Nine Year-Old Builds Astounding Cardboard Arcade

Caine's Arcade is a fully functional cardboard arcade guaranteed to make your day better.

I'd write you a nice little intro here, Escapists, but it'd make me feel guilty for keeping you away from the video embedded at right for longer than is absolutely necessary. Go on, have a click. I guarantee you in the strongest terms that learning about Caine's Arcade, an all-cardboard games arcade located in a used auto-parts store in eastern Los Angeles, will improve your day immeasurably.

This short film, Caine's Arcade, tells the story of nine year-old Los Angeles resident Caine Monroy, a kid who loves arcade games and basic engineering. Finding himself short on entertainment last summer, he decided to use all the cardboard boxes floating around his dad's used auto-parts store to build a cardboard arcade. Having built the basic components of his business, Caine went on to open the arcade to the public, charging patrons one dollar for four turns or two dollars for a security-protected Fun Pass which provides the user with five hundred turns on Caine's machines (holla holla, EA).

Shortly after Caine's Arcade opened for business, filmmaker Nirvan Mullick stopped by the store at random. He was immediately floored by the intricacy and creative endeavor involved in the arcade, and was more than happy to be the first person to buy one of Caine's Fun Passes.

Disappointed with how few people were coming to Caine's Arcade, however, Mullick decided to rally the internet into publicizing east L.A.'s most prominent cardboard gem. Unsurprisingly, Reddit responded gleefully to the heartwarming tale of the arcade.

Caine's Arcade is still open for business on weekends if any of you in California feel like dropping round for a few games of tabletop soccer. For everyone outside of California, Caine's family has set up a page where you can donate a few dollars towards his college fund. The site has already raised tens of thousands for the boy's future, mostly by asking visitors to imagine what Caine could be capable of when armed with a degree in engineering. The mind boggles at the thought.

Keep at it, Caine Monroy. Fun Passes for all!

Source: Vimeo, via Joystiq

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hah, that's nice. Kudos to that filmmaker for helping the kid out.

Thats amazing. Donated a few bucks as well.

Absolutely amazing, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. This kid has a bright future ahead of him. And, with the money being raised, he'll definitely be going in the right direction.

"College fund"? Isn't there some kind of scholarship he'd be eligible for?

He is going to go far in life.

This kid is one of the eds isn't he? Is he double d?

bet his class mates don't pitch him shit now.

seirusly though, hope this kid stick to building, if he could do that with cardboard, think of what he could do in a few years with real building materials

A heartwarming tale :-)

This is what keeps my faith in humanity

Forget a college fund. This kid needs ALL the scholarships!

Also, I think my heart just exploded from all the joy. Great job, humanity.

Thanks for that, it's raining here, which generally wouldn't bother me, but after my window got busted a little something to smile about was appreciated.

Wow, I hope this kid keeps going in the right direction.

This was an awesome little film really cheered me up and shows off the talents of a bright kid and the good people can do. :)

Go. Little. Dude.

Seriously nice. I approve, and once again contemplate moving to LA someday...

A tear jerker on wednesday on the escapist? Yep this is a good day.

For the love of god don't let his imagination go away when he mature!!! Goes to show the only thing we need for entertainment is using some imagation!

And to think I was just thinking about making a cardboard/pvc pipe/duct tape paddle boat over the summer.

My idea pales in comparison to his reality. Bravo Caine, Bravo.

thank god its not busy in the office today, that way nobody saw me tearing up.

Every part of me wants to give this kid money. If only I had some to give, I would buy a years worth of fun passes, even though I'll likely never see the place in person.
I miss my towns arcade, I used to go there and play Galaga for hours. It closed down a couple years ago, and for six months I could peer through the window at the cabinet, now even they're gone.
I cried a little when I watched this.

Someone give this kid a scholarship for college already! Look, he's only 9 years old and he's doing that? Great mentality: he's ingenious, imaginative, resourceful and a young businessman. You know what most of us were doing at 9 years old? ...Well, whatever it was, we weren't building cardboard-made arcade machines, I know that much!

Way to go, kid.

Kids gonna be the card board version of Iron Man!

It's stuff like this that keeps some shred of my faith in humanity from utterly falling to doom.
This kids gona go far.

Often times we just get general news or people asking some, often times, strange question around here. But, this is simply incredible. This made me so happy! Games as art... games as heart and soul!

And this genius kid even figured out how to set up a security system for his fun passes! (Seriously, the value of these things is probably enough to give Bobby Koteck convulsions!)

And people were impressed when I built a life-sized, three-dimensional computer set mock-up out of K'nex, complete with the whole shebang; "tower", monitor, speakers, mouse... even a few C-D ROMs! This completely blows everything out of the water!

I may never see LA in my lifetime.
But, if I somehow do, I am making a serious point to get to the most significant arcade in existence: Caine's Arcade!

Wow...just Wow O.O, this is something that's truly amazing. if in 40 years this kid runs for president, I'm voting for him.

DVS BSTrD:
"College fund"? Isn't there some kind of scholarship he'd be eligible for?

Not in California. Scholarships, unless you're already part of a wealthy family, are a dry hole.

Crafted his own Arcades? wow, this kid have bright future!

I heard "Dream big", but this kid; he dreamed, and then, he puts it to WORK!~ and it worked!

I wish to see his dad get some mechanics, and really built some arcades out of auto parts, and REALLY expands on this kid's dream...

YAY! That put a huge smile on my face! :D

Thank you Escapist for reporting on this, I think it was the most adorable and wonderful thing ever. A great way to start off my day with a smile!

someone send this kid a copy of Gmod.......it would be awsome.