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  • My name is Caine, and I am 9 years old.

  • My arcade is named Caine's Arcade. It's open on weekends only.

  • And, it's really cheap.

  • Caine does not pass by an arcade without stopping in.

  • He loves tickets, playing games. He loves prizes.

  • So it was only natural for him to build his own arcade.

  • He loves to see how things are built.

  • He takes his toys apart to see how they work.

  • He can't put them back together, but he takes them apart.

  • Caine spent summer vacation coming to work with me.

  • We sell auto parts in East LA.

  • My dad has a lot of boxes back there. We ship parts out.

  • So I cut them up and make my arcade games out of it.

  • My first game I made is a basketball hoop I got at Shakey's Pizza... and it's really cool.

  • He taped it onto a box, and he offered people chances to play for a nickel.

  • He started with that little game, and little by little it got fancier and fancier.

  • And eventually it took over the whole store.

  • I met Caine randomly.

  • I had to get a door handle for my '96 Corolla, so I pulled into this used auto part store.

  • And I just came across this elaborate cardboard arcade.

  • I asked him how much it was to play.

  • He was like "for $1 you get 4 turns.

  • But for $2 you get a fun pass."

  • Well, how many turns do you get with a fun pass? You get 500 turns with a fun pass.

  • I got a fun pass.

  • I made this fun pass expire in one month. And you get 500 plays on any of these games.

  • It is a great deal!

  • I started making my office. It has a speaker, so on the other side I can talk through.

  • I got tokens, my business card, fun passes, and prizes.

  • My first prizes I used my own toys, like the cars - my own toys.

  • I used to like Hot Wheels when I was little.

  • I work from the back office, so it kept him out of my hair all summer.

  • He would work on the arcade, i would work on eBay.

  • My next game I built was a soccer game. First of all, it didn't get no goalies.

  • People said it was too easy, so I bought army goalies, and there are blockers.

  • I tell them, "is it easy now?"

  • It's pretty hard, so you get two tickets if you make in here.

  • I give it a 4 stars. Hard game, challenging game. 4 stars.

  • One day, Caine tells me, "Dad, I want to buy a claw machine."

  • I say, "why don't you just build it?"

  • So he got an S hook and put a piece of yarn on it, and then put a little track on top of the box.

  • And then I said, "What the heck? He figured out how to make a claw machine with a string and a hook."

  • Here are some sunglasses. These are the glass I like the most - star sunglasses.

  • He buy calculators to put on every arcade game. I ask, "what's that for?"

  • The calculators right here are for security to see if it's a real fun pass or not.

  • On the back, the fun pass has a security number.

  • So when you go here you turn it around and put the pin number in it.

  • And press the check mark button and the big number comes out.

  • That's how you know it's a real fun pass!

  • My dad started the business in 1955. We have used auto parts.

  • Most of our business has gone online because we really don't get the walk-up traffic like we used to.

  • So Caine's chances of getting one customer is pretty hard.

  • Caine is always waiting in front, sitting on his little chair and trying to convince people to play.

  • But not too much luck.

  • Caine's Arcade grand opening!

  • But he never gets discouraged. He is always sweeping up and dusting off the game. Waiting for customers.

  • He only wears his shirt on Saturdays and Sundays when he comes open up his arcade.

  • And he is really proud of his shirt because he thought it up and he designed it.

  • When Caine got back to school from vacation, he kept telling everybody that he got an arcade, and nobody believed him.

  • So he won't wear his shirt to school because he's afraid that kids might tease him about it.

  • He told them, "hey I got my arcade!" But they're like, "yeah, yeah sure."

  • So one day, my secretary comes running into the office, "George, you'll never believe it! Somebody is playing in Caine's Arcade."

  • And I go, "no way!" I was looking through the security camera and watching him.

  • I'm playing miniature soccer, miniature basketball.

  • And then, when you score a point, he would crawl into the box and he pulls out these little tickets out on the side of the cardboard.

  • Like a real arcade, game tickets come from the bottom.

