NYC's last great arcade documented in 'Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair'

by Ben Gilbert on May 9th 2011 8:05PM

"Chinatown [Fair] was the last one, it had the best players, and this was like our last spot. So now hearing that this is closing, we gotta find another spot to migrate to," one defeated-sounding patron of Chinatown Fair exclaims in the short clip from Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair. The documentary intends to capture the iconic New York City arcade's last evening, and the ambitious project is being funded entirely by Kickstarter.

Rumors surrounding Chinatown Fair's closing began in early February of this year. Though a brief glimmer of hope saw the owners renegotiating their lease, the 50+ year-old arcade eventually closed for good later that month.

As of mid-day on Monday, the project has raised over $13K, with a goal of $20K (and another 22 days left). The film's production staff are also offering incentives for donation, with everything from a digital copy of the finished product and a credit in the film for just $10, to a "custom designed Chinatown Fair theme arcade cabinet" for pledges of $5,000 or more (One person already signed up! Madness!). Head past the break and see the full pitch video, as well as the premiere trailer.

Kickstarter pitch for "Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair"

First trailer for "Arcade: The Last night at Chinatown Fair"

[Image credit: M. V. Jantzen]

Source: Kickstarter, Official site

Tags: arcade, arcade-the-last-night-at-chinatown-fair, chinatown, chinatown-fair, documentary, kickstarter, kurt-vincent, pitch, trailer

Reader Comments (53)

can't wait to see this. I miss that place so much :/

@acme64
I remember my buddy took me to that arcade spot it was that one and the one on 42nd street. Good times. I remember when Tekken Tag arcade you can use your PS 2 memory card to load or to save the game. lol

I was sad about this before but watching this trailer breaks my heart.

@Even Adder

I agree that it's a sad affair. Many over at SRK feel the same way, too.

http://shoryuken.com/content/last-arcade-jonathan-hall-4457/

This is a huge bummer.

I visited NY on business last fall and stumbled by this place on my way from some mind-blowing dumplings. It was the real deal. Got a couple games of Third Strike and SF4 in. Made me remember the arcade culture that I had long since forgotten.

Folks who only know XBL and PSN just don't know what they missed.

@Father Of Noise
Here here. They will never develop that skill of knowing which quarter stacked up on the box belongs to which person in the mob of people around the cabinet.

"...the 50+ year-old arcade eventually closed for good later that month."

Pardon me for questioning this, as I am as upset as everyone else about the death of the arcade culture, but can that be right? FIFTY years?

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_video_games#1950s.E2.80.931960s), 50 years ago, video games were nothing more than programming projects ambitious MIT students did in their free time. That has got to be either a typo or an outrageous boast by the owner / documentary makers.

@heypaul

The date is correct.

"Arcade" doesn't necessarily mean "video games." Have you never seen pre-video game arcade amusements? Think of carnivals... shooting galleries, horse racing games, skeeball, etc.

"Penny Arcade" ain't just a webcomic...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_arcade

@Father Of Noise

Oh I gotcha. Guess I should've figured that seeing as the place is called Chinatown "Fair." Boy, do I feel dumb...

Game over man! Game over!

@Andrew12h Relax it will probably be at a good location

If it's one thing I miss about being young, it's how magical arcades were to me at the time.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze
missing the arcade days of my youth :(

Society...YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!
/starbuck

@sigma8

....and yet, all we can do is watch :/

Despite being money vacuums and often having shallow gameplay...

...there is something special about good ol' arcades. I remember the days of TMNT, Mortal Kombat II, Street Fighter...man, good times.

@Red Runner
and primal rage, x-men, simpsons

@KIRBY SMASH
It seemed deep when the gameplay was metered, and you rarely got to the end parts.

@KIRBY SMASH
Strider, Dynamite Duke, and street fighter. I remember when we put the quarter near the marquee to tell the other player that you had next. ahh memories.

:(

Remember killing the few hours waiting for my systems to be modded at a nearby shop here...held my own on Cap vs. SNK 2 against some good players.

