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Del Murder
04-12-2012, 05:03 PM
Caine's Arcade | A cardboard arcade made by a 9-year old boy. (http://cainesarcade.com/)

This is a short film about a 9-year old boy with a big imagination. Here's the bio from the website:


Caine Monroy is a 9-year old boy who spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.

Caine dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers visit his arcade, and he spent months preparing everything, perfecting the game design, making displays for the prizes, designing elaborate security systems, and hand labeling paper-lunch-gift-bags. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of East LA) gets almost zero foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to play Caine’s Arcade. But Caine never gave up.

One day, by chance, I walked into Smart Parts Auto looking for a used door handle for my ’96 Corolla. What I found was an elaborate handmade cardboard arcade manned by a young boy who asked if I would like to play. I asked Caine how it worked and he told me that for $1 I could get two turns, or for $2 I could get a Fun Pass with 500 turns. I got the Fun Pass.

Watch the video. It makes me tear up. I have no idea why. Maybe it's because I love games. Maybe it's because Caine is super cute and I want a smart, imaginative kid just like him. Maybe it's because he reminds me of myself when I was a kid, with a big imagination and big dreams. In any case, this is the greatest story I've ever seen and next time I'm in LA I am definitely checking out Caine's Arcade.

Bunny
04-12-2012, 05:33 PM
The bit about the claw machine is just wonderful.

Rantz
04-12-2012, 06:47 PM
I saw that yesterday, it made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside.

Pike
04-12-2012, 10:50 PM
That was adorable.

Also: Best "Security System" ever.

Del Murder
04-13-2012, 01:55 AM
The bit about the claw machine is just wonderful.
It really is. 'Dad can you buy me a claw machine?' 'Why don't you just build one?' And he did.

Raistlin
04-13-2012, 02:29 AM
That is amazing. And it looks like Cain's scholarship fund has now received a ton of donations. I love the internet.

EDIT:


After the flashmob, at the end of the day as Caine and his dad drove home, Caine turned to his dad and said, “Dad, this was the best day of my whole life.”

I... I have something stuck in my eye.

Iceglow
04-13-2012, 07:20 AM
I watched this the other day too when pontus linked it in chat, amazing kid. I kinda wanna shove these type of videos in the face of people who are defeatist or those who believe that life is bad enough to commit suicide over it's like the news story over here of a 19 year old girl who has brain cancer and yet is still fighting.

Mirage
04-13-2012, 08:22 AM
Holy crap over 100k dollars donated. Hope he makes something awesome when he's done with his degree.
Gotta give it up to the internet for making things like this possible.

Internet, I love you.

Freya
04-13-2012, 08:43 AM
I saw this the other day and I will say it had me teary eyed. I remember making things like that as a kid just never to that extent. What a great thing for people to do :)

Del Murder
04-22-2012, 07:32 AM
Caine's Arcade came to the San Francisco Exploratorium today and of course I was totally there. I got to meet Caine, buy a Fun Pass, and play his games. They were super fun and pretty challenging. Caine is a pretty quiet kid who doesn't really care about all the hype he's getting. He just wants to run his arcade so that people can have fun playing it. Here's some photos:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/delmurder/IMG_6221.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/delmurder/IMG_6238.jpg
This game was pretty fun. That goalie is a little punk. But I did manage to get one goal and that got me 2 tickets.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/delmurder/IMG_6235.jpg
The crane was super hard. You have to swing the hook around until you hook something and you don't have much room, or time, since he only gives you 20 seconds.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v420/delmurder/IMG_6251.jpg
I got a shirt!

Psychotic
04-22-2012, 07:52 AM
Wow. That's all I can say. :)

pssst Del, give me the security code from your fun pass! :shifty:

Pike
04-22-2012, 03:14 PM
I'm super jealous. But good on you for getting to go :)

Quindiana Jones
04-22-2012, 06:25 PM
He bought all the calculators to make a security system? This kid's amazing. I was completely stunned when he talked us through the system. Just a phenomenal child.

Shlup
04-23-2012, 12:04 AM
Toooooo cute!