Chasing Ghosts is on Showtime next month.

[Havok]

Yeah, these guys for the most part are really lame. Especially that ref dude with the 300K pr0n collection, who still lives with his mom...

As opposed to that unemployed dude who sleeps in the middle of the floor with eleventy spiders in the closet and still lives with his mom ?

That's true - I forgot about him. At least he cleans up fairly well. If you saw him in public, you would think he's a somewhat normal dude. Master ref bater - you know he's a freak...

[Bender]

From what I saw only two or three people were remotely successful. Billy Mitchell has a restaurant and hot sauce (or BBQ sauce. whatever), one guy is a lawyer. The other said he wasn't a pimp but he hung out with beautiful people. Otherwise yeah, lame.

actually I think that is, or was, his parents restaurant, but the hot sauce....    pure Billy!!!! almost as hot as his mullet

this move scared the s#!t out of me!  Man, I can't believe how kind King of Kong was to them

[Singapura]

Come on guys! It's not if "normal people" would consider building your own arcade cab to be the pinacle of macho-ness. Although I've never met any of the people in the movie, I've corresponded enough with them (including Robert) to know that they're not half as weird as the movies would have you believe. There are a few freaky things (like keeping your fiancees urn on the mantlepiece) but none of them walk around with an axe under their anorak. I don't like Billy M. but even in his case I'm prepared to keep my mind open until he proves to be the rear covering sombrero that he seems to be. It takes a certain kind of freakiness to be good at something. There's plenty of physicists or mathematicians that are a lot weirder then the KoK/CG people.

[Trebeck]

Sleep on the floor with huge killer spiders in the room..... No

The film was really well done I have to say.  I really liked the 3D redo's of the old games and the player profiles.  And I remember seeing the "That's Incredible" episode when I was a little guy.  Loved that show.

[RandyT]

Some of these types of shows are so dry and boring (even to a die hard like me) that I have a hard time sitting through them.  I actually enjoyed this one, even though it took me until the next day to see the double entendre in the title (slow, I know.)

I also could not help but to feel sorry for a number of the folks, especially the guy who put the tape on his TV screen to try to shave a quarter second off his Barnstorming score (I swear I have met him somewhere....)

But I think the strangest one is the kid who lied about his Donkey Kong scores and apparently carried the guilt so deeply that he became a preacher hoping to atone for it.  Maybe that isn't the way it happened, but it sure looks that way.

All in all, it was a very compelling and well done human interest story, but I think it put classic gaming in a bit of a negative light.  There were millions of folks who just enjoyed them for what they were and didn't become obsessive-compulsive societal misfits as a result.  But the latter certainly make the movie more interesting.

RandyT

[odysseyroc]

I just finished watching the screener version and enjoyed it. The only thing that disappointed me about it was the lack of my favorite character from King of Kong: Mark Alpiger.

[Bender]

All in all, it was a very compelling and well done human interest story, but I think it put classic gaming in a bit of a negative light.  There were millions of folks who just enjoyed them for what they were and didn't become obsessive-compulsive societal misfits as a result.  But the latter certainly make the movie more interesting.

RandyT

Couldn't agree more!

[Kevin Mullins]

All in all, it was a very compelling and well done human interest story, but I think it put classic gaming in a bit of a negative light.  There were millions of folks who just enjoyed them for what they were and didn't become obsessive-compulsive societal misfits as a result.  But the latter certainly make the movie more interesting.

RandyT

Couldn't agree more!

I totally agree as well.

[Trebeck]

Yah too bad Mark wasn't in it.  Maybe King of Kong pissed him off

[Mauzy]

I just finished watching the screener version and enjoyed it. The only thing that disappointed me about it was the lack of my favorite character from King of Kong: Mark Alpiger.

I've already forgotten who Mark Alpiger is. Ive only seen KoK once. Give me a break.

 it took me until the next day to see the double entendre in the title (slow, I know.)

Hey, I didn't catch it till you said something about it!

[odysseyroc]

I've already forgotten who Mark Alpiger is. Ive only seen KoK once. Give me a break.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rW8lDYOJUc[/youtube]

[Mauzy]

OH YEAH the guy whole played Crystal Castles with his foot...

[deepblue]

Anyone have any idea when this will hit DVD or be shown in foreign markets (like Canada)? Given my love of the King of Kong I'd really like to check this out. The Swedish link is for an old, unfinished screener, which I've got no interest in.

Is Steve Wiebe in this, or was this "back in the day" in the Life magazine article era?

[Ginsu Victim]

No Wiebe. It focused on the 82 photoshoot, so some of the guys featured in the movie weren't actually part of the article, like Todd Rogers. I don't know why Pigger wasn't in it. (Especially when they put a loser like Roy Schildt in there...)

[Mauzy]

I think Schildt was just to make the others look better. He makes Billy Mitchell look humble...

[odysseyroc]

I love Mr. Awesome because he refuses to chumpatize himself.