, who is designed to clean up a waste-covered Earth far in the future...
and Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo
Finding Nemo is a 2003 American comi-drama animated film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin who, along with a regal tang called Dory , searches for his abducted son Nemo...
, saw the premiere of the film at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival
2007 Sundance Film Festival
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007 in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival...
and enjoyed it so much that he arranged for a private screening of the film at Pixar's Emeryville, California
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
campus.
Appearing in the LIFE Magazine photograph
| Gamer | Home Town in 1982 | Game of Note | In '05 Reunion/Documentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Blackburn | Wilmington, NC | Eagle | Yes |
| Jeff Brandt | Bloomington, IN | Donkey Kong, Jr. | |
| Michael Buck | Ottumwa, IA | Carnival | |
| Leo Daniels | Carolina Beach, NC | Tempest | Yes |
| Eric Ginner | Mountain View, CA | Moon Patrol Moon Patrol is a classic arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982. It was licensed to Williams for distribution in North America.The player controls a moon buggy, viewing it from the side, that travels over the moon's surface. While driving it, obstacles such as craters and mines must be avoided.... |
|
| Ben Gold | Dallas, TX | Stargate Stargate (video game) Stargate is an arcade game released in 1981 by Williams Electronics. Created by Eugene Jarvis, it is a sequel to the 1980 game Defender, and was the first of only three productions from Vid Kidz, an independent development house formed by Jarvis and Larry DeMar... |
Yes |
| Jeff Landin | McHenry, IL | Jungle King | |
| Mike Lepkosky | Spring, TX | Ms. Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man Ms. Pac-Man is an arcade video game produced by Midway as an unauthorized sequel to Pac-Man. It was released in North America in 1981 and became one of the most popular video games of all time, leading to its adoption by Pac-Man licensor Namco as an official title... |
|
| Billy Mitchell Billy Mitchell (gamer) Billy L. Mitchell, born July 16, 1965, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, is best known for recording high scores in classic video games from the Golden Age of Arcade Games. He has been claimed by some as the "greatest arcade-video-game player of all time". His achievements include the first perfect score... |
Hollywood, FL | Centipede Centipede (video game) Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female... |
Yes |
| Doug Nelson | Bakersfield, CA | Pac-Man Pac-Man is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Immensely popular from its original release to the present day, Pac-Man is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games,... |
|
| Darren Olsen (Chris Steele) | Calgary, AB | Centipede Centipede (video game) Centipede is a vertically-oriented shoot 'em up arcade game produced by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game was designed by Ed Logg along with Dona Bailey, one of the few female game programmers in the industry at this time. It was also the first arcade coin-operated game to have a significant female... |
Yes |
| Mark Robichek | Mountain View, CA | Tutankham Tutankham Tutankham is a 1982 arcade game developed by Konami and released by Stern in the US. This game is also known as Horror Maze on Konami Classics Series: Arcade Hits for the Nintendo DS... |
Yes |
| Steve Sanders | Clinton, MO | Donkey Kong Donkey Kong is a fictional gorilla in the Donkey Kong and Mario series. He is roughly twice the size of a normal gorilla, weighing approximately 800 pounds. Donkey Kong first appeared in Nintendo's popular 1981 video game of the same name. Since then he has appeared in over 20 games in his own series, as well... |
Yes |
| Ned Troide | Palm Harbor, FL | Defender | |
| Todd Walker | San Jose, CA | Joust | Yes |
| Joel West | Shelby, NC | Berzerk Berzerk Berzerk is a multi-directional shooter video arcade game, released in 1980 by Stern Electronics of Chicago.-Gameplay:The player controls a green stick-figure, representing a "humanoid." Using a joystick , the player navigates a simple maze filled with many robots, who fire lasers back at the... |
Yes |
2005 reunion
A modern reunion was held on September 24, 2005 in front of the downtown theater in Laconia, New HampshireLaconia, New Hampshire
As of the census of 2000, there were 16,411 people, 6,724 households, and 4,168 families residing in the city. The population density was 809.3 people per square mile . There were 8,554 housing units at an average density of 421.8 per square mile...
, 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
Walter Day
Walter Aldro Day, Jr. is the founder of Twin Galaxies, an international organization based in Fairfield, Iowa, that tracks high score statistics for the worldwide electronic video gaming hobby...
, Billy Mitchell
Billy Mitchell (gamer)
Billy L. Mitchell, born July 16, 1965, in Holyoke, Massachusetts, is best known for recording high scores in classic video games from the Golden Age of Arcade Games. He has been claimed by some as the "greatest arcade-video-game player of all time". His achievements include the first perfect score...
, Steve Sanders, Robert Mruczek, Ben Gold, Joel West, Sam Blackburn, Todd Rogers
Todd Rogers (gamer)
Todd Rogers is an American video game competitor living in Brooksville, Florida who gained fame in the early 1980s for his many world record high scores and for his expertise on Activision games...
, 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 CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
who was brought in by Life to take the shot. Ferorelli still maintains his headquarters in New York City, under the name Ferorelli Studios.