If you missed watching The Lost Arcade, don’t fret, you can now catch it on SBS On Demand. For those of you outside of Australia, you can catch The Lost Arcade on a myriad of streaming services.
Kurt Vincent’s The Lost Arcade is an intimate story of a once-ubiquitous cultural phenomenon on the edge of extinction, especially in New York City, which once had video arcades by the dozen. These arcades were as much social hubs to meet up and hang out as they were public arenas for gamers to demonstrate their skills. But by 2011, only a handful remained, most of them corporate affairs, leaving the legendary Chinatown Fair on Mott Street as the last hold-out of old-school arcade culture. Opened in the early 1940’s, Chinatown Fair, famous for its dancing and tic tac toe playing chickens, survived turf wars between rival gangs, increases in rent, and the rise of the home gaming systems to become an institution and haven for kids from all five boroughs.
A documentary portrait of the Chinatown Fair and its denizens, The Lost Arcade chronicles the evolution of arcades, while celebrating the camaraderie and history of a pop culture phenomenon.
You better hurry Australian peeps, as you have 29 days left (from today) to watch this on SBS On Demand. After that, you’ll have to watch it via a paid streaming service.
Sources: SBS On Demand & The Lost Arcade