Insert Coin: DocPlay Review

Director: Joshua Tsui

Director Joshua Tsui's Insert Coin documentary is a heavily stylised nostalgia blast for fans of the coin-op games.

Taking in the Midway boom that hit the arcade industry, Tsui's doco talks to players involved and visits the ideas of some of the biggest games of all time. From Terminator 2 to the furore around Mortal Kombat, this is a fun look at the arcade world from the very beginning.

Starting with Defender, the Williams arcade group was instrumental in feeding our addictions, and Tsui's smart enough to go back to the start of the story with some high energy music and some slick editing of games and various soundbites to give the doco a hook.

But around the 55 minute mark, there's a sudden feeling of the film starting to lag a little, sagging under the episodic structure that follows the development of certain titles. It's not the anecdotes aren't entertaining and the retro footage enthralling, more that the structure doesn't quite serve the propulsion of the story as it continues.

It's a minor gripe and to be honest, even anyone with a passing cursory knowledge of some of the best arcade histories will know some of these stories - though they're impeccably imparted by the various figures involved.

While the end of Insert Coin feels a little rushed as the Midway empire collapses, by the time that comes, you'll probably be so enamoured with the nostalgia blast, you'll be looking to either online emulators to scratch that itch or getting in the car to head to a nearby arcade.

Insert Coin is streaming from September 15 on DocPlay.