

9 year old's DIY Cardboard Arcade gets Flash mobbed: Video - danielhope
http://danielhope.org/post/20914927615/9-year-old-caine-sets-up-an-arcade-in-his-fathers
Watch his reaction!  Over $82,000 has been raised for his scholarship fund.
======
jessedhillon
Twenty years ago, a kid who tended a fake arcade in his dad's shop would get
teased at school, (how cool is it that he even makes and wears shirts?) and
thus convinced much too early to submit to a tyranny of the mediocre. Now, a
filmmaker shows him that tens (hundreds?) of people right in his own city love
what he is doing and want to support him. He could go on for the rest of his
life believing in himself and being determined to express himself no matter
what the small minds around him say.

That is something I wish I could have seen when I was Caine's age -- that the
people ostracizing me for some kind of non-conformity actually know nothing.

~~~
GigabyteCoin
If you watched the entire video, you would have seen Caine's father say [sic]
"he no longer wears his tshirt to school because kids make fun of him" "nobody
believed he made an arcade".

Kids are still kids.

~~~
berberich
Nirvan, the guy who made the film about Caine, says that not only does he wear
his shirt to school now, but they're going to have a screening of the film
there too:

[http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/s1lmp/reddit_here_is...](http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/s1lmp/reddit_here_is_the_short_film_about_caines_diy/c4awkep)

~~~
bira
Man, he's going to be chick-magnet now :)

Guys, c'mon donate a few dollars to the kid, right here:

<http://cainesarcade.com/> They are raising 100k for Caine's scholarship fund
and at the moment about 97k has already been donated :D

~~~
alttag
It started out as a $25K goal, and they blew through it ($24K in the first
day). They reset it to $50K, and it was at $49K when I saw it yesterday, which
means it gained ~$50K in the last 24 hours.

Holy cow.

EDIT: Spleling

~~~
jrgnsd
Your edit comment deserves an upvote...

------
edw519
Best soft launch ever on Hacker News!

This one had everything:

    
    
      - Build something you want.
      - Build something other people would want.
      - Turn your passion into a business.
      - If you need it, build it. (Love the S-hook idea!)
      - Offer street level appeal.
      - Tiered pricing. (Love the fun pass!)
      - Instant rewards. (Tickets through slot.)
      - Organic growth: more games.
      - Secure technology (calculators).
      - Turn customers into raving evangelists.
      - Leverage others' technology (Facebook, Reddit).
      - Company t-shirt.
      - Bootstrapped with friends & family.
      - Have a customer write a song about you!

~~~
foenix
I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the calculator security check. What an
ingenious solution! It's not the most robust "hash", but it's no more than
what he needs for the purpose. It really puts things into perspective when
people are talking about how one technology is "better" than another.
Pragmatism over pedantry.

~~~
jsavimbi
The "checkmark" was pure genius.

~~~
charlieok
It does look like he had a flash of insight about the usefulness of a digest
function. And maybe the "checkmark" symbol suggested a security check to him.

------
j45
Remarkable that he has business sense too, that FunPass is totally a great
deal and irresistible.

I can't wait to be in LA in a few weeks to visit him. Everyone who's in LA
ever should make a point to tell this kid never to let go of his creativity
and aspirations.

In 2nd grade I built a computer out of a tide box, complete with paper tower
rolls that scrolled a long sheet of perforated paper that was a game. Everyone
looked at me weird, but I had my first computer, and more importantly, could
explore imagining how the computer would work to do everything.

Make me wonder where the heck most of us have ended up from the passion we all
had as kids and if we've stayed true.

~~~
kellishaver
Haha, the paper towel and Tide box computer brings back memories. My cousins
and I made side-scrolling video game machines this way.

We set up the paper towel rolls in the box, with paper (half-sheets of copy
paper taped together end to end) rolled around them, with a big, long
scene/level drawn on it. One person would turn the crank, causing the screen
to scroll while the player controlled a character which could move up and
down, courtesy of being attached to a popsicle stick poking out a slot on the
side of the box. The object of the game was to hit goals and jump over objects
and pits.

More complex games had two popsicle-stick controlled sprites, and I seem to
remember that we experimented with cannibalizing the motor out of a broken
remote control car to run the screen, at one point.

