Recently, a partnership between Rock Steady Media and JoBlo Movie Productions was announced. The two companies will work together to complete Arcade Dreams. Arcade Dreams is a multi-part documentary series that tells the story of arcades. It’s an exhilarating tale, told by an array of historians, collectors, industry legends, and arcade fanatics. This is the first documentary to tell the complete story – from the penny arcades of the early 1900s, through pinball’s glory days and the video generation, to the virtual reality rooms of today and beyond.
Rock Steady Media is best known for their debut documentary Viva Amiga: The Story of a Beautiful Machine, which premiered on Hulu in 2017. Their goal for the documentary is to put viewers inside the games and the arcades of every era. The audience will be transported through time as they show you the games, the arcade environment, and the stories of people who were there. In order to do that, Rock Steady Media has enlisted the help of a dream team of experts, including director Zach Weddington (Viva Amiga), and Emmy-winning cinematographer Bill Winters (Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee). Also part of the crew is 3D animation experts, famous sound designers, brilliant graphic designers, award-winning writers, and encyclopedic arcade historians.
Hours of interviews with industry greats along with stunning, high-resolution footage of classic pinball and arcade machines. The team has reached out to fans, collectors, restoration experts, and game developers. Reaction from arcade game fans around the world to the early footage has been ecstatic. A Kickstarter is planned to launch this month in order to bring community involvement in the project to a new level.
“We’re thrilled about partnering with JoBlo! Berge has built such an awesome brand and he immediately clicked with our vision after our first phone call,” said director Zach Weddington. “The success of the recent gaming documentary High Score on Netflix proves that audiences are hungry for these kinds of stories. There are so many more stories that haven’t been told, and we know gaming fans have been waiting to hear them.”
What drew me in was the film’s teaser trailer, I was like ‘Oh…my…God! This is my life! and I immediately wanted to be a part of the production team. It also feels like now is the perfect time for this project, as retro gaming and nostalgia from the 80s are uber-hot,” said Berge Garabedian. “We’re hoping that this project will help a lot of people smile during these surreal times in the world. Nostalgia has been shown to counteract loneliness, boredom and anxiety so when you mix that with a fun history lesson in arcade games, we believe our project is poised for success.”