  • And I was like, "this kid is a genius."

  • Nirvan came back one day when Caine wasn't here and told me, "you mind if I make a short film about Caine's Arcade?"

  • And I said, "well, actually, it's kind of a little joke around here, because you are his only customer."

  • I was blown away. Caine has only sold one fun pass?

  • Like the fun pass is an awesome deal.

  • So Nirvan says, "well, what if I could get him a couple of customers?"

  • I said, "that would make his day. If you could get him one customer, he would be happy.

  • And at that point, we hashed a plan to invite everybody in LA to come play at Caine's Arcade.

  • The idea was to do a surprise flashmob of Caine's Arcade on Sunday afternoon.

  • I was thinking, "who is gonna come down to a junk yard on Sunday afternoon in East LA? Who's really gonna show up?"

  • So then I made a little facebook event which a friend posted on HiddenLA which has over 230,000 fans, and all of a sudden it just started going viral.

  • Nirvan put it on the internet, and all of a sudden, within an hour, we had NBC news here.

  • Then it hit the front page of reddit, which is like being on the front page of the internet.

  • I started reading the comments. "I wish I could be there - I live in New York. I wish i could be there - I live in Europe." And then I go, "wow!"

  • It was getting big.

  • The plan is I am going to take Caine to Shakey's Pizza. We are going to play some arcade games.

  • We are going to eat lunch, while Nirvan sets up a big surprise party.

  • Caine has no idea what we're doing, and when we get back, he is going to have the biggest surprise of his life.

  • And the idea is to get as many people as we can to come out to Caine's Arcade, and just make his day.

  • Caine is dying to have one customer show up to his arcade.

  • So Caine is going to be the most surprised little boy in the whole wide world.

  • Hey, we're ready.

  • In about a minute, he is going to ride here.

  • Hey Caine, can we go home early today? We had no customers.

  • No.

  • No?

  • Come on, Dad's tired!

  • No can do! No can do?

  • We're back Caine.

  • Wow! What's going on over here? Haha. Huh?

  • [ cheering ]

  • We finally got some customers here.

  • [ cheering ]

  • WE CAME TO PLAY.

  • [ cheering ]

  • Alright everybody, this is Caine.

  • Hi Caine! [ cheering ]

  • Caine, this is everybody. All these people came to play your arcade. Did you know they were coming?

  • No.

  • Are you ready to run your arcade?

  • Yeah.

  • Alright, what did you guys come here to do?

  • WE CAME TO PLAY!

  • Good. Welcome to Caine's Arcade.

  • [ song ]

  • Well the "C" could be for Cardboard

  • And the "A" could be for Arcade

  • But the "A" could also be for Auto Parts

  • Cause in his Pop's shop's where it's made

  • And the "I"'s gotta be for imagination

  • Of which this kid's got a lot

  • And the "N" oughta be for Noggin'

  • Where the idea first got thought...

  • But then the "E" (Oh yes the E!)

  • Oh yes the "E" (Oh yes the E!)

  • Well the "E"'s gotta be for Everybody

  • (That's you and me!)

  • Cause Everybody is who's invited

  • To come on down and play

  • If you've got the pluck to try your luck

  • Come on down to Caine's Arcade

  • Oh Caine's Arcade (Caine's Arcade!)

  • Oh Caine's Arcade (Caine's Arcade!)

  • It's the best cardboard arcade ever been made (Ever made!)

  • So grab yourself a fun pass

  • And y'all come on down and play

  • If you've got the pluck to try your luck

  • Come on down to Caine's Arcade

  • [ cheering ]

  • First of all, I want to know how you got all of these people.

  • Are those your friends?

  • So when I came back, I was like, "is this real life or was I just dreaming?"

  • So I came out and there were real people in real life.

  • Like they're really playing the games.

  • I saw a lot of people, and I was like, "I don't know." It's probably a little parade around somewhere.

  • And they were all like that... when i was right here. So I thought they were cheering for me, and they were.

  • And I was proud.

My name is Caine, and I am 9 years old.

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