Now all the good games go straight to home consoles, but during the 80s arcades were the bomb and where you went to play the best.
Insert Coin is a new documentary that helps gamers relive all the glory of spending your entire allowance at the local noise land.
Eugene Jarvis, the creator of 80s classic video games such as Defender and Robotron, returns to the industry in the 90s. In the process, he assembles a team that pioneers the concept of bringing live-action into video games, kickstarting a new era in the arcades.
The technology mushrooms into massive hits such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam and soon the team begins to conquer the world. What began as a small tight-knit group begins to deal with success and eventually the rise of home consumer technology.
Though there are a number of games that you could make a great documentary on, Insert Coin focuses on those made by Midway, which in addition to the games mentioned above, also included classics such as NARC, Gauntlet and Rampage.
It was directed by Joshua Tsui, who used to work in the industry not surprisingly for Midway on the Mortal Kombat series.
It was originally set to debut at this year’s SXSW festival before it was canceled.
Since it focuses on just one company, it doesn’t really give you a complete picture of the history of the industry.
If that is something you are looking for, then you can check out Video Games: The Movie. It’s a documentary about the entire history of video games narrated by Samwise Gamgee himself, Sean Astin. Best of all it is free on Amazon Prime.
