The original gamers

At the NCSU Libraries, you can check out a game controller and play video games on any number of platforms in our Game Labs. You can even borrow virtual reality gear to turn your dorm room into a gaming environment.

But not so long ago, you had to go to an arcade to play video games. You had to drop a quarter into a slot and hunch over a flickering screen to blow up space invaders or steer a Formula 1 car through a twisty course. Housed in malls, bowling alleys and storefronts, cave-like arcades provided a space for a whole subculture in the days before we knelt before game consoles on our living room carpets or anxiously thumbed the screens of our phones.

The film The Lost Arcade, showing Thursday, March 2, at 7 p.m. in the Hunt Library Auditorium, tells the story of the once-ubiquitous cultural phenomenon of the 1980s and early ’90s, focusing on the legendary Chinatown Fair on Mott Street in New York as the last hold-out of old-school arcade culture. Directed by Kurt Vincent, the nostalgic documentary “is a love letter to a vanished piece of New York, and a little wish for the future” (New York Times).

Brought to you by NCSU Libraries Presents, the film is free and open to the public. We are excited to be partnering with Boxcar Bar + Arcade who will be on-site for the screening to offer free game tokens to be redeemed at Boxcar for those who attend.