~~~
throw_away
have you seen the teagueduino mario brothers scroller:
<http://vimeo.com/28781718> ?

~~~
kellishaver
Ha! I hadn't seen that, thanks. That's cool. Definitely more refined than our
cereal box machines. :)

------
bitwize
"I said what the heck! He figured out how to make a claw machine with a string
and a hook!"

Ah, to be a kid again, when ingenuity and imagination can take you anywhere.
When I was about his age, after a particularly colorful and extravagant
Tournament of Roses parade my sister and I staged a parade of our own. I had a
toy monster truck with two gears: low and high. In low gear it went at a nice
leisurely parade-like crawl, and was strong enough to haul several styrofoam-
packing "floats" with decorations and passengers (stuffed animals, my sister's
Barbies). My radio-control tank was strong enough to haul one or two more. The
Monkees supplied parade music via my TI Program Recorder ("The Poster" is a
particularly good song for this purpose).

But oh man, this kid is hardcore. Look at the way he debugs his soccer game!
He play-tests it, solicits player feedback, and adds challenge elements in the
form of Army Men "goalies". He's a _real_ game designer.

~~~
j45
He needs to apply to YC and show everyone how it's done. After laser tag it
would be the 2nd thing one could be afraid of getting their tails kicked.

------
poppysan
I love how he sits there and tends his shop; cleaning when idle, drumming up
business, or thinking up new ideas. This was really special, and touched me
the most.

~~~
mrjd
Totally agree. It was amazing to watch. To me he defines what an entrepreneur
is. So inspiring!

~~~
firebones
And a swing in front of his business for strategy retreats. Take note, folks.

There is a lot to be said for the creativity-inducing boredom of an analog,
resource-starved existence. If you grew up in a certain time or socioeconomic
situation and became a geek, you know what I am talking about.

------
MattGrommes
I've been following Caine's cardboard arcade adventures for some time now and
it just keeps getting more interesting. At first it was just a lark, getting a
big group of people to come out and visit this funny kid and his arcade. Over
time it's grown into much more and now he's got one heck of a college fund
built up just because of his imagination and how he's touched people. Kudos to
all involved.

~~~
earbitscom
I think on the site is was in excess of $60,000 raised so far. That is just
unreal. +1 for the internetz.

~~~
jaredsohn
Almost 90K right now and it increased by around $300 from when I started and
finished the video.

Edit: 3:50 PM Pacific (roughly 1 hour since my previous post) it is at 95K.

~~~
j45
Wow, it was at 80 a few hours ago.

------
tylermenezes
I did this myself when I was 8. I saved up my allowance for months, until I
finally had a whole $60 to spend on cheap prizes online. I took over the
entirety of my parents' garage, and spent weeks building everything from
scratch. (I bought $10 of boxes and a roll of vinyl from the party store to
make the prize are and the games. I even hacked together some electronics so I
could press a button to print tickets. I actually made a shirt, too.

That was seriously some of the most fun I've had. I'm really happy they made
this such a success for him. I only ever got 10 people or so, and even having
that many customers at that age was amazing. (I somehow made $100 on that!)

------
Jun8
This brought tears to my eyes, but also is funny, e.g. the part where he says
"I used to play with Hot Wheels when I was little"!

------
uurayan
Why not just post the original site instead of embedding the video onto your
own website? <http://cainesarcade.com/>

~~~
jlees
For some reason the original site was submitted (as were a couple of articles
about it) yesterday and not upvoted enough -- I'm glad this has finally made
it to the front page. And wow. $100K for his college fund. The Internet is
incredible.

------
GigabyteCoin
It looks as though Caine will be a future lover of HN, like us.

Not afraid to say I teared up a bit watching this film.

~~~
Michiel
> It looks as though Caine will be a future lover of HN, like us.

He's got the hacker gene, that's for sure. With his non-reversible, encrypted,
calculator-based hashing algorithm one time pad ticketing system...

~~~
atonse
Yeah! I'd always wondered what that check-mark button on the calculator was
for. :-)

On a related note, ever since I was a kid, every calculator I've ever
encountered, I run the square root of 89, and if it returns 9.4339811(..32 on
more powerful ones) and thereabouts, then I trust the calculator. Kids do
weird stuff. Big kids continue it sometimes.

~~~
de90
How come you do the sqrt of 89?

------
jpastika
This is a great story. There is a website for the arcade
<http://www.cainesarcade.com>. They are accepting donations for a scholarship
fund for Caine and so far has received over $85,000! It's nice to see that not
all kids are glued to the TV or video games.

------
colinsidoti
He should really salt that security function...

I loved how he got in the box and pushed the tickets through...Awesome.