This sucks I hate it when arcades close down now there nothing fun to do at new york

@DJshadow1

How about visiting time square?

@DJshadow1 Oh yeah, that arcade was the last bastion of entertainment in the entirety of New York City. Mhmm.

@Morisato13 That might be fun but it still suck that this arcade have to go

It's ok to Cry guys..... It's ok...

I'm sad about this place going down. It's kinda bittersweet that they are re-locating in my neighborhood. I don't think it'll ever be the same. At least the culture will live on. Screw what online gaming has done to true gamesmanship.

@SpecDotSign Who knows. Once we get force feedback virtual reality and you can punch a troll in the virtual face, yet still have all the social aspects of a real arcade, maybe it will be cool then.

Arcades need to evolve. Gaming is bigger than ever, I think especially with the advent of motion controls and their eventual sophistication we will begin to see arcades evolve into things we could only ever dream of.

Remember that scene in "The Island" where they were having that virtual reality street fighting match. Yeah, just wait for that.

Will everything in NYC be documented by a movie? Nobody will document the arcade closing in Lawrence Kansas.

People who make movies are pretty self-centric. It's a shame they only live in NYC and LA because every movie in the world is set in those two cities.

@FriedConsole Really, every movie in the world is set in NYC or LA?

Then explain why Frodo didn't go see a Broadway show with Gandalf after he tossed the ring into Mount Doom.

@DeadRabbits

Wow you really thought I was talking literally? How do you even operate your computer? Is someone helping you?

@FriedConsole

Actually console, the same could be asked of you. While your comment was just a stupid one, mine was blatantly sarcastic.

You are also a jerk.

@FriedConsole

aladdin's castle or planet pinball?

Are you implying legalizing coin-op fight clubs?!

@SpecDotSign

With all deliberate speed my friend.

I say good riddance.

The games are old, controls are broken and the owner is a pedophile.

@clawbytes
Irony.
Yu-Gi-Oh is old, the game was always broken (four star monsters, 1800+ atk, GOGOGO!) and it's a childrens card game.

As a fan of the old arcade hangouts, I don't think I could watch this. It would break my heart.

Only been there once played some random shm'up but I had a great time.

Been there more than enough times in my life, but IT too has changed much over the years. The real arcade found in Times Square, where we'd be underage age, smoking and drinking outside, raucous away from home.

When Times Square was transformed into Disney Land, everything went. Peep shows, the arcade, you name it. Left behind was this Arcade which was always the nicer of the two, being that its INSIDE of the Elizabeth Center, right across from a Police Precinct...bleh.

There was once a time when beating too many people either got you a crowd of praise or your own ass kicked literally, depending on who you played. Oh youth...

(edit)
...the real arcade was found* in Times Square...

On a final note, some of the most super-gaming human people played in both these arcades. That game for the N64(?) Killer Instinct, i remember being so amped to play it, but after $2($1 per game) and 100 hit combos being chained together for damn near all Perfect wins; my thoughts changed quick on that game lol.

Thank the game gods for letting me mash buttons for at least a hit or two before i shunned that game like the plague (in arcades).

I really miss arcades, I still get excited when I see a poorly maintained arcade game. I miss my local arcade that really cared about their machines. All of the machines were in excellent working condition and were cleaned with Windex every couple of hours. Xbox Live is great but the excitement of going into the arcade and seeing the new stuff will never be matched. I can only hope I come into a nice amount of money one day to buy all of the machines I've wanted and loved as a teenager.

The owner moved the arcade to Brooklyn and it's called Next Level Arcade! They moved the Super Street Fighter IV Arcade edition cabinets and have LOTS of other fighting games on consoles. Check it out, and support local arcades!!! https://foursquare.com/venue/18365539

Okay so, great clip, great arcade, movie looks cool BUT....

there are a few things here that leave me scratching my head...

first of all, at the end of the first video, the guy says they need money to "do a couple more months of shooting" how can you do a couple more months of shooting a movie about an arcade's LAST NIGHT!!?! the place is already CLOSED, how could they possibly shoot anything else for months?

also, they say at the beginning of the second video that chinatown fair is the last arcade in nyc. WRONG.....it might be the last "great arcade" but there are about a bajillion other arcades in NYC.

