If you were a kid in the early '80s, then you undoubtedly have fond memories of the local arcade. For roughly three years, the corner arcade was one of the coolest places to be—a magical land filled with bleeps, flashing lights, and the constant clinking of quarters. It was the land where nerds were kings—and we proved our superiority by getting our initials in a game's high score list.
Yet, while we might have been the big fish at the local arcade, it wasn't until Walter Day started collecting high scores from around the country that many of us realized that we were pretty average players in the grand scheme of things. Day's curating of the Twin Galaxies official high score list was akin to the Guinness Book of World Records for young gamers—a list filled with scores so high that they seemed unfathomable. And what was next to each of those astronomical numbers? The name of a gamer who was practically a geek god.
Lincoln Ruchti's Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
With such a large and quirky group of guys (there's nary a female in sight outside of a few "arcade groupies"), the tone of Chasing Ghosts tends to vacillate quite a bit. In their own way, each of these men embodies the stereotypical gamer "persona"—they're a bit nerdy, socially awkward, and odd—but underneath it all, most of these dudes are genuinely good folks who were fortunate enough to get some attention for being really skilled at something. It's hard to fault any of them for clinging to that.
The film catches up with a multitude of champions, some familiar to even non-gamers (anyone who's seen the brilliant King of Kong will automatically recognize Billy Mitchell—in all of his mullet-sporting glory). Ruchti then allows them to reflect on their past—how they became so good at games, where their skill took them in life, where they are now, and so on. It's a fascinating character study.
It's really interesting to see where everyone has wound up. Most of these men went on to successful and interesting lives. Donkey Kong player Steve Sanders is now a minister, Mitchell owns his own business, and so on. Others, like Todd Rogers (who I've now learned lives one town away from me), have had a rougher run. Some still play games, others seem to look back on it all like it was another life.
While there are many different stories at play in Chasing Ghosts (including the ever-present feuding between players like Roy "Mr. Awesome" Shildt and Mitchell), the overarching angle involves Day and his decision to retire from being the official Twin Galaxies scorekeeper and referee. We don't learn as much as we'd like about Day—who's had a strange list of jobs and hobbies (including newspaper collector, oil salesman, and more) over the years, but we do at least know that he's retiring to work on a music career and write novels. Day's an odd fellow in a documentary filled with odd fellows, but since he's the guy who made all of this possible way back in the early '80s, it seems like he should get more attention than he does—from both the film and the other players.
That minor quibble aside, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade
Images courtesy of Joystiq.com
A film critic by trade, specializing in Euro-horror, cult exploitation, and Asian action cinema, Mike has written reviews for a diverse group of print and online publications. He covers horror news, movies, books, and games at TheHorrorGeek.com and Horrorsquad.com and spent two seasons as The Horror Geek on Comedy Central's pop-culture game show, Beat the Geeks.
Mike's childhood was spent playing videogames any time he got a chance. His parents had a Pong console and his grandmother had an Atari 2600, where Mike cultivated his skills by playing hour upon hour of games like Space Invaders, Berserk, and Asteroids. From those early experiences Mike learned one thing: he loved games.
In 1999, Mike became a staff reviewer at Cinescape Magazine's website where he spent a year learning the craft of game criticism. After internal changes led to Mike leaving Cinescape in late 2000, he joined up with RPGFan in 2001 and spent several years writing reviews for them. Happy, but looking for an opportunity to expound on a wider variety of titles, Mike joined GameCritics.com and hopes to help Chi, Dale, and the rest of the GC staff bring a higher level of respect to the field of game criticism.
- Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Review - July 14, 2015
- Sunset Overdrive Second Opinion - December 8, 2014
- Diablo III: Ulitmate Evil Edition Review - October 8, 2014