~~~
emehrkay
That security check is pretty amazing. I wonder what he was doing to figure
out that the square root ("the checkbox") produces the same result for the
same numbers and made him say that I could use this as security.

~~~
j45
The security check made my jaw drop, I thought it was a pretend thing but sure
enough, he thought it way through.

------
qrybam
This is great - seeing something like this made me so happy. It's almost as if
my belief in the human spirit is vindicated by this alone (of course there are
many many other examples).

Kudos to his dad.

------
Pelayo
I loved how he checks for counterfeit fun passes! "The check mark" on the
calculator. So cool.

~~~
helipad
Especially if he came up with it himself. It's the sort of thing only a
child's brain would think of and an adult would say "Oh! Of course!"

------
facorreia
This kid's ingenuity, determination and commitment toward his customers are
very inspiring. It's obvious his dad is his role model. I expect great things
from him in the future.

------
kelvin0
Caine is of course quite a dear child, I really can see myself (at his age).
However, what I find fascinating is the fact that this person chose to make a
movie and really create a truly memorable experience for him.

There are many Caines out there ... will you pay attention to them?

~~~
wahnfrieden
It's a good point, let's not forge that it took an outsider who came across it
to get the message out around the Internet.

------
Blunt
The real hero of the story is the guy or organized the surprise flash mob!
Most people would say that was cute and move on, but this guy stopped and took
an interest in this kid and in making him feel good about himself. We need
more people like that guy!

------
jqueryin
I made sure to donate for the sheer fact that it will change this kid's life
to see his dream come to fruition. His story alone has hit the media and will
be sure to inspire god knows how many other young children.

~~~
tristan_louis
Funny, I had exactly the same impulse. When I saw the kid as a proto-hacker, I
came to the realization that we have to encourage such behavior. Would be
awesome if everyone on HN gave at least the equivalent of a Superpass ($2) and
I suspect we'll not only see this kid hanging out around here soon but I also
wouldn't be surprised if we see him posting cool projects too :)

------
cristianpascu
I think it says a lot about his determination, that somehow, he has natively.
He built a lot until the first customer came. That is priceless and I hope it
will not go away someday. I hope that it doesn't. I don't know people that
well, but I hope it doesn't. He'll achieve anything like that. And hopefully,
he'll go beyond just businesses. He's a great kid.

~~~
j45
Don't be surprised about the "somehow". Some kids are just way more curious
where others are more reserved.

I'm not looking into a nature vs nurture debate but having enough friends with
kids who are all super supportive, some just don't take a liking to some
things while others start quicker, and take off way quicker.

------
shawnc
So awesome. Have shown everyone in my family.

When I was 11, I made Pinball machines. You would use Popsicle Sticks as the
flippers, and I proper Clipboards up on books. Then I designed my pinball
machines, with Plastacine, paper, and lego. I charged a nickel to my friends
to play them.

Here's where, in retrospect, I think I was particularly smart. I also had a
'Comic Book Rental' program. It was more like a pass, and for one dollar they
could take out 3 comics at a time, any time - and when they came over they
could play the pinball for free.

I had to do it in my bedroom however, and only to friends. This kid had a
storefront location! And access to all the cardboard boxes he could ever dream
of!

Loved this - thanks for sharing.

------
shennyg
Source site if you want to make a donation or visit the arcade:

<http://cainesarcade.com/>

------
joshu
those of us who live by the motto "Anything worth doing is worth obsessing
over" will immediately recognize this kid as one of ours.

i offered in the reddit thread to buy him an actual claw machine. they don't
look that expensive. anyone know an arcade machine dealer in LA?

~~~
newobj
yeah, you are seriously missing the point if your instinct upon seeing this is
to buy him a claw machine.

~~~
larrys
What is the difference between buying him a claw machine and giving him money
for college? Did he earn the money for the college or did the publicity about
what he is doing get him the money for college?

Taking it one step further what if someone comes along and wants his input on
a real arcade and wants to call it "Caines Arcade". Is that also missing the
point?

~~~
newobj
it's not about "earning" or "rewarding".

your kid says "look dad, i built a clock out of paper". do you respond "that's
great, let me buy you a real clock so you don't have to mess with that paper
anymore." or do you respond "that's great, let me take you to the machine shop
so you can machine some gears and take this thing to the next level/get you a
breadboard and some electrical bits so you can work on digital clock/etc etc"

------
K2h
By the time I got home last night grandma had already pulled this up on the
vimeo channel on the ROKU (staff picks) and said I had to see it. this sure
went viral.

<http://vimeo.com/40000072>

------
vincentchan
Someone should teach the kid about HN. I'm sure he will be a valuable member
in the future. What a beautiful story.

