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9 year old's DIY Cardboard Arcade gets Flash mobbed: Video

603 points by danielhope 15y ago

Watch his reaction! Over $82,000 has been raised for his scholarship fund.

poppysan 15y ago
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 15y ago
  Totally agree. It was amazing to watch. To me he defines what an entrepreneur is. So inspiring!
  - firebones 15y ago
    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.
facorreia 15y ago
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.
jpastika 15y ago
This is a great story. There is a website for the arcade http://www.cainesarcade.com 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.
jqueryin 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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 :)
qrybam 15y ago
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.
colinsidoti 15y ago
He should really salt that security function... I loved how he got in the box and pushed the tickets through...Awesome.
- emehrkay 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    The security check made my jaw drop, I thought it was a pretend thing but sure enough, he thought it way through.
Pelayo 15y ago
I loved how he checks for counterfeit fun passes! "The check mark" on the calculator. So cool.
- helipad 15y ago
  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!"
jessedhillon 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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.
  - tfb 15y ago
    The point the GP was making is that regardless of kids being kids, resources are now available to give the kid first-hand experience that non-conformity and believing in oneself doesn't mean he will go through life alone in his efforts. Had he not experienced this first-hand, there would be a greater chance that he would submit to conformity and possibly mediocrity.
  - berberich 15y ago
    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_the_short_film_about_caines_diy/c4awkep http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/s1lmp/reddit_here_is...
    - bira 15y ago
      Man, he's going to be chick-magnet now :) Guys, c'mon donate a few dollars to the kid, right here: http://cainesarcade.com/ http://cainesarcade.com/ They are raising 100k for Caine's scholarship fund and at the moment about 97k has already been donated :D
j45 15y ago
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.
- vidar 15y ago
  Dont just tell this kid, tell all kids never to let go of their creativity and aspirations!
- kellishaver 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    have you seen the teagueduino mario brothers scroller: http://vimeo.com/28781718 http://vimeo.com/28781718 ?
    - kellishaver 15y ago
      Ha! I hadn't seen that, thanks. That's cool. Definitely more refined than our cereal box machines. :)
GigabyteCoin 15y ago
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 15y ago
  > 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 15y ago
    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 15y ago
      How come you do the sqrt of 89?
- BrainInAJar 15y ago
  > It looks as though Caine will be a future lover of HN, like us. I would hope he accomplishes more than getting sucked up in to the startup culture circle-jerk
  - josscrowcroft 15y ago
    God yes. I envisage a future Richard Branson right here.
MattGrommes 15y ago
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 15y ago
  I think on the site is was in excess of $60,000 raised so far. That is just unreal. +1 for the internetz.
  - jaredsohn 15y ago
    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 15y ago
      Wow, it was at 80 a few hours ago.
  - heyrhett 15y ago
    I hope that someone helps make sure that this goes into a 529 fund where it can pay for education without being taxed or taken by one of his relatives.
    - MattGrommes 15y ago
      The team behind the website asked for some help setting up a trust fund to make sure it goes where it's supposed to.
- kellishaver 15y ago
  As a parent, I can't imagine how I would feel if a bunch of random internet people had basically taken care of my kid's college education within a few days. I assume a used auto-parts dealer in LA isn't rolling in money. In families like that, things like paying for your kid's college education can be difficult, impossible, or at the very least, stressful and a bit frightening. The outpouring of support for this little boy and his creativity is heart-warming. As a parent, seeing the college fund money pile up it's just completely mind-blowing.
cristianpascu 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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.
shennyg 15y ago
Source site if you want to make a donation or visit the arcade: http://cainesarcade.com/ http://cainesarcade.com/
larrys 15y ago
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 http://www.the1secondfilm.com (The domain CAINESARCADE.COM is registered to Nirvan...)
- apsurd 15y ago
  Of course it is. So what? This guy put in a lot of work, he deserves it.
  - larrys 15y ago
    "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 15y ago
      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
zomgbbq 15y ago
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?
- agscala 15y ago
  This is exactly the type of thing that would end up on HN. The kid has both the hacker and entrepreneurship spirit in him and that's exactly what this site is all about.
- dy 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    Your argument makes sense and I agree with you. Too bad I got so many downvotes, I thought it was a fair question.
- bitwize 15y ago
edw519 15y ago
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!
- izak30 15y ago
  Hopefully all those calculators do the same sqrt calculation or else you're going to be terribly upset when Cane rejects your funpass for fraudulent use.
  - j45 15y ago
    I'll try it out on my phone if I get a chance to check it out in a few weeks. I need closure too.
- mey 15y ago
  You missed perseverance. Kid never gave up.
- foenix 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    The "checkmark" was pure genius.
    - 15y ago
bitwize 15y ago
"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 15y ago
  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.
uurayan 15y ago
Why not just post the original site instead of embedding the video onto your own website? http://cainesarcade.com/ http://cainesarcade.com/
- jlees 15y ago
  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.
Jun8 15y ago
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"!
- digispaghetti 15y ago
  Yea, that made me smile too :)
shawnc 15y ago
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.
joshu 15y ago
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?
- pbhjpbhj 15y ago
  >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? // Success can ruin things.
- newobj 15y ago
  yeah, you are seriously missing the point if your instinct upon seeing this is to buy him a claw machine.
  - larrys 15y ago
    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 15y ago
      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"
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 15y ago
K2h 15y ago
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 http://vimeo.com/40000072
kelvin0 15y ago
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 15y ago
  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.
dbecker 15y ago
What an impressive kid... I think he has a very bright future.
MaysonL 15y ago
Also, go buy the theme song (all proceeds to Caine's college fund). http://cainesarcade.bandcamp.com http://cainesarcade.bandcamp.com
nelmaven 15y ago
Excuse me but I have to do this: IT'S OVER 100000!!!!
Blunt 15y ago
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!
josscrowcroft 15y ago
This is just fantastic. But I'm secretly terrified PayPal is going to freeze his account, just because.
vincentchan 15y ago
Someone should teach the kid about HN. I'm sure he will be a valuable member in the future. What a beautiful story.
gammarator 15y ago
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/ http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/12/paypal-does-it-again/
tylermenezes 15y ago
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!)
Fando 15y ago
square root security ftw!
Kliment 15y ago
About his college fund, a #reprap channel member commented "I wonder what kind of college he'll build."
dhx 15y ago
720p WebM formatted version on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U

