10 Must-See Fan Documentaries About The People Who Matter Most

9. Chasing Ghosts: Beyond The Arcade

Readers have to be above a certain age for sights like the one depicted in the image above to evoke a familiar childhood memory. The arcade as it used to exist has all but disappeared, relegated to motorway service stations and the faded seaside resort town. But there was a time when they were hives of activity - social hubs where young people (mainly boys, of course) flocked by the dozens to play the latest games and try and beat one another's high scores. Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade takes us back in time to the heyday of arcade gaming - the golden age of video game champions who mastered some of the toughest titles ever released and landed on the cover of Life magazine. While games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Stargate, Defender and other renowned classics might look primitive by today's high definition standards, their visual simplicity betrayed a difficulty level which would challenge even the most hardcore gamer. Lincoln Ruchti's 2007 documentary revisits some of the legends of the time, beginning with the entrepreneur Walter Day who set up the Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard and the superstar teenage gamers who vied for the top spots. It's a wonderfully touching and affectionate portrayal, and seeing many of the champions reflecting back on their short-lived fame as adults stands as a testament to the resilient draw of video game culture. Chasing Ghosts was a huge hit at the Sundance Film Festival, and found a fan in none other than Pixar's Andrew Stanton, director of Wall-E, who enjoyed it so much he arranged a private screening for his colleagues. The influence of these old school games is clearly present in Wreck-It Ralph, which owes more to the retro games of yesteryear than all the next-generation console games combined.