Maidexpl Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Steve Pulaski Arcades are after my time, unfortunately. My only experience for years had occasionally been the scarce surviving ones that existed in those ma and pa pizzerias or in some local food shack that eventually removed it for whatever reason. They were the stereotypical "Mrs. Pac-Man." For years I never thought I'd play a game other than one that has become so iconic and archetypal you could almost visualize and play it fluently in your sleep.Then came an arcade a close friend told me about a summer around two years ago. It was $15 to get in, and after that, "you're on your own," he told me. What he meant was there was a bright red button visible on most arcade machines that warranted a "free game" and all machines were rigged so that the button would be in effect. The second you walked in the place, you felt overwhelmed by the conglomerate of colorful, captivating electronic machines that offered cult favorites, such as the "Pac-Man" and "Donkey Kong" line of games, and those that went under the radar, "Elevator Action" (one of my new favorites) and even "TRON," based off the 1984 groundbreaker. The palace even featured tabletop arcade machines, newer machines housing the "Marvel vs. Capcom" and "Street Fighter" series, and provided their customers with a refreshment or an energy drink at little cost. It was a paradise I'm now itching to revisit just be typing this.If that is the closest I come to a true arcade experience, then by God it was beautiful. On to the documentary at hand, Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade is a wonderfully engaging documentary that presents its subjects, arcade junkies with high scores on numerous games, with care and attention. Some of the faces we are acquainted, or even reacquainted with if you were fortunate enough to see The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, are Billy Mitchell, the "Mrs. Pac-Man" champion with a slick mullet, Joel West, possessing a high score on "Berzerk," Chris Steele, the king of "Centipede," Kent Farries, who painstakingly mastered "Donkey Kong" and "Space Invaders," and who can forget the referee of it all, Walter Day? We are told early in the documentary that the video game capital of the world is a place called Ottumwa, Iowa, which housed the Twin Galaxies arcade center where all these champions would hang out for afternoons on end and play their favorite games. Day declared himself the authority of video gaming high scores, saying the score would be official in his book if you achieved it on one of his prized machines. Day went on to publish a well-over seven-hundred page book, which he is shown writing here, that compiles the high scores on video games throughout years of playing. If he ever recovers from such a monumental effort, I'd love to hear how much money in quarters those hunks of metal made.The most charming thing to hear from these indelible greats was probably their little tricks and primitive thinking that would go on to be pretty foreign to today's audiences. Chris Steele goes on to talk about how him and a friend would discover tricks such as the "double tap" on arcade machines, by placing a pencil's ends on two buttons and tapping the middle of the pencil back and forth, so as to hit the buttons at a rapid rate. Him and his friend would also label their high scores under the obviously ambiguous name of "WIZ," and remark with wit and humor how the question, "who is 'WIZ'?" would come up often in the arcade. It's the subtle, little welcomed things that we will miss from these establishments.What struck me as a greater surprise was to discover how short of a lifespan arcades actually had. They were accompanied by a sudden rise in popularity in the 1980's, but by the later end of the decade, they were then met with the look of distaste. Home-gaming, made popular by Atari, but mainly Sega and Nintendo, was advancing in not only consumer-familiarity and recognition, but also stylistic and graphical attributes. Games became brighter, more vivid and fleshed out, as apposed to the redundancy of many arcade games. Not to mention, once you paid the flat rate, you could freely stay home, go to the bathroom, get something to eat, and pause your game without the fear of something happening. The moral here is that time makes you bolder, children get older, and I'm getting older too.NOTE: Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade was released to video on demand outlets two weeks ago, but Hulu is offering the documentary in its entirety free of charge, http://www.hulu.com/watch/319596 Starring: Billy Mitchell, Walter Day, Joel West, Chris Steele, and Kent Farries. Directed by: Lincoln Ruchti.

gavin6942 1982's Video Game World Champions share their philosophies on joysticks, groupies and life.I enjoyed the discussion of how to make the buttons react faster by using an electric knife, a pencil, or the double tap. I cannot say I was ever so devoted to games that I felt I needed to speed up my response time. Is this devotion? Obsession? A waste of time? Hmmm.I also loved Billy Mitchell's mullet, and the trash talking from the "Missile Command" champion Mister Awesome, who has an obsession with phallic objects. There is something seriously wrong with that guy. Mitchell may not deserve to be famous, but you cannot fault the guy for taking advantage of opportunities that come his way. Awesome, on the other hand, seems to have a warped sense of his own importance... the costume and comic book take any bit of respectability gaming might have and throws it away.