------
gammarator
Any chance Paypal will freeze the college fund? They don't seem to look kindly
on donation drives [e.g., 1]

[1] <http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/12/paypal-does-it-again/>

------
dhx
720p WebM formatted version on YouTube:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U>

------
Kliment
About his college fund, a #reprap channel member commented "I wonder what kind
of college he'll build."

------
dbecker
What an impressive kid... I think he has a very bright future.

------
MaysonL
Also, go buy the theme song (all proceeds to Caine's college fund).

<http://cainesarcade.bandcamp.com>

------
nelmaven
Excuse me but I have to do this: IT'S OVER 100000!!!!

------
Fando
square root security ftw!

------
larrys
This is great for the boy (who the producer thinks is a genius) but it seems
to me like it is a strategic publicity vehicle for the producer's (Nirvan
Mullick) other idea <http://www.the1secondfilm.com>

(The domain CAINESARCADE.COM is registered to Nirvan...)

~~~
apsurd
Of course it is.

So what?

This guy put in a lot of work, he deserves it.

~~~
larrys
"Of course it is. So what?"

Not sure I can answer a question like that. But from reading the comments here
I'm not sure everybody notices the publicity angle which drove bringing
attention to this because a filmaker saw an opportunity.

What he is doing isn't that spectacular. The quality of seems about average
for his age and probably wouldn't win any awards in an elementary school fair
or anything. (I'm somewhat familiar with what kids this age produce and this
really isn't all that great.) The father didn't appear to put in any effort to
helping him understand how to put a little more quality in the construction
(which is of course different from building it for him).

By "this guy" who are you referring to? The boy or the film producer?

"This guy put in a lot of work, he deserves it."

I'll assume by "this guy" you mean the boy. So you think that this is worthy
of all the donations he is getting to pay for his college? He is getting the
donations as a result of a random meeting with the film maker.

~~~
apsurd
No, I meant "he" as in the subject of your post - the filmaker.

I find it a bit odd that you, I assume an adult, are saying things like "what
he is doing isn't that spectacular" in regards to a nine year old boy.

I don't get why you have so much cynicism __toward a nine year old boy __but
it is not my place to challenge your view.

Simply put, this boy is very creative; that it's _relative to some arbitrary
set standard threshold level of creativeness_ does NOT matter to me, I don't
care - he's creative. As an adult, I feel it part of my responsibility, and
part of the greatness of being a Good human being, to cultivate young minds.

This is what I got from the film - I think it's great. I think this kid is
great (again why does his greatness have to be relative to "other kid's
greatness") and I think the filmaker put in a lot of work to create value for
all involved.

Beautiful story, it brightened up my day, I'm happy. =D

~~~
larrys
"why does his greatness have to be relative to "other kid's greatness""

What's the point of a trophy if everyone is getting a trophy? Sorry, the
generation I was raised in didn't think that way. Awards for being special
weren't passed out to everyone. And it was relative to what others have done.

------
zomgbbq
So I saw this video on reddit and thought it was really cute but said to
myself at the time, "I hope this doesn't wind up on hacker news because it's
not really hacker news". So I'm honestly not trying to "big bummer guy" but I
always thought of HN for more tech and startup news than heartwarming stories.
I think we all agree that memes and +1 are not for HN, so where is the line?

~~~
dy
This story was really touching and inspiring (and my first exposure to it
since I don't read reddit) and I hope one day to create an environment where
my own child can build as prolifically as this kid has.

Some highlights to take away if you're focused on the entrepreneurial lessons
from this kid:

\- Ability to see the core value proposition: that S-hook with string is the
fun part of the claw game, you don't need the complex mechanical arm and
flashing lights to make it fun

\- Scrappiness: use what you got, he only had his toys so made those the
giveaways in his arcade.

\- User testing: soccer game wasn't hard enough so put up army guys

\- Lean startup: don't build a ticket dispensing machine while you're still
testing development, just sit in the box and dispense tickets while you watch
the balls fall through

\- Pricing: make the upgrade plan really easy to justify to yourself (4 plays
for a dollar, 500!!! plays for $2)

\- Marketing: he even had the cool web startup t-shirt going!

I'm sitting here with practically unlimited web technology in front of me and
all that kid had was cardboard... and I think if the flash mob came to my
creation they'd have a lot less fun :)

~~~
zomgbbq
Your argument makes sense and I agree with you. Too bad I got so many
downvotes, I thought it was a fair question.

