My name is Caine and I'm 9 years old.
My arcade is called "Caine's Arcade."
It's open on weekends only...
and... it's really cheap.
Caine's Dad: 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 all his toys apart to see how they work.
He can't put em 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 lots of boxes back there.
We ship parts out.
So I cut them up and make my arcade games out of it.
This is my first game I made.
The basketball hoop I got at Shakey's Pizza, and it's really cool.
He taped it onto a box and he was offering people chances to play for like a nickle.
He started from that little game, and little by little they started getting fancier and fancier,
and eventually he took over the whole store.
VOICE of NIRVAN: I met Caine randomly.
I had to get a door handle for my '96 Corolla, so I pulled into this used auto parts store
and I just came across this elaborate cardboard arcade.
I asked him how much it was to play and he's like, for one dollar you get four turns,
but for 2 dollars you get a Fun Pass.
Well, how many turns do you get for a Fun Pass?
You get 500 turns for a Fun Pass.
I got a Fun Pass.
I made this Fun Pass that expires in one month, and you get 500 plays at any of these games
- which is a great deal.
Then I started making my office - it has like a speaker on the other side so I can talk through.
I got tokens, my business card, Fun Passes, and prizes.
The first prizes I used my own toys, like the cars were my own toys.
I used to like Hotwheels...
when I was little.
I work from the back office, and it kept him out of my hair all summer.
He would be working on the arcade and I'd be working on Ebay.
My next game I built was a soccer game.
First of all it didn't have no goalies.
People said it was too easy, so I bought army goalies.
Those are my blockers.
I told em, is it easy now?!
It's pretty hard.
So you get 2 tickets if you make it in here.
I'll give it a four star, hard game, challenging game.
Four star.
One day, Caine tells me: "Dad, I want to buy a claw machine."
And I say, "Why don't you just build it?"
So he got a S-hook, put a piece of yarn on it, and then put a little track on top of
the box, and I said "What the heck?
He figured out how to make a claw machine with a string and a hook!"
And here's some sunglasses - these are the glasses I like the most, Star Sunglasses.
He bought calculators to put on every arcade game, and I go: "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 of the Fun Pass has a security number.
So when you go here,
you have to turn it on,
and you put the pin number in it and you push the check mark button
and the big number comes out.
And 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 chance of getting one customer is pretty hard.
Caine's 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's always sweeping up and dusting off the games.
Waiting for customers.
He only wears his shirt on Saturdays and Sundays when he comes to open up his arcade,
and he's really proud of his shirt because he thought it up and he designed it.
When Caine got back to school from vacation he started telling everybody that he had 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.
You know, he told them: Hey, I got my own arcade!
And they go, yeah, yeah, sure.
Well one day, my secretary comes running into the office,
George, your never gonna believe it - Somebody is playing Caine's Arcade!
And I'm going, no way!
So I was looking through the security camera, watching him.
And I'm playing like miniature soccer, miniature basketball, and then when you'd score a point,
he would crawl into the box,
and he pulls out these little tickets out of the side of the cardboard.
Like real arcade games, 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 he told me, you mind if I make a
short film about Caine's Arcade?
And I said, well, actually, it's kind of like a little joke around here, cuz you're his only customer.
I was blown away.
Caine's only sold one Fun Pass?
Like, the Fun Pass is an awesome deal.
So Nirvan said, well, what if I can get him a couple customers?
And I said, that would make his day.
If you can get him one customer, he'll be happy.
And at that point we hatched a plan to invite everybody in L.A. to come play Caine's Arcade.
The idea was to do a surprise flashmob at Caine's Arcade on Sunday afternoon.
And I'm thinking: whose gonna come down to a junkyard - Sunday afternoon - East L.A.
Whose really gonna show up?
Then I made a little facebook event, which a friend posted on Hidden L.A.
which has over 230,000 fans, and all of a sudden it just started going viral.
Nirvan put it over 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, I live in New York.
I wish I could be there, I live in Europe - and I'm going, wow... it was getting big.
The plan is, I'm gonna take Caine to Shakey's Pizza, we're gonna play some arcade games,
we're gonna eat lunch - while Nirvan sets up a big surprise party.
Caine has no idea what we are doing and when we get back he's gonna have the biggest surprise of his life.
And the idea is just 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 gonna be the most
surprised little boy in the whole wide world.
Hey, we're ready.
In about a minute he is gonna arrive here.
Hey Caine, can we go home early today?
We had no customers today.
No.
No? Come on, your dad's tired.
No can do.
No can do?
We're back Caine...
Wow!
What's going on over here?
[Giggles]
Huh?
(Cheers)
We finally got some customers here!
[laughter]
[Crowd Cheers]
Hi Caine.
[Crowd Cheers: "We Came to Play!"
"We Came to Play!"
Alright everybody, this is Caine.
Hi Caine!
Caine, this is everybody.
All these people came here to play your arcade, did you know that 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!!
Go ahead, welcome them to Caine's Arcade, man.
[Singing] "Well, the 'C' could be for Cardboard,"
and the 'A' could be for Arcade,
But the 'A' could also be for Auto Parts, cuz his pop's shops where it's made.
And the 'I's gotta be for Imagination, which kids 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!
Cuz everybody is whose invited to come on down to play.
If you 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!
Grab yourself a Fun Pass and ya'll come on down to play,
if you got the pluck to try your luck get on down to Caine's Arcade.
Caine's Arcade!
Caine's Arcade!!
Caine's Arcade!!!
[cheers] Good job!!
High five!
First of all, I want to know how you got all those people?
Are those your friends?
So, when I came back here, I was like, like, is is this real life? Or was I - I was just dreaming?
So I came out, and it was real people, like, it was real life.
Like, they were really playing the games!
And then, I was coming by, and I heard - and I saw a lot of people, and I was like, huh, I don't know?
Probably like a little parade around here somewhere.
But all of a sudden, so they all went like that when I was right here. I was like, I was like...
so I thought they were cheering for me, and they were!
And I was proud.