Mr-Fusion Setting its sights on a group of the nation's greatest arcade game players, "Chasing Ghosts" endeavors to shed light on the raging video game culture of the early 1980's. An '82 Life Magazine photo shoot brought together 16 prodigies, some of whom would go on to live in video game infamy. This film sets out to profile these men. "Chasing Ghosts" was released at around the same time as the similarly- themed "The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" [2007]; though this film doesn't have a good-vs-bad story arc, nor did it receive the exposure of the other documentary. The soft-spoken "other video game" documentary, if you will. The film is comprised primarily of recollections of those involved in that fateful Life shoot, and where they are 25 years later. Some have achieved great success, others not so much. And some have simply leveled off into a comfortable middle-age lifestyles. The people interviewed wax nostalgic about their youth and flirtations with stardom, taking us on a nostalgic trip to the early '80s when the arcade ruled the neighborhood as a social hub. It's easy to disparage some of these men as nerds, but they were also achievers. They had the marked mental acumen and force of will to spend hours in front of a machine (usually on just one quarter) and succeed against an intimidating electronic opponent. "Chasing Ghosts" works as a fascinating look back to an exciting period in American history. It's tailor-made for those who hung out at arcades in their youth, and still accessible to those that didn't. And it really helps to see this after having seen "The King of Kong", because it simply goes into more detail. You get to see archival footage of Walter Day, including a short clip of the man hosting Twin Galaxies (which aired on local TV). Not only that, but there's more interview footage of Billy Mitchell - and dare I say, he actually comes off here as a pretty decent guy (especially compared to the other documentary). There's even more time spent on Roy Shildt, who's an unbelievably bigger douche than Billy Mitchell's reputation would suggest. Staggeringly.So while "Chasing Ghosts" may lack the good vs. evil drama of "Kong", it scores solid points for its in-depth approach.8/10

anchovyd I decided to watch this movie since I totally dug King of Kong, but was ultimately let down by the way it was directed. The reason why King of Kong worked was because it was a documentary with a story. There was a hero, a villain and his minions, a showdown at the end the didn't take place but still some action happening.This movie is a straight documentary that just shows us some old footage and photos, takes a peek into the current lives of these high scorers and shows us a lot of the Twin Galaxies guy who looks a lot like Ezra Cobb from the old 1970's Deranged movie.My main problem is the direction of this documentary. It seems that the director thought that it'd entertaining just to exploit these video game nerds. He lets the camera linger while they laugh like nerds, shows us how most still live with their parents, one has hundreds of pet spiders and lizards, one has a mail order Mexican girlfriend. I think this all has been done before in Revenge of the Nerds but better. Here in Chasing Ghosts it isn't funny, it is disturbing and sad. It is really telling that there is not one normal guy here except for the old Berzerk / Ham Radio guy who is about 20 years older than all the other guys who were teens in the early 80's.They really build up the suspense when they first show Billy Mitchell, the villain from King of Kong. Showing shots of his jeans, belt and hair before showing his face. He looks like more of a loser here, not as menacing as he did in the other movie although he does brag about how his restaurant was the first to bring hot wings to Florida.Bottom line: the movie is watchable and a little interesting but more than likely you'll just come away depressed from watching how sad these people turned out. I'm sure the director thought that it'd be funny to show how nerdy these guys are and how most still live with their parents but in the end it is just sad and depressing.