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Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade | |
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Directed by | Lincoln Ruchti |
Produced by | Michael Verrechia |
Cinematography | Lisa Wiegand |
Edited by | Eddie Brega |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
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.
In the 1980s, video games were synonymous with arcades, and games were bringing in enough quarters to fill the Rose Bowl.[ citation needed ] This led Iowa entrepreneur Walter Day (with the support of various game manufacturers) 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.
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. [1]
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. [2]
Gamer | Home Town in 1982 | Game of Note | In '05 Reunion/Documentary |
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Sam Blackburn | Wilmington, North Carolina | Eagle | Yes |
Jeff Brandt | Bloomington, Illinois | Donkey Kong Jr. | |
Michael Buck | Ottumwa, Iowa | Carnival | |
Leo Daniels | Carolina Beach, North Carolina | Tempest | Yes |
Eric Ginner | Mountain View, California | Moon Patrol | |
Ben Gold | Dallas, Texas | Stargate | Yes |
Steve Landin | McHenry, Illinois | Jungle King | |
Mike Lepkosky | Spring, Texas | Ms. Pac-Man | |
Billy Mitchell | Hollywood, Florida | Centipede | Yes |
Doug Nelson | Bakersfield, California | Pac-Man | |
Darren Olsen (Chris Steele) | Calgary, Alberta | Centipede | Yes |
Mark Robichek | Mountain View, California | Tutankham | Yes |
Steve Sanders | Clinton, Missouri | Donkey Kong | Yes |
Ned Troide | Palm Harbor, Florida | Defender | |
Todd Walker | San Jose, California | Joust | Yes |
Joel West | Shelby, North Carolina | Berzerk | Yes |
A modern reunion was held on September 24, 2005 in front of the downtown theater 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.
Pac-Man, originally called Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called "Power Pellets" causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points.
The golden age of arcade video games was the period of rapid growth, technological development, and cultural influence of arcade video games from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The release of Space Invaders in 1978 led to a wave of shoot-'em-up games such as Galaxian and the vector graphics-based Asteroids in 1979, made possible by new computing technology that had greater power and lower costs. Arcade video games switched from black-and-white to color, with titles such as Frogger and Centipede taking advantage of the visual opportunities of bright palettes.
Donkey Kong is a 1981 arcade video game developed and published by Nintendo. As Mario, the player runs and jumps on platforms and climbs ladders to ascend a construction site and rescue Pauline from a giant gorilla, the titular Donkey Kong. It is the first game in the Donkey Kong series as well as Mario's first appearance in a video game.
Twin Galaxies is a social media platform and video game database. Twin Galaxies is the official supplier of video game records to Guinness World Records.
Picturehouse is an American independent entertainment company owned by CEO Bob Berney and COO Jeanne R. Berney. Based in Los Angeles, the company specializes in film marketing and distribution, both in the U.S. and internationally. Its releases have included La Vie en Rose (2007), which earned an Academy Award for Best Actress for Marion Cotillard, Metallica Through the Never (2013), and Adam Wingard's Sundance Film Festival selection The Guest (2014), an Independent Spirit Award nominee starring Dan Stevens.
Walter Aldro Day Jr. is an American businessman and the founder of Twin Galaxies, an organization that tracks world records for video games and conducts a program of electronic-gaming promotions.
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 American documentary film about competitive arcade gaming directed by Seth Gordon. It follows Steve Wiebe in his attempts to take the high score record for the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong from Billy Mitchell. The film premiered at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and was released in U.S. theaters in August 2007. It received positive reviews.
Steven J. Wiebe is an American two-time world champion of the video game Donkey Kong, most recently holding the title from September 20, 2010, to January 10, 2011, with a high score of 1,064,500. Wiebe was the first person to achieve over a million points on Donkey Kong, with 1,006,600 on July 4, 2004. He is one of the primary subjects of the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Like his Donkey Kong rival Billy Mitchell, Wiebe was put in a Topps Allen & Ginter baseball set, which is featured in the 2009 edition of the baseball product.
Keegan DeWitt is an American film composer, singer-songwriter, and actor. He was raised in Oregon and now resides in Los Angeles. He is the lead singer of the indie rock band Wild Cub, as well as a composer for film scores.
Elizabeth Freya Garbus is an American documentary film director and producer. Notable documentaries Garbus has made are The Farm: Angola, USA,Ghosts of Abu Ghraib,Bobby Fischer Against the World,Love, Marilyn,What Happened, Miss Simone?, and Becoming Cousteau. She is co-founder and co-director of the New York City-based documentary film production company Story Syndicate.
Chasing Ghosts may refer to:
William James Mitchell Jr. is an American video game player. He achieved fame throughout the 1980s and 1990s through claiming numerous records on classic video games, including a perfect score on Pac-Man. Twin Galaxies and Guinness World Records recognized Mitchell as the holder of several records on classic games, and he has appeared in several documentaries on competitive gaming and retrogaming. However, in 2017, the legitimacy of a number of his records was called into question, leading to Twin Galaxies stripping Mitchell of his records.
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