603 points by danielhope 15y ago

Watch his reaction! Over $82,000 has been raised for his scholarship fund.

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 15y ago
Totally agree. It was amazing to watch. To me he defines what an entrepreneur is. So inspiring!
- firebones 15y ago
  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.

facorreia 15y ago

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.

jpastika 15y ago

This is a great story. There is a website for the arcade http://www.cainesarcade.com 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.

jqueryin 15y ago

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 15y ago
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 :)

qrybam 15y ago

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.

colinsidoti 15y ago

He should really salt that security function... I loved how he got in the box and pushed the tickets through...Awesome.

emehrkay 15y ago
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 15y ago
  The security check made my jaw drop, I thought it was a pretend thing but sure enough, he thought it way through.

Pelayo 15y ago

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

helipad 15y ago
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!"

jessedhillon 15y ago

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 15y ago
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.
- tfb 15y ago
  The point the GP was making is that regardless of kids being kids, resources are now available to give the kid first-hand experience that non-conformity and believing in oneself doesn't mean he will go through life alone in his efforts. Had he not experienced this first-hand, there would be a greater chance that he would submit to conformity and possibly mediocrity.
- berberich 15y ago
  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_the_short_film_about_caines_diy/c4awkep http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/s1lmp/reddit_here_is...
  - bira 15y ago
    Man, he's going to be chick-magnet now :) Guys, c'mon donate a few dollars to the kid, right here: http://cainesarcade.com/ http://cainesarcade.com/ They are raising 100k for Caine's scholarship fund and at the moment about 97k has already been donated :D

j45 15y ago

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.

vidar 15y ago
Dont just tell this kid, tell all kids never to let go of their creativity and aspirations!
kellishaver 15y ago
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 15y ago
  have you seen the teagueduino mario brothers scroller: http://vimeo.com/28781718 http://vimeo.com/28781718 ?
  - kellishaver 15y ago
    Ha! I hadn't seen that, thanks. That's cool. Definitely more refined than our cereal box machines. :)

GigabyteCoin 15y ago

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 15y ago
> 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 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    How come you do the sqrt of 89?
BrainInAJar 15y ago
> It looks as though Caine will be a future lover of HN, like us. I would hope he accomplishes more than getting sucked up in to the startup culture circle-jerk
- josscrowcroft 15y ago
  God yes. I envisage a future Richard Branson right here.

