ARCADE

a film by Kurt Vincent and Irene Chin
I met Norman Burgess at Chinatown Fair the night it closed.  I was impressed by his knowledge of games and his eloquence of speech.  I saw on Facebook a couple weeks ago that he had built his own arcade cabinet at home.  Norman did me the honor of inviting me to his weekly get together. We filmed until 1 AM (their sessions regularly last until 7AM).  The guys in attendance were all friends from NYC arcades from back in the day, who discovered that they all lived in the same neighborhood, Harlem.  The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. Norman’s friends took advantage of the home brew arcade machine, which is decked out with hundreds of games, as well as his chest full of every game imaginable- new old, obscure - for all the various game systems that Norman has collected.  We were so lucky to have met an amazing crew of guys, plus Norman’s wife, who he met at CF ten years ago and who is a Tetris wizard.  A lively debate sparked up around 12 AM about the difference between online gaming and gaming of the past, which took place in arcades.  Norman brought up a very interesting point, which I had never thought of before.  He pointed out that online players have nothing to lose.  They are mostly anonymous, have no reputation to uphold, and will show behavior which they would not show if they were playing head to head.  Online players also are not paying to play each match, so they do not have anything to lose in that respect as well.  Arcade play has much more dignity. There is a face, a person, a reputation, and there is hard earned money on the line.    -Irene  

I met Norman Burgess at Chinatown Fair the night it closed.  I was impressed by his knowledge of games and his eloquence of speech.  I saw on Facebook a couple weeks ago that he had built his own arcade cabinet at home.  Norman did me the honor of inviting me to his weekly get together.

We filmed until 1 AM (their sessions regularly last until 7AM).  The guys in attendance were all friends from NYC arcades from back in the day, who discovered that they all lived in the same neighborhood, Harlem.  The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. Norman’s friends took advantage of the home brew arcade machine, which is decked out with hundreds of games, as well as his chest full of every game imaginable- new old, obscure - for all the various game systems that Norman has collected.  We were so lucky to have met an amazing crew of guys, plus Norman’s wife, who he met at CF ten years ago and who is a Tetris wizard. 

A lively debate sparked up around 12 AM about the difference between online gaming and gaming of the past, which took place in arcades.  Norman brought up a very interesting point, which I had never thought of before.  He pointed out that online players have nothing to lose.  They are mostly anonymous, have no reputation to uphold, and will show behavior which they would not show if they were playing head to head.  Online players also are not paying to play each match, so they do not have anything to lose in that respect as well.  Arcade play has much more dignity. There is a face, a person, a reputation, and there is hard earned money on the line.   

-Irene  

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