Oh, this was pure nostalgia. Every Sunday morning as a kid I would head down to the local video game arcade to waste away a couple hours dropping coins down the slot. Immersed in the atmosphere, culture and community of crammed video arcades with kids/teenagers socialising in the noise and bustle of glaring screens, flashing lights, pounding buttons, electronic beeps and booming music, while waiting for their turn. Time would fly by!
This documentary is not about the games, but a candid look at the people, especially the gamers, who pretty much live and breathe this arcade lifestyle. It has become far more than just a pastime... it's reality. We get a fascinating, if a little too lax chronicle of the beginnings to the eventual fade out of the last remaining video game arcade in Manhatten, smack right in the middle of Chinatown. We follow around a small niche - from the owners, staff and regular customers discussing how the Chinatown Fair arcade had personally affected them and the connections they made through it. In this day and age of consoles and online streaming, the popularity of video game arcades and their aesthetics are becoming a dwindling relic, as sadly, nostalgia alone doesn't pay the bills. Therefore moving with the times is a must and catering for a new enthusiastic crowd is the only way to survive, which happens when a new owner takes over the space with an updated, family friendly approach. Will it be successful in the long run, who knows? Might be bittersweet, but The Lost Aracde finishes on a fitting final statement;
"I'll always be playing. As long as there's another opponent, who wants to play. I'll play with them. That's all that matters."