MattGrommes 15y ago

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 15y ago
I think on the site is was in excess of $60,000 raised so far. That is just unreal. +1 for the internetz.
- jaredsohn 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    Wow, it was at 80 a few hours ago.
- heyrhett 15y ago
  I hope that someone helps make sure that this goes into a 529 fund where it can pay for education without being taxed or taken by one of his relatives.
  - MattGrommes 15y ago
    The team behind the website asked for some help setting up a trust fund to make sure it goes where it's supposed to.
kellishaver 15y ago
As a parent, I can't imagine how I would feel if a bunch of random internet people had basically taken care of my kid's college education within a few days. I assume a used auto-parts dealer in LA isn't rolling in money. In families like that, things like paying for your kid's college education can be difficult, impossible, or at the very least, stressful and a bit frightening. The outpouring of support for this little boy and his creativity is heart-warming. As a parent, seeing the college fund money pile up it's just completely mind-blowing.

cristianpascu 15y ago

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 15y ago
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.

shennyg 15y ago

Source site if you want to make a donation or visit the arcade: http://cainesarcade.com/ http://cainesarcade.com/

larrys 15y ago

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 http://www.the1secondfilm.com (The domain CAINESARCADE.COM is registered to Nirvan...)

apsurd 15y ago
Of course it is. So what? This guy put in a lot of work, he deserves it.
- larrys 15y ago
  "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 15y ago
    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

zomgbbq 15y ago

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?

agscala 15y ago
This is exactly the type of thing that would end up on HN. The kid has both the hacker and entrepreneurship spirit in him and that's exactly what this site is all about.
dy 15y ago
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 15y ago
  Your argument makes sense and I agree with you. Too bad I got so many downvotes, I thought it was a fair question.
bitwize 15y ago

edw519 15y ago

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!

izak30 15y ago
Hopefully all those calculators do the same sqrt calculation or else you're going to be terribly upset when Cane rejects your funpass for fraudulent use.
- j45 15y ago
  I'll try it out on my phone if I get a chance to check it out in a few weeks. I need closure too.
mey 15y ago
You missed perseverance. Kid never gave up.
foenix 15y ago
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 15y ago
  The "checkmark" was pure genius.
  - 15y ago

bitwize 15y ago

"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 15y ago
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.

uurayan 15y ago

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

jlees 15y ago
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.

Jun8 15y ago

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"!

digispaghetti 15y ago
Yea, that made me smile too :)

shawnc 15y ago

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.

joshu 15y ago

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?

pbhjpbhj 15y ago
>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? // Success can ruin things.
newobj 15y ago
yeah, you are seriously missing the point if your instinct upon seeing this is to buy him a claw machine.
- larrys 15y ago
  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 15y ago
    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"
- deleted 15y ago
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- deleted 15y ago

K2h 15y ago

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 http://vimeo.com/40000072

kelvin0 15y ago

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 15y ago
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.

dbecker 15y ago

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

MaysonL 15y ago

Also, go buy the theme song (all proceeds to Caine's college fund). http://cainesarcade.bandcamp.com http://cainesarcade.bandcamp.com

nelmaven 15y ago

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

Blunt 15y ago

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!

josscrowcroft 15y ago

This is just fantastic. But I'm secretly terrified PayPal is going to freeze his account, just because.

vincentchan 15y ago

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

gammarator 15y ago

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/ http://www.regretsy.com/2012/03/12/paypal-does-it-again/

tylermenezes 15y ago

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!)

Fando 15y ago

square root security ftw!

Kliment 15y ago

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

dhx 15y ago

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