These are just a few things I noticed.... what do you guys think?

Also, I kinda miss the days of arcades due to fighters being played for FUN as opposed to all this "MLG PRO TOURNAMENT GAMING SRS BSNSS" crap we get these days.

I was lucky enough to have been able to visit the Fair before it closed, sad to see such a cool place go.

Didn't the owner open a new arcade in Brooklyn?

I remember visiting this place a few years ago while in NYC.
Awesome sad to see it go. I'll check out the new place.

Man.
I didn't know the fair closed. That place will always be in my memory. So many trips after school to Elizabeth Center and the fair.

Now that I live in Japan, I get to play in Arcades all the time, but it's not really the same. They're a dime a dozen here.
However, the price is way different. Back home in NY, you could play for 25 or 50 cents. Here, its a dollar or more per play. Plus they have cards they entice you to buy to keep your scores, levels, gamertag, and unlockables.

I really hope someone can open another arcade. (Though it may prove difficult to make it profitable.) Brooklyn lost almost all the places you could call an arcade years ago. There was even one family center which had games, laser tag, and where WWE stars would come sometimes.

Online gaming is great, but it's just not the same.

I still have a handful of Chinatown Fair tokens, the newer silverish ones with the dragon on them, so I guess I'll keep those as a souvenir.

This movie would be incomplete without members of Empire Arcadia.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

NYC's last great arcade documented in 'Arcade: The Last Night at Chinatown Fair'

Reader Comments (53)

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:16PM acme64 said

Posted: May 10th 2011 8:24AM echerringtonYAHOOCOM said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:16PM Even Adder said

Posted: May 10th 2011 1:58AM czechm8 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:17PM Father Of Noise said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:26PM sigma8 said

Posted: May 10th 2011 12:11AM heypaul said

Posted: May 10th 2011 2:40AM Father Of Noise said

Posted: May 10th 2011 4:20AM heypaul said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:17PM Andrew12h said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:52PM DJshadow1 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:20PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:23PM KIRBY SMASH said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:25PM sigma8 said

Posted: May 10th 2011 4:15AM ShadowXIII said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:31PM Red Runner said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:10PM KIRBY SMASH said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:57PM sigma8 said

Posted: May 10th 2011 8:35AM echerringtonYAHOOCOM said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:58PM Scotty96 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:51PM DJshadow1 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:07PM Morisato13 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:08PM Guilter said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:11PM DJshadow1 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:27PM EMaster said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:34PM SpecDotSign said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:03PM DeadRabbits said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:57PM FriedConsole said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:05PM DeadRabbits said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:11PM FriedConsole said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:16PM DeadRabbits said

Posted: May 10th 2011 12:19AM asinine said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:08PM SpecDotSign said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:12PM DeadRabbits said

Posted: May 9th 2011 10:40PM clawbytes said

Posted: May 10th 2011 4:30PM mcnichoj said

Posted: May 9th 2011 11:50PM Freakservo said

Posted: May 9th 2011 11:53PM Prince David said

Posted: May 9th 2011 11:53PM Negatron said

Posted: May 9th 2011 11:54PM Negatron said

Posted: May 10th 2011 12:03AM Negatron said

Posted: May 10th 2011 12:15AM AFATALERR0R said

Posted: May 10th 2011 12:15AM richardoswald said

Posted: May 10th 2011 1:39AM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 10th 2011 5:50AM Red Runner said

Posted: May 10th 2011 6:20AM Phoenix117UK said

Posted: May 10th 2011 7:43AM Sc4rfac3 said

Posted: May 10th 2011 8:05AM jbondsr said

Posted: May 10th 2011 8:37AM Pasty said

Posted: May 10th 2011 8:41AM SystemsAnalyst said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW